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IMO, Everyone is on the Table for the Phillies at the Trade Deadline
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
MLB Trade Deadline talk is HOT on the streets of Philadelphia and around the Delaware Valley. One of the best times of the year where we get to debate who is on the table and who is untouchable. Everyone wants to know what the Phillies organization is going to do. I’ll tell you right now, for me, everyone is on the table:
Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, some guy down in High-A I’ve never heard of. You know why? Because who is the last franchise-altering prospect the Phillies have been able to groom from draft to the pros? Cole Hamels in 2006. Almost 20 years ago. I’m old enough to remember when Sixto Sanchez was untouchable, or Kyle Drabek, Travis D’Arnaud, and Gavin Floyd. The Phillies and prospects mix like oil and water. The chances of Painter, Miller, and Crawford all working out is low. The difference with Chase Utley, Hamels, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and the 2008 team being homegrown talents is they didn’t have two $300-million anchors attached to the roster who are rapidly getting older. They don’t have a $172 million pitcher on ice with five years still left on his deal. They didn’t have a Cy Young candidate that has two more years until he retires. They’re in win-now mode because they’ve forced themselves into win-now mode.
Like the City Hall Macy’s: Everything Must Go! I’d rather mortgage the future with what-ifs because the right nows are good enough to win it all with some tinkering. Do I trust Dave Dombrowski to make the right moves? Not recently. Seems like he and Daryl Morey are having a mid-off to see who can out-do each other with worse deadlines every year. But it’s not like Dombrowski hasn’t raided the farm before and had it lead to a championship. He did it with Boston and the Marlins. He also drafted Jaren Duran, Brayan Bello, and Tanner Houck for those keeping score at home. As the busses are rolling down Broad Street, Andrew Painter would be the last thing on people’s minds.
Some are saying you can’t just keep spending and trading your way to a title. Counterpoint…yes you can:
This better be every GM’s assistant at the deadline:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com