Over the years, the Phillies have been involved in quite a few trades. As it happens, lately the Phillies have been in contention and the Angels seem to have just the right reinforcements that tickle Dave Dombrowski’s fancy. Between Taylor Ward and Kenley Jansen, that might be the case this year too. But what have we given up in the past? What are our former Phillies up to?
2024: Phillies trade George Klassen and Sam Aldegheri to the Angels for Carlos Estevez
George Kalssen burst on to the scene last year with an eye-popping .71 ERA in Clearwater with 57 Ks in 38 innings. He was a little old for the league, but the stuff was there. It has yet to translate to AA though. Between this year and last year, Klassen has a 6.20 ERA with Rocket City. He still gets his strikeouts, but he walks too many and has a WHIP around 1.6.
Sam Aldeghari made it to the majors last year as a 22 year old, but was knocked around in 3 starts. So far this year he has come out of the bullpen twice and was hit even harder. His minor league stats with the Angels haven’t matched what he did with the Phillies across the board.
Friday, July 18 at 6:45p – Jesus Luzardo vs Bullpen
at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
Saturday, July 19th at 6:05p – Taijuan Walker vs TBA
Sunday, July 20th at 1:35p – Ranger Suarez vs TBA
2022: Phillies trade Logan O’Hoppe to the Angels for Brandon Marsh
Logan O’Hoppe was a high end prospect without a path to playing time when the Phillies traded him. As a catcher stuck behind JT Realmuto, there just wasn’t going to be much for him to do. Granted we don’t have any catcher depth at all now, but still, the trade made sense at the time. O’Hoppe was brought up to the Bigs almost right away after the trade. The next year he shared catching duties and managed to blast 14 HRs in only 199 plate appearances. Last year he was the full time starter and though he hit 20 HRs, his stats dropped across the board with more playing time. That trend has continued this year. He is striking out almost 10x as much as he walks and has a .692 OPS. He has clear power, but contact is declining. Baseball-Reference has him as a neutral defender, but Fangraphs has the defensive as pretty abysmal. As much as this one feels like a loss because of the HRs, O’Hoppe might end up as nothing special.
2022: Phillies trade Mickey Moniak and Jadiel Sanchez to the Angels for Noah Syndergaard
Former number 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak never could catch on in Philadelphia and looked for a new start in Anaheim. He got it, for a little bit. After a rough start, Moniak saw 85 games for the Angels in 2023 and managed 21 doubles and 14 HRs on his way to a .802 OPS. Those numbers would be very welcome in the Phillies’ left field right now. He couldn’t hold on to it thought and cratered in 2024 despite more playing time. He was picked up by the Rockies this year and is back to hitting again with an .824 OPS, it is all at home and against righties, but he is still likely to be traded to a team in need this season
I had never heard of Jadiel Sanchez until right now. There’s a reason. He is 24 and has not made it past High A ball.
2018: Phillies trade Luis Garcia to the Angels for Jose Alvarez
Luis Garcia had a semi-productive brief stint with the Angels before bouncing around the league and showing up for the Padres against the Phillies in the 2022 NLCS. He is still playing for the Nationals.
I bet you remember Jose Alvarez even if you don’t remember the name. He was easily the Phillies best reliever in 2020…before he took a 105 mph comebacker to the nuts and was never seen again.
2000: Phillies trade Ron Gant to the Angels for Kent Bottenfield
Ron Gant was always the perfect union between too much muscle and not enough fabric. He did the bicep thing adequately in Philly after killing us for years in Atlanta, but we traded him anyway, the 2000 Phillies were pretty terrible. Gant managed 6 homers in 100 at bats for the Angels who finished only 2 games over .500. He bounced around the league after that managing 1 last solid season with the Padres in 2002 before hanging it up the next season.
Kent Bottenfield? You really want to know about him? He managed to go 1-2 for the Phillies in 8 mediocre starts. An awful next season with Houston ended his career.
LET’S KEEP GOING!!!
1998: Phillies trade Gregg Jeffries to Anaheim for a PTBNL, Doug Nickle
After 2 All-Star season with the Cardinals, the Phillies signed him to a fat 4 year contract. He spent those 4 years being average and annoying. He was active for 19 games with the Angels, didn’t do much, then was put out to pasture by Detroit after two bad seasons.
Doug Nickel managed a cool 0.00 WAR in 9 innings over parts of 3 seasons for the Phillies. You might remember him from transaction history by being the other person shipped to St. Louis in the Scott Rolen trade. I am also showing restraint by not making any Nickelback jokes despite the band being very big during his tenure in Philadelphia. That reminds me…no no, not doing it.
1991: Phillies trade Von Hayes to the Angels for Kyle Abbott and… Ruben Amaro Jr???
This surprised me but not for the reason you think. Up until this minute I thought Von Hayes was black. After 9 solid seasons with the Phillies, he was sent to the Angels to die. After one bad season in Anaheim he retired.
Yes, this is how we got stuck with RAJ. I know his father was a Phillie (not a very good one), but the Angels drafted Amaro in the 11th round out of Stanford and traded him to the Phillies in this deal in 1991. He spent two years in Philly before being traded to Cleveland for Heathcliff Slocumb. That obviously wouldn’t be the end for Amaro as he just kept coming back. Once more as a player in 1996 for 3 seasons, then again as a General Manager, then again as an announcer. I think we should have just stuck with Von Hayes.
Philly Front Office 
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