The Major League Baseball Winter Meetings is typically an eventful time in the MLB offseason that many teams look forward to each year. Not only do they take advantage of the meetup to thoroughly discuss various league operations and business, but it is often a prime opportunity for clubs to conduct valuable offseason trades and transactions in the process.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been looking to make a major shakeup this winter with hopes of significantly improving the team’s chances of winning in 2025. Trade winds have already been swirling for the Phillies over much of the past month.
With the Winter Meetings now just around the corner, they should take full advantage of the occasion to make their first major transaction of the offseason to get things rolling. Let's take a look at five Phillies players who will most likely be traded at the 2024 Winter Meetings.
5 Phillies players most likely to be traded at this year’s Winter Meetings
Justin Crawford
Selected by the Phillies in the first round and 17th overall in the 2022 MLB Draft, Justin Crawford has been a dynamic addition to the organization. With the ability to potentially become an elite five-tool player by the time he reaches the major leagues, Crawford has been rapidly on the rise in his past two minor league seasons in the Phillies system.
Following a subtle debut in 2022 in which he batted .241 with five RBI and 10 stolen bases in 16 games played, Crawford broke through in a big way with a strong season in 2023 split between the Phillies Single-A affiliate Clearwater and High-A affiliate Jersey Shore. Over 87 games, he posted a stellar .332 average, .859 OPS, along with a whopping 71 runs scored, 22 doubles, eight triples, three home runs, 64 RBI and 47 stolen bases.
Crawford quickly followed it up with another elite performance in 2024, in which his power potential gradually developed. This past season, he compiled a .313 batting average and .805 OPS, with 79 runs scored, 25 doubles, four triples, nine home runs, 61 RBI and 42 stolen bases in 110 games, reaching the Double-A level by the end of the year. Crawford won the Paul Owens Award, which is given to the top-performing minor league player in the Phillies' organization each season.
With his massive growth not only has Crawford caught the eye of the Phillies’ brass, but also the attention of many teams in the league as well. As a result, insiders Matt Gelb of The Athletic (subscription required) and Bob Nightengale of USA Today have recently indicated that the Phillies have included their top outfield prospect in trade talks this offseason, as he is likely deemed a highly valuable asset for many clubs.
With the significant progress in Crawford’s game over the past two years, it will come as no surprise anymore if the Phillies choose to move one of their top trade chips at the Winter Meetings to create their first big splash of the offseason.
Mick Abel
Crawford may not be the only Phillies prospect who could be traded soon this offseason. You can add former promising top pitching prospect Mick Abel to the list as well. It wasn’t actually too long ago when Abel was recognized as one of the organization’s top prospects along with Andrew Painter. In fact, some had even envisioned the duo as possibly becoming the future one-two punch of the Phillies’ rotation down the road.
While Painter’s journey to the big leagues was stalled due to recovering from Tommy John surgery, Abel, on the other hand, has had his arrival held back due to inconsistency and ineffectiveness that crept into his game this past year. Previously, Abel had put up consecutive solid seasons in 2022 and 2023, in which he registered 13 total wins along with a 4.02 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP, 262 strikeouts in 221 2/3 innings pitched.
However, he surprisingly struggled with his control and command this past season, resulting in a dismal 3-12 record with a 6.46 ERA and 1.81 WHIP, giving up 119 hits and 78 earned runs in just 108 2/3 innings of work over 24 starts. Things got so bad at one point that the Phillies even had to send Abel to the development list for a reset and work on getting his game back on track.
That move proved to be vital, as Abel appeared to regain some of his prior form after returning from the development list in August. Taking away his blowup from his final start of the season, he posted a respectable 3.99 ERA and an opponent batting average of .246 with 43 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings over six starts down the stretch for Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
In doing so, he has likely done enough to put himself back into the conversation of being a solid top prospect in the organization going forward. The Phillies certainly believe in him, as Abel was protected ahead of the Rule 5 Draft. Other observers have also included him in trade proposals in recent weeks. As a result, he could be the surprise Phillies sleeper on the move next week to help Philadelphia gain a much-needed asset for their 2025 roster.
Alec Bohm
Of all of the Phillies players who have been projected to be on the move this winter, Alec Bohm sure ranks at the top of the list without much debate. After all, the news had been littered with various trade rumors and scenarios for the 28-year-old third baseman since he was made available on the trade market near the start of the offseason.
Bohm has fared quite well since making his MLB debut with the Phillies in 2020. The former first-round pick from the 2018 MLB Draft has put up back-to-back double-digit home runs and 97 RBI seasons while batting a solid .277 over his five years with the organization to date.
He has been so consistent and reliable in terms of his run production that he was even moved into the prime cleanup spot for the bulk of the 2024 season. He delivered, for the most part, by compiling a .283 average with a .769 OPS, along with 46 runs scored, 35 doubles, nine home runs and 70 RBI in 102 games while hitting in the fourth slot in the batting order.
