Philly Front Office

It’s impossible to please everyone. The nature of the reactionary sports world means you can hear both how awful and how wonderful the same event can be at the same time. Somehow though, Phillies top decision maker Dave Dombrowski managed to make everyone upset with his half assed trade deadline. Let’s see how he managed it.

There were two ways to look at this trade deadline. One side thought the Phillies had an outside shot at contending or at least thought they needed to go for it anyway, while the other saw (and still see) this season as a lost cause. On one end, we should go nearly all in; the other, hold on to the prospects. Dave did neither.

The Phillies Traded for Brooks Raley and Then Gave Up

The day started out great with back to back moves bringing in solid regulars Luis Arraez, Caleb Kilian, and Brooks Raley. It cost highly touted prospect Ramon Marquez though who has caught fire in the Phillies system this season. If you are going for it, guys like Marquez are the ones you have to give up. The Phillies still had needs though including an outfielder and possibly another starter. More prospects would probably be on the block.

The next bit of news would concern just where Arraez would play. The early word was a massive reshuffling that would see Bryce Harper move to right field, Alec Bohm move to first, Bryson Stott to third, and Arraez to second. That was silly talk though. Even as Don Mattingly confirmed the formation, surely it was just a smokescreen to hide the team’s need for a real outfield solution. The team couldn’t be dumb enough to really make an already defensive team even worse right? At the same time, the team that can’t take a walk to save its life was adding a player who never walks?

Time ticked by. This couldn’t be the plan. They can’t just be taking a half measure. The moves so far simply made no sense without at least one more move. Meanwhile, the Padres improved their pitching, the Pirates fixed their bullpen, and the Cubs improved everywhere. Were the Phillies really done? Yes. Yes, they were.

No Strikeouts, No Walks, All Luis Arraez

So now what do we have?

• Lineup: The team has a better lineup today. Adding Luis Arraez and his league leading average while subtracting the Gabriel Rincones spot is an upgrade plain and simple. We will still struggle to get on base though. Alec Bohm will still be a 2 pitch double play waiting to happen.
• Bullpen: Resoundingly the bullpen is improved. After Jhoan Duran there was an enormous trust gap. Now Raley fills the 8th inning role and Kilian will be in the 7th inning mix with Orion Kerkering and Jonathan Bowlan. No more relying on Jose Alvarado to get huge end of game outs.
• Rotation: Things were already good with 3 top level arms. However, instead of possibly going with another solid starter it’s going to be Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter the rest of the way. AP looked promising last start, but we do not have any room for error here.
• Defense: Yikes! The best defender on the Phillies right now is…Luis Arraez??? That’s rough. Everyone is out of position right now and for anyone who says “it can’t get any worse” that’s not how this works. It most certainly can.
• Prospects: It wasn’t a blood bath. Marquez is someone we may come to fear like Sixto Sanchez of yesteryear. At least with him, JT Realmuto stuck around. If Arraez walks after this year, this could really bite us. He was a lot for a rental.

Was it a bad deadline? That’s a loaded question. The team is better today than it was yesterday without question. However, the team needed to get a lot better and it didn’t. That’s a failed process. If you spend a money to fix a hot tub and it only gets to 80 degrees from 70, who cares? It’s still not warm enough and you’re out of money. No one’s happy. That’s how this feels.