The Phillies have traded Ramon Marquez and Marty Gair to the SF Giants for Luis Arraez and Caleb Kilian.
Phillies Get…
Luis Arraez has been the ideal addition to the Phillies lineup for years. Why? Because he hits the ball! Arraez has led the league in batting average 3 times and is looking to do it again this year with a .324 as of publish time. It’s more than that though. The guy might not walk, but he NEVER strikes out. He has just 21 Ks all season. This Phillies lineup needs this skill desperately. Arraez is a pure rental who will be a free agent at the end of the season.
The question now is where does he play? Does this mean Bryce Harper goes to the outfield and Bohm to first? I certainly hope not. The Phillies need two bats, not just one. We will find out. (UPDATE: They did not get another bat and the worst case defensive lineup is the plan) It will also be interesting to see where he slots into the lineup. Many teams have used him as a leadoff hitter, but that never seemed right to me. His contact skill should be used with people on base even if there is no power. Personally, I would like to see him hit either 2nd or 4th, but you can make arguments for anywhere.
Kilian is a 29 year old righty who is having an “ok” season numbers wise, but his baseball savant page is nicely filled with red. That’s an intriguing arm I suppose. He also has 5 years of control left, so if the Phillies can figure him out some, that could be a nice get. It has been brought to my attention that damn near all of his 4.26 ERA is from 3 disaster outings that were 12 earned runs with just 4 outs. YIKES! I say that as a good thing though considering in his other 43 innings over 42 appearances, his ERA is a very nice 1.88. That will play.
Phillies Give Up…
The bummer of this move is giving up Ramon Marquez. He has been a darling of prospect evaluators and probably makes the top 100 next season. He is considered the Phillies #4 best prospect and second best pitcher behind Gage Wood. He is a lot to give up for a rental and no one would be surprised if he came back to haunt the team.
Marty Gair has a HUGE fastball. We are talking 102+. The thing is that he has no idea where it is going and no other pitches. Since this seems like a bit of a throw in on the deal, you have to think the Phillies coaches were giving up on an arm they have had 3 years to look at. If he is going to reach his potential, it was probably not going to be with the Phillies.
The Money
The Phillies entered the deadline with a payroll around $314m and a tax number around $53m. Luis Arraez signed a $12m one year contract with the Giants that pro rates down to around $3.5m in salary for the Phillies to cover. That comes with an additional tax penalty of $3.85m. The Brooks Raley addition will add about $1.5m in salary and $1.65m in tax to this (we’ll get to him later). Phillies are up to around $378m in payroll obligations for those who care.
Photo: Yahoo
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