Phillies hypothetical: What if they had traded for Christian Yelich?
By John Town
The Phillies were one of several teams interested in acquiring Christian Yelich from the Marlins two offseasons ago. What if they wound up getting him?
Two offseasons ago, Derek Jeter and his group bought the Miami Marlins and began trading every player with any value to help clear salary. They dealt Giancarlo Stanton and his massive contract to the Yankees and sent Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals. They traded Christian Yelich to the Brewers at the end of January 2018; what if the Phillies were the team who traded for him?
Philadelphia had been linked to Yelich since the 2017 trade deadline despite the team’s struggles. He fit the team’s rebuilding plans as he already had a contract extension that kept him under team control through 2022. After the Marlins brought out the tanks and traded Stanton during the offseason, the Phillies once again inquired about Yelich.
Those talks didn’t go anywhere as Yelich went to the Brewers. He has made a massive impact for them, winning NL MVP last season with 29 out of 30 votes. He carried the Brewers to the NLCS with the league lead in batting average (.326), slugging percentage (.598), OPS (1.000), and total bases (343).
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Yelich is off to another MVP-caliber start this year, leading the league in home runs (13), runs batted in (31), slugging percentage (.880), and total bases (73) in just 22 games played. It is one of the best starts to a season for any player defending their MVP title.
Adding Yelich last offseason likely would have been the final piece to the puzzle of getting Philadelphia to the playoffs last year.
Nick Williams had a league-average .749 OPS last year so that Yelich would have been a massive upgrade in right field. His late-season performance would have kept the flailing Phillies afloat.
Yelich’s presence would not preclude Philadelphia from acquiring Bryce Harper this offseason and moving Rhys Hoskins back to first base. On the other hand, having an MVP-caliber outfielder already in tow may have made them more aggressive towards Manny Machado. Regardless, trading for Yelich may have halted some other moves the team has made.
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In exchange for Yelich, the Marlins four top-30 prospects, including No. 1 prospect Lewis Brinson. Outfielder Monte Harrison would have been Milwaukee’s No. 4 prospect, infielder Isan Diaz would have been in the top 10, and right-handed pitcher Jordan Yamamoto would have been in the top 30.
To get Yelich, Philadelphia likely would have needed to part with at least one of Sixto Sanchez, J.P. Crawford, and Scott Kingery. Sanchez and Crawford were both dealt this offseason to acquire J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura. If Philadelphia had acquired Yelich, it would have made those other moves harder to complete.
It’s also unlikely Philadelphia would sign Andrew McCutchen if they already had Yelich. While Yelich is undoubtedly a substantial upgrade over McCutchen, it’s still worth noting.
Next. Phillies prove they're ready to win by demoting Nick Pivetta. dark
While it’s fun to think about Yelich playing in Philadelphia instead of Milwaukee, that’s all for naught now. The current roster is holding a one-game lead in a tight NL East, so let’s enjoy that.