Liberty Ball

The Phillies signed Hunter Pence to a one year deal and he was the last arbitration eligible player that the Phillies needed to sign.   He’ll make $10.4 million plus there’s some incentives.  That’s exactly in the middle of the $11.8 million he was asking for and the $9 million the team wanted to give him.

Pence is a great hitter and it’ll be interesting to see what he can do for the Phillies for a full year.  2011 was a breakout year of sorts and he posted his best OPS (.871) since his shorter rookie year.  His home runs went down a notch but he had a career high 38 doubles.  He also did it all with a .370 OPB and he’s shown some durability by playing in at least 154 games the past four seasons.