Phillies: Three center fielders available to trade for
Are the Phillies looking to trade for an outfielder, and if so, who?
In the midst of a very quiet stretch of the offseason the Phillies rumor mill has been thrown into high speed thanks to a tweet from one of baseball’s best insiders.
MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweeted Thursday morning that the Phillies are looking for a right-handed center fielder to potentially platoon with 2018 first round pick Adam Haseley.
General manager Matt Klentak has essentially proclaimed Haseley as the opening day center fielder after the 2018 first round pick filled in admirably on the fly last season.
After Odubel Herrera‘s suspension and a batch of injuries, Haseley came up and hit .266 with five home runs and a .324 on-base percentage. He made several outstanding plays in the outfield, including a coy grab over the center field wall.
Since coming out of the University of Virginia the book on Haseley is that he’ll always hit, but will he have enough power to stick in a big league outfield?
The news doesn’t bode well for Herrera or the oft-injured switch-hitter Roman Quinn, who played just 44 games last year with a .213 batting average.
The Phillies have a limited amount of salary space before they hit the luxury tax, sitting with about $5 million left according to Spotrac. They’ll likely be looking for either a young outfielder who doesn’t make a ton of money and doesn’t have a permanent home with his current big league team.
There could also be someone whose deal is expiring after 2020, allowing the Phillies to shed salary after next season.
Here’s a look at some trade candidates the Phillies might be exploring to boost their outfield for next season and potentially beyond.
Honorable Mentions: Leury García, Kiké Hernández
Phillip Ervin
A little known name on the open market, our sister site Blog Red Machine threw Phillip Ervin out as a potential right-handed hitting platoon centerfielder the Phillies could take a look at.
Cincinnati selected Ervin with the 27th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft out of Samford University where he hit .337 in one season. He made his major league debut with the Reds in 2017 at the age of 24, but has played sporadically. He’s primarily been a bench/platoon player for the Reds, but he’s coming off the best season of his career.
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In a career best 94 games last season Ervin set career highs across the board with a .271 batting average, seven triples, 11 doubles, and seven home runs. He played all three outfield positions last season committing just two errors in over 500 innings.
Last season Ervin hit .349 against lefties and his extra-base hit splits were almost even. His career numbers are also impressive, sitting at .313 in 106 games.
Ervin has a ton of team control left with another year making the major league minimum and four years of arbitration to follow. The Phillies could stash Ervin at a low price for a while and have him until he’s 33-years-old.
This might not be the flashiest option, but it will be the cheapest and potentially more fruitful options out there on the trade market if Cincinnati is going to move him.
Albert Almora Jr.
Albert Almora Jr., the Cubs 2012 first round pick with the sixth overall pick, is ready for a change in scenery after a nightmare season in Chicago.
Almora is a career .274 hitter with just 28 home runs and a 2.4 WAR. Historically Almora has hit lefties well with a .282/.332/.739 slash line in 426 at-bats with the Cubbies over four years.
After three seasons hitting between .277 and .298 Almaro hit just .236 with 32 RBI in 130 games.
The source of his struggles could stem from a May incident when his broken bat injured a young fan, causing a skull fracture and brain damage. Since that game, he has hit just .215 after starting the season on track to hit his regular numbers.
Right now Davis Ross’s Cubs are set to have Ian Happ start in center field, leaving Almora out of the everyday picture. The 25-year-old Almora is projected to make just $1.8 million this offseason in arbitration and has two more years of arbitration eligibility remaining before he hits free agency.
The trade price for Almora might be steep given his high ceiling and controllability over the next three seasons. He could fit into the Phillies situation perfectly if he gets back on the right track and it wouldn’t cost the Phillies much financially to keep him or move on.
Keep Almora’s name in mind as the Phillies continue to search for that platoon player to pair with Haseley.
Michael A. Taylor
Would the Phillies try to pull off a deal with not just the reigning World Series champions, but their division rivals?
To start off, this is not the same Michael Taylor the Phillies traded to Toronto in 2009 for Roy Halladay. The Phillies Michael Taylor was traded with Travis d’Arnaud and Kyle Drabek to the Blue Jays for Roy Halladay and cash. The Blue Jays went on to swap Taylor that same day to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Wallace.
Back to Michael A. Taylor, the Nationals sixth round pick in 2009 who has bounced in and out of their starting lineup for the last couple of years.
Philadelphia Phillies
Taylor is a career .240 hitter with 48 home runs in 536 career games with the Nationals since 2014. He’s appeared in at least 100 games in three of his six big league seasons, but has never hit better than .271 when he also hit a career-best 19 home runs.
Historically Taylor hits lefties better with a .256 batting average, 22 points higher than he hits against righties. Last year he did even better, hitting .278 against southpaws in the regular season.
Right now the reigning World Series champions have Victor Robles slated to start in center field with Adam Eaton and Juan Soto flocked on either side in the outfield. That leaves Taylor with a limited amount of playing time in 2020 and as a potential trade candidate.
Taylor is in the final year of team control with Washington making $3 million, a modest price for a fourth outfielder on a team ready to win right now.
Will Washington be looking to swap him and get something in return before he potentially hits the open market, or are they keeping him on with Eaton’s injury history and the hopes of winning another World Series?