Phillies: 1 Move to Make, 1 Move to Avoid at the Trade Deadline

The Philadelphia Phillies season has been tumultuous, with a lot of injuries, a few stints on the COVID IL, Joe Girardi trying to fight the Nationals, and some actual baseball in there, too.

But of late, the Phillies have looked like a legit team. They took two of three from the Padres, three of four from the Cubs, and then wrapped up the first half by taking two of three from the Red Sox at Fenway.

As the trade deadline nears, Bryce Harper wants his front office to be buyers, and I’m inclined to agree. Over the last few weeks, they’ve earned the right to ask Dave Dombrowski for some upgrades, and this team is really only missing one significant piece that is keeping them from sneaking up on the first-place Mets.

The Phillies might not want to spend big, but they have enough money and just enough in the farm system to pull off a move or two at the deadline.

Here’s one move the Phillies should make, and one move to absolutely avoid:

Do: Upgrade the Bullpen

This one is a no-brainer. If the Phillies bullpen was even halfway-decent, the NL East is tighter than a basket of coiled snakes.

Instead, they lead MLB with 22 blown saves, and their closer, Hector Neris, has fallen apart and been demoted from his role.

If Dombrowski can manage to find someone who can just get them out of the game without blowing the save, this team is firing on all cylinders. Craig Kimbrel is probably a reach, but Richard Rodriguez from the Pirates would be a really solid upgrade.

The Phillies might not be a World Series team this year, but they’re a team that can finish the season above .500 for the first time since 2011, and maybe even hit the Wild Card game, or even edge the Mets for the division. The one thing standing in their way is this bullpen.

Don’t: Trade Zack Wheeler

It feels insane to even have to say this, but don’t trade your ace if you want to contend.

That would be like trading your Ferrari to get a box of car parts so you can build a new vehicle yourself; too much time and effort for something that won’t even be as good as what you already have.

If this was the offseason, and Dombrowski was attempting a rebuild, we’d be having a different conversation, but this is July. If you’re in upgrade-now mode, you don’t trade one of the main reasons you have a chance at sniffing October baseball for the first time in a decade.

Of course, if Dombrowski decides that he wants to attempt a rebuild of his own – risky, given how poorly it went for his predecessors – there will be numerous teams clamoring to get their hands on Wheeler, and the return would be hefty. But it doesn’t make sense to put an abrupt stop to all the progress this team is finally making, especially when they have money coming off the books at the end of the season, and a core group of players to work with.

Wheeler just made his first All-Star appearance, is leading MLB in innings pitched, has the third-most strikeouts of any pitcher, and his ERA ranks fifth overall. He’s not the kind of player you part with, he’s the kind of player you build around. Whether or not Dombrowski wants to swap some of Wheeler’s rotation-mates is another story.