By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The main question all Philadelphia Phillies fans want answered — sooner rather than later — is what free agents the club will sign to propel them back to postseason play for the first time in eight seasons.
Last offseason, the Phillies inked deals with four key players — Carlos Santana, Jake Arrieta, Tommy Hunter and Pat Neshek. None of the four players were signed to a guaranteed deal longer than three years, nor greater than $75 million.
"Last offseason, we were pretty careful in free agency to limit the term. We were aggressive in the dollars for both Arrieta and [Carlos] Santana, but we were very careful with the length of those contracts — not wanting to extend beyond three years," Phillies Vice President and General Manager Matt Klentak said Thursday on SportsRadio 94 WIP. "Part of that was to maintain our flexibility."
While a trend existed for the Phillies to remain cautious with term and dollar amount for free agents last offseason, Klentak said that that will not necessarily be the case when building the 2019 Phillies roster.
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"This predates me, but the ownership here and our front office has been very careful with not extending our payroll commitments out too far," Klentak said. "That’s not just something we say because it sounds good, we want to make sure that we are protecting and preserving our flexibility moving forward.
"You never want to find yourself going into an offseason where you have to address certain things on your team, and you don’t have the money or roster space to do it. That’s a bad feeling."
The Phillies have just $68.9 million in salary commitments so far for 2019, which is more than $11 million below the $80.4 million league average, according to Spotrac. With committed owners and a lucrative television contract on their side, Klentak and the rest of the front office have a pretty lengthy leash to work with — if they choose to do so, that is.
"I’m not saying we’re going to limit ourselves exclusively to three-year contracts this offseason — we more than likely will explore things beyond that — but we always want to make sure we are careful with our future-year outlook," Klentak said.
