The Phillies just traded for the best reliever in baseball. Full stop. The trade as reported is Jhoan Duran from the Twins for Eduardo Tait and Mick Abel. In terms of value, cost, and need this is one of the best trades I have ever seen to the extent I am afraid to publish this in fear the deal changes. Let’s do it anyway…
Jhoan Duran
Last week I called Duran the “crown jewel” of the trade deadline. He is so good that MLB Trade Rumors was hesitant to rank him highly on their list because they simply doubted a deal could be put together to get him. He throws 101+ and has a sterling ERA of 2.01. Even better, he has given up just a single HR on the year.
The Phillies were in desperate need of a closer. Without one, they were dead in the water. Placing Duran at the top of the bullpen pecking order does the humanitarian duty of pushing Matt Strahm to the 8th, Kerkering to the 7th, and one less chance for Jordan Romano to pitch at all. REJOICE!!!
The hidden gem of this trade is the control. Duran still has 2 years of arbitration ahead. This means he is cost controlled an not going anywhere. Dombrowski doesn’t like trading for rentals (despite really enjoying signing them apparently). This makes sense because it allows him to plan for the future in a way that is cost effective.
The salary is only going to be a little over $1m for the Phillies this season, the prorated amount of his $4.125m contract.
The Assets
Mick Abel was simply not long for the Phillies once he came out of nowhere to regain his prospect status. Regardless of what you think of everyone in the rotation, Abel was never going to get a chance to pitch behind Wheeler, Nola, Sanchez, Luzardo, and Painter next year. Throw in the recent drafting of Gage Wood and he was a talented young man adrift in an organization without a spot for him.
Eduardo Tait is a very young catching prospect (18) who has the potential to hit the top of prospect lists if he can stay at catcher. That’s a 50/50 prospect at this point. Even though he is a catcher, a position with little depth within the organization, he was expendable due to that same young age that makes other teams salivate. The current Phillies core is almost all between 27 and 32. Tait couldn’t help the team for probably 3 years at the earliest. That’s simply too long. This could end up burning the team eventually, but 2.5 years of fielding a legit contender with Duran is worth it. This is not unlike the Jason Knapp inclusion in the Cliff Lee deal 16 years ago. The talent is legit, but we are not in the position to wait.
AND THATS IT!!! We did not have to include Andrew Painter, Aiden Miller, or Justin Crawford to have to get this deal done. I thought for sure we would need to move the latter two to get Duran and probably Willi Castro. I’ll take it!!!!
…wait, what’s that sound…Ryan Helsley to the Mets???
Philly Front Office 
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