Phillies can’t abandon prospects for veterans, again
I’m not telling Phillies fans to pump the breaks, but…
Phillies baseball is fun again thanks to the promotion of several key prospects such as Rhys Hoskins, J.P. Crawford, and Jorge Alfaro. Scoring the second-most runs in the National League since the All-Star break the Phillies are finally trending in the right direction.
Despite acquiring multiple starting pitchers through trades at the onslaught of the rebuild the team lacks depth and a defined ace as the 2017 season concludes.
Fans are anxiously looking at the free agency and trade market this offseason hoping to find the perfect starting pitcher that will carry this team back into Red October.
This method isn’t foreign to a franchise closing the book on their 135th season. In 2005 the team signed Jon Lieber to a three-year deal worth $21 million hoping he’d solidify a staff with a young Brett Myers. When they became competitive, trades for Roy Halladay (which I don’t regret) and Roy Oswalt chipped away at the farm system’s foundation.
All the moves made by Ruben Amaro Jr. to keep the team alive are case and point.
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Look around baseball at teams that tried to accelerate a rebuild through nefarious spending and risky trades. San Diego tried this in 2015 by adding Justin Upton, Derek Norris, Matt Kemp, James Shields and Craig Kimbrel, among others.
In no way am I saying fans should not enjoy this current club and be hopeful towards next season and beyond. Will moves be made? Absolutely. Will I or any other fan resent them? Probably not.
However, this team can not dig itself back into a hole by trading for a supposed superstar veteran starting pitcher. Be smart with the moves and grow a team that will compete for a decade, not three months.
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Matt Klentak trusts the process, and we should as well.