However, what many end up remembering though was the power outage that he suffered late in the season and during the playoffs. In the postseason, Bohm came up small, producing only one hit in 14 total plate appearances during the NLDS as the Phillies were quickly dispatched by the New York Mets in four games.
Bohm has struggled to put up productive numbers during the postseason for the past three years, as exemplified by his .214 batting average and .629 OPS with two home runs, 14 RBI, 11 walks and 25 strikeouts in 34 career playoff games.
As a result, with the caveat that he hasn’t come up big at the time of the season in which his team needed him most, Bohm has become the prime trade target to be moved by the Phillies this offseason. At just the young age of 28, he would be enticing to many teams looking to build upon a budding star heading into his prime in the coming years. With the Phillies looking to win it all now and wanting to move a star player for their shakeup, Bohm becomes one of their strongest trade chips to make it happen, and it could happen during the Winter Meetings.
Nick Castellanos
Along with Bohm, the Phillies have recently added another star candidate to the trade block: outfielder Nick Castellanos. Signed to a big five-year, $100 million deal back during the 2021-22 offseason, this move by the Phillies actually comes as more of a surprise. After all, Castellanos has been one of the main driving forces behind the Phillies’ offensive attack over the past three seasons with the club.
During that time frame, he has posted a .263 average and .744 OPS, with 215 runs scored, 94 doubles, 65 home runs, 254 RBI and 24 stolen bases in 455 games. Moreover, Castellanos was practically the only offensive player who showed up for the Phillies during the 2024 postseason when he hit .412 with a 1.059 OPS, with two runs scored, one double, one home run and three RBI in four games. More importantly, he delivered Philadelphia’s lone game-winning hit in the NLDS to prevent them from actually being swept at the hands of the Mets.
Despite his heroics and offensive potential, Castellanos does still have some warts in his game. In particular, his free-swinging ways have led to an abnormally high amount of strikeouts — 454 over his three seasons with the club. On top of that, his defense has still left a lot to be desired, with -28 defensive runs saved and -23 outs above average since joining the Phillies. As Castellanos isn’t getting any younger, those weaknesses could begin to amplify in the upcoming seasons.
One thing to keep in mind is the fact that any Castellanos move likely would not result in the Phillies bringing in an impact player directly from the deal. That is because with his hefty contract, which was recently suggested to be among the worst MLB contracts for 2025, there will be few teams, or if any at all, willing to part with a quality player while eating the huge salary that remains in Castellanos’ contract.
As a result, he would likely be dealt with the focus on being able to get rid of a big contract to have the resources to pursue an even bigger fish elsewhere. What better way to do so than to get it done at the Winter Meetings?
Ranger Suárez
If this was still near the beginning of the 2024 season, under no circumstances would the Phillies and their faithful consider Ranger Suárez to be involved at all in any trade talks. After all, he put together one of the best starts in MLB history, ultimately becoming one of four pitchers to go 9-0 or better with an ERA below 1.50 in their first 10 starts of the regular season. It earned him his first-ever All-Star nod to the Midsummer Classic.
Suárez has been a consistent and reliable pitcher for the Phillies since making his debut in 2018. He has posted a stellar 41-29 record, 3.42 ERA and 1.28 WHIP with 554 strikeouts in 604 2/3 innings pitched in 161 career games. Not only that, Suárez has been a beast for the Phillies during the postseason, compiling a 3-1 record with a tidy 1.43 ERA and 1.04 WHIP with 40 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings of work over 10 playoff appearances. There's no doubt that those numbers were screaming long-term contract for him and the Phillies.
However, some struggles that arose for the 29-year-old pitcher prior to the All-Star break, along with an ill-timed lower back injury that followed, may have changed some plans for the Phillies. Since the end of June, Suárez went 2-6 with a gaudy 6.54 ERA and 1.74 WHIP, giving up 38 earned runs on 69 hits in 52 1/3 innings in his final 11 starts, as he averaged less than five innings per start during that stretch.
With his injury woes and struggles, the Phillies had even made a strong attempt to acquire pitching stud Garrett Crochet at the trade deadline with worries that Suárez wouldn’t be able to revert back to his dominant form for the rest of the season. Now with Crochet being available once again this offseason with the Phillies still heavily-coveting the potential 25-year-old ace, Suárez’s time with the Phillies could be in jeopardy.
With the Phillies having extended teammate Cristopher Sánchez already to a long-term contract but not Suárez, along with Matt Gelb of The Athletic indicating that Philadelphia could move Suárez this offseason (subscription required) as he is not guaranteed to factor in their long-term plans, the left-hander could become a major casualty from the Phillies roster at this year’s Winter Meetings.