Phillies trade rumor: Team linked to Orioles reliever Mychal Givens
By John Town
The Phillies are in desperate need of bullpen help, and the club’s front office may pursue a familiar face to them from Baltimore.
Saturday’s late-game collapse against the Nationals was just another example of the struggles the Phillies bullpen has experienced this season. It ranks among the worst in the entire league with little hope of getting much better without some outside acquisitions.
The league-worst Orioles may be able to offer some help as they look to trade anything not bolted down to the floor at Camden Yards. They already traded Andrew Cashner to the Red Sox and are by no means done.
Roch Kubatko of MASN reported Monday that Philadelphia is interested Orioles reliever Mychal Givens, who is “most definitely in play” per Kubatko. The Phillies will be scouting in Baltimore this week as they host the Nationals for a two-game series as well according to Kubatko.
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With Matt Klentak and Andy Macphail both former members of the Orioles organization, the Phillies are often linked to current or former Orioles. Givens was Baltimore’s second-round pick in 2009 when Klentak was their director of baseball operations, and MacPhail was team president.
By most metrics, Givens is having the worst season of his career. In 31 games, he has a 4.50 ERA, 4.68 fielding-independent pitching, 1.222 WHIP, and 4.0 walks per nine innings. After allowing 0.5 home runs per nine innings and posting a 5.0% home run to fly ball rate last year, those numbers have jumped to 2.0 and 24.2% this year, respectively. His 11.3% barrel rate is in the bottom seven percent of the league.
Despite that, Givens still offers some upside. He is striking out a career-high 34.5% of batters with a 15.3% swinging strike rate, also a career-high. His skill-interactive ERA and expected fielding independent pitching are both the best of his career since his rookie year in 2015. According to MLB Statcast, opposing hitters have an expected .210 batting average and .294 expected weighted on-base average against Givens, both of which are much better than his actual numbers.
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Givens wouldn’t just be a rental as he doesn’t reach free agency until 2022, his age-32 season. That will make him a bit more expensive, but the front office may be comfortable enough with him from previous experience to take the plunge anyway.