With about 2 hours to go before the deadline, the Phillies and Twins hooked up on another trade, sending Harrison Bader to the Phillies for Hendry Mendez and Geremy Villoria. Let’s break it down.
Harrison Bader
Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room. Bader is a former Met. He was on the team last year that beat us and I developed a pretty good hatred for the guy. Through the course of this writeup I am going to try to purge myself of that predisposition.
Bader signed with the Twins for $6.25m in the offseason. The Phillies are going to be responsible for around $2.5m of that. For those wondering, with the luxury tax, that will cost the Phillies around $5.25m in total dollars.
He is a right handed hitter who can play a very good left and solid centerfield. For his career he is much better against lefties than righties, but is having a solid showing this year from both sides of the plate. His OPS is .778 on the season with even splits. However, this is SIGNIFICANTLY better than his career stats. Look, we just need him to hold it up for the next 3 months.
One of the things that always bothered me about him was his ability to celebrate a meaningless hit like it won the World Series. It’s like a receiver celebrating a first down despite a 20 point deficit in the 4th quarter. It drove me crazy. However, that kind of care and energy is something this Phillies team is desperately missing. I would love for someone like Bader to come in and show these guys how to care when things aren’t going well. See, I’m coming around!
The Haul
The Phillies did not give up a ton in this deal, but not nothing either. Hendry Mendez was a former high level international signing from the Brewers. We traded for him in the offseason due to a roster crunch in Milwaukee. He needed to be on the 40 man and we offered them a way out. To his credit, Mendez took very well to his new organization. The 21 year old outfielder has excelled in AA with an .800 OPS.
Villaria is a 16 year old right handed pitcher from Venezuela. He is 6’2″ despite the age. The Phillies signed him during the last international signing period for $425k.
The Plan
I am hoping that this addition means Bader and Marsh will start a platoon in center with Rojas only coming in as a defensive replacement. So Max Kepler still in left? Hell no!!! Kepler has to be released to make room for still-here prospect Justin Crawford. Kepler is providing absolutely nothing and Crawford simply can’t be worse.
Let’s see what happens in the next 75 minutes!
Philly Front Office 
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