3 Players Phillies Should Acquire from Struggling D-backs

2. Zac Gallen

It might take a lot to acquire 25-year old starting pitcher Zac Gallen from the D-backs, but it would be worth every penny for Dombrowski.

Gallen made his debut with the Miami Marlins in 2019 before being dealt to the D-backs that same year. After three seasons in the big leagues, he has a career 2.98 ERA through 33 starts.

This season, Gallen has a decent 3.99 ERA through six starts, punching out 35 of his 129 batters faced over 29 1/3 total innings. In 2020, he finished ninth in the Cy Young Award race, going 3-2 with a 2.75 ERA and 82 strikeouts across 12 starts and 72 innings.

Coming to the Phillies would be a homecoming for Gallen, who was born in Somerdale, New Jersey.

According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Jon Miller during Thursday’s D-backs broadcast, Gallen grew up about 10 miles away from Citizens Bank Park, but was a St. Louis Cardinals fan. When the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, he asked his mom and dad if he could miss school to attend the parade. Miller added: “She said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘You’re not even a Phillies fan. You like the Cardinals!”

Fittingly, the Cardinals drafted Gallen eight years later in the third round of the 2016 draft out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Still pre-arbitration-eligible this year and well-under team control, Gallen would be a nice middle-of-the-rotation complement for the Phillies to fellow right-hander Zach Eflin.

3. Ketel Marte

The Phillies still do not necessarily have a long-term solution for centerfield. Not to mention, they have a former MVP award-winner in left fielder Andrew McCutchen coming off of the books, as he is in the final season of his three-year pact.

Acquiring the seven-year veteran and 2019 All-Star, Ketel Marte, would help resolve one of the looming needs the Phillies will inevitably have to soon figure out.

Debuting in July 2015, the 27-year-old Dominican Republic native is a career .286/.343/.449 hitter through 622 games — 446 of which he has played with the D-backs over the past five seasons.

In 2019, Marte finished fourth in the National League MVP Award race, with 36 doubles, 9 triples, 32 home runs, and 92 RBI, while hitting .329 and posting career-highs in slugging (.592) and OPS (.981) in 144 games and 628 plate appearances. In the 2017 postseason, he notably slashed .412/.412/.824 across 17 plate appearances, before the D-backs ultimately lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in that year’s Division Series.

Marte has turned into one of the game’s better centerfielders, however, he has only recently assumed the position full-time. He began his career as the primary shortstop for the Seattle Mariners. But Marte is adjusting well to the outfield, across 54 chances in center this season, he has committed only one error.

If the D-backs did not have Marte and his four home runs, 16 RBI, and .347/.391/.525 slash line this season, they would be worse than their already lowly 20-50 record. Perhaps the Phillies could acquire him for the right price and significantly bolster their outfield and lineup.