Didi Gregorius will return to the Philadelphia Phillies after the free agent shortstop reached a two-year, $ 28 million contract with the team, ESPN confirmed Saturday.
Gregorius, who turns 31 on Feb. 18, proved to be a big bargain in 2020 for the Phillies, who signed the free agent for a one-year, $ 14 million contract outside of last season. He returned from a 2019 season plagued by injuries to the New York Yankees, hitting .284 with 10 homers, 40 RBIs and 34 RBIs and a .827 OPS for the Phillies during the short-lived pandemic season.
Gregorius lost a lot of time with the Yankees in 2019, when he recovered from Tommy John’s operation, in which he had to repair an elbow ligament that was broken during ALDS 2018 against Boston. He reached .238 with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs in 2019.
In the last five seasons, Gregorius ranks fourth with Xander Bogaerts among all major league shorts in the home rounds (98), behind only Trevor Story (134), Francisco Lindor (126) and Javier Báez (108). He is also fifth in RBIs (344), ninth in slugging percentage (.469, with a minimum of 150 games) and ninth in extra-base hits (215) in that period. .
Gregorius has provided a Gold Glove defense throughout his career, and his .978 career percentage is the fifth best of the players with at least 800 games played in this position since 2012.
Overall, Gregorius has a .265 batting average, with 120 home runs, 457 RBI and a .748 OPS in nine seasons with the Reds, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Phillies.
The Athletic portal reported for the first time about Gregorius’ agreement with the Phillies.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.