PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Max Kepler and the Philadelphia Phillies finalized a $10 million, one-year contract on Friday with the expectation he'll become the team's starting left fielder.
Kelpler spent his entire 10-year career with the Minnesota Twins. Over 1,072 games, Kepler is a .237 hitter with 161 home runs and 508 RBIs.
Phillies president of basbnall operations Dave Dombrowski said the team will give Kepler a shot at playing every day in left.
“We think he can,” Dombrowski said.
Kepler had just eight homers and 42 RBIs in a 2024 season derailed by injury. Dombrowski said Kepler underwent core surgery this offseason to repair a sports hernia that — along with left patellar tendinitis — limited him to just 105 games.
“Max was very careful. He said, ‘I don’t want to make any excuses,’” Dombrowski said. “It does affect you. It just does. You try to play through it but it's not easy. It's a tough (injury) to play through.”
In six career games at Citizens Bank Park over 23 plate appearances, Kepler has hit four home runs and posted a .955 slugging percentage. The Twins signed Kepler as a teenager out of Germany.
With Kepler set in left field, the Phillies will continue with Nick Castellanos in right field and Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas in center.
“We think it's easier to just leave Nick in right field. Let him play out there,” Dombrowski said. “We think Max will make that adjustment very comfortably and he's willing to do so.”
The Phillies have been quiet in the offseason after winning the NL East and losing to the Mets in the NL Division Series in the playoffs. They signed closer Jordan Romano to an $8.5 million, one-year contract in their only other move of note.
An All-Star in 2022 and 2023, Romano spent the first six seasons of his major league career with the Toronto Blue Jays. He has 105 saves and a 2.90 ERA in 231 relief appearances.
With one of the biggest payrolls in baseball, Dombrowski just might be done making any major moves headed into next season.
“I would be surprised if we got into impactful free-agent type-of signings from an offensive perspective,” Dombrowski said. “I don't way to say it's a tight payroll. From an ownership perspective, I don't think I've ever gone to John (Middleton) on anything and him say, no, don't do something. But you still try and keep things in perspective. We're over $300 million and everybody we sign is a major penalty at this point.”
What's left?
Dombrowski said the Phillies would like to add a potential fifth starter with the flexibility to pitch out of the bullpen.
“We'll keep our mind open,” Dombrowski said.
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FILE -Minnesota Twins' Max Kepler (26) is greeted in the dugout after scoring off a double by Byron Buxton during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Monday, July 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
PHOENIX (AP) — It's necessary to regulate groundwater in the state’s rural southeast, allowing the designation of a controlled area to stop rapid depletion of the water through agricultural use, the Arizona Department of Water Resources announced Friday.
The department’s Director Tom Buschatzke said data analysis of hydrologic conditions in the state’s Willcox basin shows that the conditions have been met “to take necessary steps to defend our groundwater supplies for future generations.”
Under state law, Buschatzke is empowered as director to designate what is known as an “active management area” for the Willcox Groundwater Basin in Arizona’s Cochise and Graham counties.
“As my staff has made clear in public hearings held in Willcox and in response to comments on our presentations from members of the public, the hydrologic conditions in the basin meet the statutory requirements,” he said in a statement.
The director made the designation on Thursday, following public hearings on the matter, according to a statement by the water agency. During that period, the basin was closed to new agriculture use while the department decided whether to create the management area southeast of Tucson that would allow it to set goals for the well-being of the basin and its aquifers.
Gov. Katie Hobbs and the state water resources agency had been under pressure by local residents to deal with the groundwater depletion.
Hobbs on Friday praised the designation.
“I’ve heard from families, farmers, and businesses who have experienced the devastating impacts of unchecked pumping by unaccountable, big corporations,” said said. “Their wells are running dry, their homes are damaged by fissures in the earth, and their farms are barely able to get by.”
High rates of pumping can dry up wells and cause the ground to collapse, damaging roads and other property. According to a water resources department report, 26 wells in the basin that are regularly measured fell 10 feet (3 meters) to nearly 142 feet (43 meters) between the years 2000 and 2020.
Arizona farm interests have historically opposed groundwater pumping regulations, saying such a structure is too inflexible.
The Willcox Groundwater Basin management area is the first formed by executive action since approval of Arizona’s Groundwater Management Act in 1980. Several other such areas in Arizona were created by similar laws. The urban areas of Phoenix and Tucson have long been under groundwater management.
This story has been updated to correct that the designation of the management area was made on Dec. 19, not Dec. 1.
Water basins at Coronado Dairy in Willcox, Ariz., are seen on Sept. 19, 2021. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP)
Local homeowner Steve Kisiel gives Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs a tour of his property before meeting with a group of Willcox homeowners in Pearce, Ariz., Sept. 5, 2024. (Grace Trejo/Arizona Daily Star via AP)
