Trade Deadline Thoughts: The Phillies are a Better Team than they were on Tuesday
The Phillies had a good trade deadline.
No, they didn’t rip off a blockbuster move, but ask yourself, truly – did you expect a blockbuster? Did you really think they were moving for Carlos Rodon? That ended up being wishful thinking, a fleeting pipe dream.
But the bottom line is that the Phillies are better than they were on Tuesday. They essentially took a bunch of non-contributors and swapped them out for players who can contribute, and so let’s write it all out and look at the entirety of the trade deadline to get a better macro-level feel for what happened:
Non-contributors:
- Jeurys Familia
- Odubel Herrera
- Mickey Moniak
- Logan O’Hoppe
- Jadiel Sanchez
- Ben Brown
They lost a couple of prospects, but that’s the cost of doing business. None of those six guys were contributing to the Phillies this year, and with J.T. Realmuto in the picture, there was no guarantee O’Hoppe was ever going to play here anyway. We can all agree that DFA’ing Familia and Odubel were no-brainer moves, but with the Phillies on the verge of making the playoffs for the first time in a decade, does losing a couple of prospects really hurt that much? It shouldn’t.
As Peter Andrews less-eloquently puts it:
phillies unloaded a bunch of slop and got some non-slop in, excellent deadline
— Peter Andrews (@pfandrews) August 2, 2022
Maybe the word “slop” is a little harsh, but the point of the tweet is valid. If this was Matt Klentak, we would have been evaluating his latest trade deadline dumpster dive for a bullpen guy that 50% of fans haven’t even heard of, while the other 50% are smart enough to know said guy isn’t a major league player at age 30+ or whatever the number typically was.
Now here are the contributors:
- Noah Syndergaard
- David Robertson
- Brandon Marsh
- Edmundo Sosa
Again, nothing electric here, but these guys are all in a position to do what the aforementioned six were not, which is provide something to a team that is currently tied for the final wild card spot. And if we went into the trade deadline saying that the Phillies needed starting pitching, another bullpen arm, and something better in center field, then they checked all three of those boxes. Marsh, remember, is only 24 years old, so it’s not like they gave up O’Hoppe for an aging rental. This wasn’t a myopic Chuck Fletcher move. Marsh comes with several years of team control, and he’s a plus-defensively in the outfield, which is something the Phils really needed. I have zero issues with that move. Syndergaard is serviceable, Robertson has a fantastic ERA and owes us one, and Sosa is another plus-defensive guy who might be able to give you something at some point.
Honest to God, the Phillies are in a good position. They addressed their needs. Bryce Harper and Jean Segura are coming back from injury. Obviously the Padres got much better at the deadline, but there’s no reason why this team can’t outplay the Cardinals and Giants the rest of the way and end the playoff drought.
LFG.