Phillies news: Club ‘longshot’ to reunite with Cole Hamels

The July 30 trade deadline was surely a frenzy for all teams throughout Major League Baseball, especially the Philadelphia Phillies.

According to team president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies essentially made a deal with about a minute to go — when they reacquired infielder Freddy Galvis from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for minor-league pitcher Tyler Burch.

About an hour before the deadline, the team finalized a multi-player trade with the Texas Rangers that landed them starting pitcher Kyle Gibson, close Ian Kennedy, and a minor-league pitching prospect.

The most notable player Dombrowski had to give up in return was former Phillies top pitching prospect Spencer Howard. Before Tuesday’s game against the Washington Nationals,  Dombrowski said on SportsRadio 94 WIP that it was difficult to part ways with Howard, given he is still a young player:

"“If we were going to trade him, we needed to get another young person back. We just couldn’t trade him and be in a position where both players would be a free agent within a year.”"

Gibson is signed through 2022 with a team-friendly $7.7 million salary, while the 15-year veteran Kennedy is set to hit free agency. The young player the team ultimately got in return for Howard was the Rangers’ 2017 second-round pick — right-handed pitcher Hans Crouse, someone Dombrowski is pleased with:

"“We liked Hans Crouse a great deal. I thought that made sense for us.”"

In 13 starts this season at Double-A Frisco, Crouse went 3-2 with a 3.35 ERA, 54-19 strikeouts-to-walks ratio, and an impressive 0.902 WHIP across 51 innings. If he can eventually replicate that success at Double-A Reading, Triple-A Lehigh Valley, and in red pinstripes at the big-league level, the sky is the limit for the California native.