Philly Front Office

The Yankees are trading for the Giants’ Outfielder, taking another possible outfield option off the board. I didn’t particularly like Ramos because he is a strict platoon guy but he has 3 years of control left. We’ll see what the return is to properly get mad about this.

After getting Kevin Gausman, the Cubs have now also acquired Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor from the Mets, reliever Ryan Zeferjahn from the Angels, and starter Braxton Garrett from the Marlins. There have been other moves today like Luke Weaver going to the Pirates and Adley Rutschman and Jake Rogers going to the Red Sox, but the Cubs have been most active in addressing all of their needs.

Meanwhile the Phillies have 1 hour to not make us all rip our hair out because Alec Bohm is still in the lineup and Bryce Harper is in right field instead of anyone else. We did trade for a nobody (Manuel Colon) and cash in order to get off of Nolan Hoffman, so that’s nice.

The Phillies current plan is to have Bryce Harper move to right, Alec Bohm move to first, Bryson Stott move to 3rd, and Luis Arraeaz move to 2nd ORRRRRRR they could get a right fielder and not change their entire infield to accommodate underperforming crybaby Alec Bohm. Two of those possible outfield targets were just traded with former teammates Jo Adell going from Anaheim to Cleveland and Taylor Ward from Baltimore to Seattle.

To be honest, I was never too in on Adell as his good stats are really only against lefties. Granted, that is an area of need for the Phillies, but he is basically unplayable against righties. He would be a lot to pay and give up to be an overqualified shortside platoon.

I was very in on Ward as he leads the AL in walks and is right handed. Ward doesn’t hit lefties as good as Adell, but hits righties much better and has great walk rates against both. This would have been strictly an on base play had we made the deal.

I’ll update when I see the returns in order to get mad at what we didn’t give up.

The Phillies with a huge upgrade to their lineup by bringing in Luis Arraez, a regular candidate to lead the league in hitting. He doesn’t walk, but he strikes out even less. His defense has improved at second base and that’s where he should be expected to play. What happens to the infield composition? We’ll find out soon. The Phillies also receive reliever Caleb Kilian in the deal. He’s a middling 29 year old reliever.

The price for the rental is big, #4 prospect and the guy who has made prospects nerds drool, Ramon Marquez. He has been killing it since coming over. He’s one of the guys I did not want to give up.

Raley has had another excellent season for the Mets. He’s a lefty with a sterling 1.96 ERA, which has been consistent over his 4 years with the Mets. The Phillies have a new setup man. Going to NY are prospects Luke Gabrysh and John Spikerman.

Both Raley and Arraez are free agents after this season. More on everything in a separate article

In a Metsian level head scratcher (in 2004 they were way out of the playoff race but bought Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano anyway), Jose Soriano was traded to the Blue Jays for prospects Eddie Micheletti, Angel Rivero, and Arjun Nimmala. It’s understandable in that Toronto wanted him, he is under control for 2 more years, and is much cheaper than Kevin Gausman, but prices are usually higher at the deadline than in the off season. Considering the Blue Jays are dead this season, it just seems weird. This is especially weird because the Blue Jays do not have a good farm system and Nimmala was their second best prospect.

As for the Angels, they already traded Logan O’Hoppe last week but this should mean a real fire sale is on. Other possible names that could be dealt today are Zach Neto, Reid Detmers, Tyler Yates, Jo Adell, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Mike Trout (and you know I HATE to be remiss).

The starting pitching market is now officially open…

The Blue Jays are sending starting pitcher Kevin Gausman to the Cubs in exchange for prospects Brett Bateman and Ty Southisene. This is not much of a haul in that they are both outside of the Top 10 prospects for a Cubs system that is not terrible but also not overflowing with talent. Mahle goes to the Braves for 24 year old pitcher Anthony Molina who has a live arm but no real results to show for it. Mahle is the first of what is expected to be several moves by the Giants within the next 20 hours.

Both were seen as targets for the Phillies. Gausman was one of the more high end pitchers available while Mahle should just be expected to be an innings eater for a Braves team in desperate need of exactly that.

UPDATE: Rumor is that the Phillies offered Gage Wood, Justin Crawford, and Jonathan Bowlan for Skubal, but they went with the Dodgers offer. I’m probably biased, but our deal seemed better.

Sigh… the LA Dodgers get 2x Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and it wasn’t for nearly as much as you would think.

Going to Detroit is top 50-ish level prospect Zahir Hope, 27 year old post surgery arm River Ryan, and another post surgery prospect named Brady Smith. LA didn’t have to even reach to the top shelf of their farm system.

I’m not going into how this deal works for either side because it seems like the fix was in. Even though Skubal only has this season remaining on his contract, this still should not have been enough to land him. The Phillies gave up a ton more to land Jhoan Duran last year.

I’m not a conspiracy theory type, but Skubal going relatively early in the process for a single Top 50 guy and low level wild cards makes it seem like the Owners wanted him to go to LA to prove a negotiating point with the Players Association. The Owners need a villain here to forward their agenda with public opinion. It was already the Dodgers, but with this Burnsian level blocking out the sun move, they have now leveled up to super villain. The best team in baseball just got one of the best pitchers in baseball for relatively little. It’s more than disheartening, it’s supposed to be spirit breaking. Mission accomplished.

UPDATE: The Mariners have begun their possible sell off by sending starting pitcher Luis Castillo to the Chicago White Sox for old friend Seranthony Dominguez, outfielder Nolan Jones, and catching prospect Boston Smith. No idea if this means George Kirby won’t be on the move. Castillo is under contract at near $22m this year and next with a similar vesting option for 2028. White Sox are going for it

The rumor of the day is that the Mariners will be taking offers on both right fielder Randy Arozarena and pitcher George Kirby. Kirby is having a slightly down year, but his still a high quality starting pitcher on a cheap salary and with 2 more years of arbitration control. Kirby may be down, but Arozarena may be having the best season of his career with a high average, solid OBP, and decent power. He is strictly a rental though at a pro rated $15.6m.

Phillies fans have wanted Arozarena for years thanks to his clutch hitting and enthusiasm, two things the club currently lacks. Management also once tried to trade Alec Bohm for Kirby straight up but were promptly laughed at and hung up on. You’d have to think they are interested in both right now

Andrew Painter was brought back to the Phillies main roster to pitch against the Baltimore Orioles and after a rough first two batters looked like the pitcher we had been promised. Balls were moving, the velocity was there, and he didn’t let a bad 1st inning spiral into a terrible return. Instead, he retired damn near everyone over the next 5 innings and ended his night on 82 extremely promising pitches. We won’t know for sure until a few more starts from now, but the 5th starter situation is not nearly as dire as it felt a few days ago. He’s probably the guy (unless they move him for someone else but that seems like it would be selling extremely low).

The bullpen though? Yikes! If you don’t think the Phillies need at least two good arms, you should probably be Clockwork Oranged into watching this unit’s lowlights. Just brutal. Outside of Jhoan Duran, there is no one that you would feel comfortable with making a playoff appearance. As good as our top 3 starters are, we are still going to need to find a way to get 9 more outs and Duran only counts for 3 of them. Below is a list of arms that the Phillies need to scour.

So far, the Phillies have been linked to the Angels for SS Zach Neto and the Blue Jays for several hitters and pitchers…

Neto is interesting because although he strikes out a ton, he does everything else pretty well including extra base power, defense, and an improved walk rate. What probably is most interesting to the Phillies though is that he has 3 years of arbitration control remaining. That last part makes it much easier to part with prospects.

The Blue Jays are having a mess of a season with everyone following up last year’s career years with Icarusian falls to Earth. The Phillies have been linked to outfielders Dalton Varsho and George Springer plus pitchers Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and old friend Jeff Hoffman. I don’t know why we would trade for Varsho as he simply seems like a replacement level player. Springer on the other hand isn’t doing much better but at least hits lefties. The real difference is that Varsho is much cheaper, but I don’t see how he would be an upgrade in any way.

As for the pitchers, Gausman is having a somewhat down but still adequate year and is making $23m. He would certainly stabilize the 5th starter role. Bieber got completely wrecked by the Nationals in his last start but gave up 1 run over 7 innings against the Rays before that. He’s been a mixed bag. Hoffman hasn’t been nearly as bad as his numbers would indicate, but he is making a ton.

The Mets selloff has begun with lefty AJ Minter going to the Twins. The bigger story here is that the Twins, one year after selling off damn near their whole team, are buyers. They are sitting at 55-55 and just 3 games behind the White Sox in the division and 1 game out of the wildcard. That’s a rather foreboding sign for buyers at the deadline even if Minter didn’t go for a ton, just mid prospects Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick.