👋 Good morning! The Wanamaker Light Show is quite the Philadelphia Christmas tradition.

Well, Anthony and VG will be broadcasting from the Wanamaker Building in about an hour. Pretty cool.

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Short and sweet today, I had a little too much eggnog at the holiday party last night.

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

OK, that is not actually his nickname. But the Phillies did sign former Cub reliever Brad Keller to a two-year, $22 million deal. Nice chunk of change. Keller was closing games for the Cubbies in the postseason.

As always, I turn to Tyler in these situations.

It seems like Keller had a bit of a Jeff Hoffman type of renaissance:

I honestly might just start calling him Cousin Brad. The big thing to know is that Keller had a career year in 2025. And the main reason, which Tyler pointed out, is that his fastball velocity jumped three full ticks. Basically, Keller went from sitting at 93/94 mph his whole career to 97 mph last season. That is a huge difference.

Keller’s 2025 was rock-solid. The periphs all looked good, everything suggests that single season was not a fluke. But the Phillies are very much betting on one year here. Then again, it’s also worth pointing out that Keller was a starter for most of his career. Maybe Keller found something mechanically in 2025, but you also have the luxury of going max effort out of the bullpen.

It’s funny that the Phillies are basically running back last year’s offseason, down to the price points:

Now, all Dave Dombrowski needs to do is recreate the Jesús Luzardo trade. Sign me up for that one. The Phils paid a little more and an extra year for Keller than Romano, but it’s a different type of bet. Keller is coming off his best year, while Romano was coming off his worst year. In a vacuum, I understand wanting to change the strategy up.

The next question becomes what happens to the Phillies bullpen. This is a good group currently in The Trust Tree:

The question becomes if the Phillies want to move one of those players to shed salaries. This is another $11 million on their books, and if they re-sign J.T. Realmuto, the Phillies will be more expensive than a season ago. I feel like I have read that the Phillies might want to move on from Strahm and his $7.5 million to make up some of that difference. Strahm has been a horse the last few years, even if the eye test on him felt a little shakier a season ago. Unless the Phillies believe he is gonna fall off a cliff, I would be hesitant to make that move.

And as a matter of fact, the benefit of publishing later in the morning means I can add this from Jeff Passan: “An array of left-handers, from Sean Newcomb to Taylor Rogers to Danny Coulombe, could be snatched up soon, though the best available one is Matt Strahm, who is likely to be traded by Philadelphia.”

The Phillies bullpen finished 20th in ERA a season ago (4.27). Some of that was due to Alvarado’s suspension and Romano being a disaster. If they run with this group, now with a decent strikeout guy like Keller, they should be better in the regular season at least.

Injury report: As the guys pointed out on yesterday’s Eagles show, the best news from both of these injury reports is that Jalen Hurts has not been on either of them. Remember, Jalen got up a little gingerly after the QB keeper in the second half. But then he only played one more snap, the touchdown throw up the seam to A.J. Brown. So, good to see he is good to go.

Also in Miami, Tua Tagovailoa got benched. I feel like that from a football history standpoint, people will be talking about the game below for a long time. Remember who caught that game-winning touchdown from Tua?

Unc still got it: A new episode of Unblocked is here for your listening pleasure.

Tyson Foerster, out for the year: So, that whole business about Tyson Foerster being out 2-3 months and not needing surgery? Welp!

On Wednesday, the Flyers announced that Foerster did require surgery on his right arm injury that resulted taking a one-timer a few weeks ago. He is out for five months, which is obviously the entire regular season.

Five months? No sweat, Foerster will be back for the Carolina series in the second round of the playoffs. Xfinity Mobile Arena will be going crazy.

Charlie has more here. In all seriousness, Foerster’s absence is a big deal because he is a play-driver that was also having the best offensive season of his career. He is a good player. But in the here and now, the Flyers knew they were gonna be without him for minimum the next 2.5 months.

This stinks because Foerster is good, but also, it is worth pointing out that the Flyers have pretty solid depth at wing. Foerster is clearly one of the Flyers’ best players, but he might not be one of the team’s most indispensable players simply because they have so much depth at his position. Think about it…

Meanwhile, Carl Grundström looks serviceable. And if he cannot keep it up, the Orange and Black have a whole lot waiting in the wings on the wing. Like, real prospects.

Bummer for Foerster, who is turning into a very good player. But this should be a loss that the Flyers can manage better than at some other spots.

Ani Kilambi: The Phillies lost a valuable member of their front office to Washington in Kilambi. The Nats also have a new president and manager who are in their early 30s.

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Tyrese Maxey returned to practice for the Sixers, so that is cool.

The Flyers are in Buffalo tonight (7:30 p.m, Hulu and ESPN+). And I am very excited for the football game.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at PHLY:

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS