Will Austin Hays return to Phillies in 2025?

When the Philadelphia Phillies acquired Austin Hays from the Baltimore Orioles in late-July, the belief internally was they not only landed someone who could start in left field against left-handed pitchers, but perhaps a player who could seize the job on a full-time basis.

In his year-end press conference Tuesday, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged that Hays, largely because of health, didn’t ultimately have the impact that the team expected in 2024.

“Well, we were very happy with the trades we made at the particular time,” Dombrowski said. “I’ve been in this role before where sometimes you make moves and they turn out great. Other times you make moves and they don’t really turn out as well as you would like.

…So we got Austin Hays, who we liked a great deal,” Dombrowski went on to say. “Unfortunately, Austin Hays got hurt almost immediately. Got hurt and then he had a kidney infection. We really never saw a good version of Austin Hays. So if you judge it on that, that was not very good, didn’t work out well for us.”

Hays went on the 10-day injured list on Aug. 9 with a left hamstring strain. He was activated by the Phillies on Aug. 23, but the aforementioned kidney infection sidelined him again less than 10 days later. The Phillies again activated Hays on Sept. 24, though he missed the final two games of the regular season with back soreness.

In total, Hays hit .256 with two home runs, six RBIs and a .672 OPS in just 78 regular-season at-bats after being acquired by the Phillies. His lone start in the postseason came in Game 3 of the NLDS, when he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. After admitting that Hays looked “a little rusty,” manager Rob Thomson opted to have Weston Wilson start in left field in Game 4 against a left-handed starter in Jose Quintana, rather than using Hays.

So where do the Phillies go from here with Hays? In a larger response about his outlook on the outfield, Dombrowski gave an interesting answer about Hays.

“…We have Hays, of course, we’ll have to make a decision in that regard,” Dombrowski said.

What would that decision be? The Phillies will have to decide whether to tender a contract to Hays, who has one year remaining of arbitration eligibility. Matt Swartz of MLB Trade Rumors has projected that Hays will earn $6.4 million in his final year of arbitration eligibility. Hays was an All-Star in 2023, but just posted a .699 OPS in 85 games between the Orioles and Phillies. That feels like a high price to pay based off of the down season he’s coming off of.

The Phillies could non-tender Hays, which would make him a free agent. They could also try to reach a deal at a lower price than $6.4 million.

In many ways, this will come down to how much both the Phillies and Hays want to continue this relationship. Is there any price where the Phillies would want to bring Hays back at as part of their outfield mix? Does Hays want to make things work in Philadelphia badly enough that he would take less than he’s projected to receive in arbitration, or is he willing to get non-tendered, go to free agency and pick his next employer?

There is a public relations aspect to this. It’s not Hays’ fault he got a kidney infection, and he worked hard to get back from it. If he’s healthy, he may very well bounce back in 2025. But he wasn’t an addition that made fans ecstatic to begin with. After a disappointing playoff exit, it feels hard to imagine the Phillies just running things back with some combination of Hays, Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas getting the bulk of the at-bats in left and center field. Whether that means Hays is non-tendered or traded, it’s not hard to imagine Game 3 of the NLDS was the last time he played for the Phillies.