The Phillies cleared left field with their recent trade of Carlos Santana and J.P. Crawford to Seattle for Jean Segura and two relievers, which allowed them to move Rhys Hoskins, who was a defensive disaster in left, back to first base for 2019. They've now filled the vacated corner outfield spot by signing Andrew McCutchen to a very reasonable three-year, $50 million deal, one that should make them a little better on offense and a good bit better on defense, and brings one of the most respected players in the game into a clubhouse that's still on the young side and is likely to remain so for the next few years.
McCutchen is a corner outfielder now, and there's no reason he should play center with Odubel Herrera entrenched there and Roman Quinn backing him up. The Phillies can just plug him in left field and hope he continues to hit as he did the past two years -- .267/.366/.455 for a 121 wRC+, well above league average for left fielders in that span (about a 101 wRC+). That's more than the Phillies got from Santana, whom McCutchen is more or less directly replacing, and they still have further room to improve if they add another corner outfielder to upgrade on their nonproductive right field tandem of Nick Williams and Aaron Altherr.
McCutchen's defense has certainly slipped from his peak, when he could play an average center field, to where you're hoping for average defense in left and might settle for a few runs below that. He'll play all of 2019 at age 32 and MLB's sprint speed metrics say he can still run plus when he needs to. If he's lost anything due to age, it would be a little bit of bat speed, as he looked like he might be cheating a little on velocity last year and thus performing worse than usual on off-speed stuff, but his eye is still good enough and he has enough power to be valuable despite that. He's also been exceptionally durable, playing at least 146 games in nine straight seasons, with a thumb or hand injury in 2016 the only real ailment he's had. The presence of Quinn, an 80 runner with contact skills and a long history of getting hurt, as a fourth outfielder could give McCutchen more days off over the course of the long season; it's possible that will help him maintain his level of production even as he gets older.
Phillies GM Matt Klentak pointed out, correctly, on Monday that if they want to be a playoff team in 2019, they need to build a roster they believe can win 90-plus games. The Phillies won 80 last year, ahead of their Pythagorean projection based on their runs scored/allowed (76 wins) but also not reflective of how the team played before September, a month in which they seemed to lose more games than they actually played. The additions of Segura, McCutchen and some bullpen help pushes them up probably five to six wins already. If they make a huge splash -- say, signing one of this winter's two elite free agents -- they'd have a very credible argument that they're a 90-plus win team on paper going into spring training.
The White Sox made a small move on Tuesday, acquiring Ivan Nova, who has one year left at $9 million on his three-year contract, from the Pirates for a minor prospect and some international bonus cap money. Nova has settled in as a solid back-end starter, with the ceiling of a four but too many home runs allowed to be more than that, getting killed with a lot of middle-middle or middle-up fastballs and the occasional hanging breaking ball. The White Sox had the worst starting pitching in the majors last year by Fangraphs' WAR, just 3.1, with the second-worst strikeout rate and worst walk rate of any starting corps. Nova doesn't miss a ton of bats but he rarely walks guys, and if the Sox can bring his home run rate down even slightly he could be their best or second-best starter.
The Pirates appear to have done this to save Nova's salary and add money on the international side. The pitcher they got in return, Yordi Rosario, is a projection right-hander, 19 years old, with a slight frame (so his projection may not be very good) and fringe to below-average stuff right now, a nice inventory arm but not a significant prospect. They did turn around and sign Jordan Lyles, who was around replacement level last year for the Padres and Brewers in a swing role and may have some value as a long reliever now that teams are rethinking their bullpen paradigms. They do have at least one rotation spot open now, but Lyles may only be a temporary solution for that void.