Tommy Pham Needs a Team

This past offseason featured much speculating about where the “big” free agents were going to land. For the majority of the time, we kept wondering if and when Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, Cody Bellinger and Sonny Gray were going to sign with a new team. All but Montgomery have found destinations and with the regular season less than a week away, we are no closer to finding out his new home. The guy I am waiting for to sign and for whom a contending team really could use is Tommy Pham.

Pham could be working on his eighth team in 11 years. There could be a myriad of reasons to this but perhaps two reasons that seems to make the most sense is that he speaks his mind and that he is intense. I’ll venture to say certain organizations are uncomfortable with a player being so open, honest and serious. However, all I know is that the guy is a winning player. Look at the Arizona Diamondbacks from last year. Is there any doubt that Pham made a difference to the D’backs after he arrived from the New York Mets? He brought leadership and intensity to a team in desperate need of both. If you doubt that he is not a good teammate, do you recall Game 2 of the 2023 World Series? Pham went 4 for 4 in that game, yet when he had the opportunity to tie a record with a fifth hit, he gave up that chance in order to have Jace Peterson get a World Series at bat. Former reps from previous organizations, among them Buck Showalter and Francisco Lindor, have praised Pham as a teammate and leader. This was even after Pham called Showalter’s Mets, “the least-hardest working group of position players I’ve ever played with”. These two articles from the Athletic and the St. Louis Post Dispatch are wonderful resources if you would like more reading on what makes Pham tick.

Any team that is in a position to have a playoff year should want Tommy Pham on their team. I want the New York Yankees to sign him. The Yanks could use someone like him to stir things up. Pham has simple requests: play hard and win. That should be the unofficial motto for every Major League team. Unfortunately, not all organizations subscribe to that philosophy. The one that signs Tommy Pham will not regret it.

Author: Tom Lynch

Family is everything to me. Baseball is a close second. What better way to combine my two favorite passions than to write about them! My three children each have a different baseball team, hence the title, "Three Unassisted". I write about not only my thoughts but also the musings of Ryan (Yankees), Caitlyn (Phillies) and Matthew (Mets). I may have grown up a Yankees fan but since family is greater than ball, I also root for the Phillies and Mets. I love talking about my kids. I love talking about baseball. That lethal combination will keep you coming back for more. Happy reading! View all posts by Tom Lynch