By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor 
Just one day before the deadline to exchange salary figures for arbitration eligible players, the Phillies have agreed to a salary for reliever Hector Neris.
Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports reports that the agreement will give Neris a salary of $1.8 million in 2019.
Phillies avoid arb w Hector Neris. He gets 1.8m.
— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) January 10, 2019
Neris has a career 3.39 ERA and a WHIP of 1.201. He has suffered from inconsistent play and was sent down to the minors in the middle of this past season to correct some of his mistakes prior to being called back up in the middle of a pennant race.
While Neris may no longer be the Phillies closer, he is expected to continue to be used in late inning relief. He may get some opportunities to close out some games, but he will also likely see time in the set-up role as well as making appearances in the seventh inning.
Although the Phillies and Neris avoided arbitration, the team still has eight more arbitration eligible players. 2018 Cy Young Award finalist Aaron Nola is the biggest name among them. He joins Vince Velasquez, Jerad Eickhoff, the recently acquired Jose Alvarez, Adam Morgan, Cesar Hernandez, Maikel Franco and Aaron Altherr.
The team will continue to attempt to avoid arbitration with as many of those players as they can prior to Friday’s deadline.
Update: The Phillies have agreed to terms with Jerad Eickhoff.
