Phillies sign Didi Gregorius

December 13th, 2019

The Phillies have signed shortstop Didi Gregorius to a one-year contract, the club announced today.

Gregorius, 29, appeared in 82 games with the New York Yankees in 2019, batting .238 with 14 doubles, 16 home runs, 61 RBI and 47 runs scored. His 61 RBI were third-most in baseball among players with fewer than 345 plate appearances, while his 16 home runs were tied for ninth-most in the American League with the same qualification. Per Statcast data, his average exit velocity (88.2 mph) and percentage of hard-hit balls (34.8%) were his highest since the data began being tracked in 2015.

Over the last four seasons (2016-19), Gregorius, who played exclusively at shortstop, ranks fourth among all major league shortstops in home runs (88), trailing only Trevor Story (123), Francisco Lindor (118) and Javier Baez (100). He is also tied for fifth in RBI (304), eighth in slugging percentage (.467) and 10th in extra-base hits (193) in that same span.

Gregorius has spent parts of eight major league seasons with the Cincinnati Reds (2012), Arizona Diamondbacks (2013-14) and Yankees (2015-19), appearing in 851 games. He is a career .264 hitter with 145 doubles, 19 triples, 110 home runs, 417 RBI and 417 runs scored. He has appeared in 828 games at shortstop, where he boasts a .979 fielding percentage, the fourth-best among players with at least 800 games played at the position since 2012. He led American League shortstops with a .987 mark in 2018.

A native of the Netherlands, Gregorius was originally signed by Cincinnati as an amateur free agent in August of 2007.

Gregorius will wear No. 18.