The Philadelphia Phillies' 2025 trade deadline didn't disappoint. The big headline-getting move was obviously Wednesday's trade for elite closer Jhoan Duran from the Minnesota Twins.
The 27-year-old right-hander, who comes with two more years of control after this season, gives the Phillies the legitimate shut-down ninth-inning arm they've been missing for a while now. It's easily president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski's biggest trade deadline move since joining the Phillies. Giving up No. 6 prospect right-hander Mick Abel and No. 4 prospect catcher Eduardo Tait counts as a big win for the Phillies front office, which was able to keep the team's top three prospects.
News of the trade broke early during the Phillies' series finale in Chicago. We didn't hear from anyone in the Phillies' camp until after the game, which the Phils lost 9-3 (but nobody cares about that at this point). Here are their, understandably, positive reactions.
Bryce Harper and Phillies teammates excited for 'electric' Jhoan Duran to join bullpen
Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper gave Dombrowski a big pat on the back when asked about the trade, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
“It’s huge,” Harper said, per Zolecki. “He [Dombrowski] has faith in our ability, in this team, to win games. We’ve got a really good chance to win a World Series this year.”
“He should be,” Harper added about Duran being named the team's closer. “I mean, the numbers don’t lie. He’s one of the best in baseball. He’s in the game, it’s usually over.”
Duran has a 2.01 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and 53 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings, with 16 saves in 18 chances this year. He boasts an electric 100.2 mph four-seam fastball and an elite 3.0 percent barrel rate and 65.9 percent ground ball rate, both in the 99th percentile.
Kyle Schwarber agreed with Harper's sentiment. The veteran slugger called Duran an "electric" arm and spoke about how tough the back end of the bullpen will be moving foward, per Bob Cooney of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“Whenever you make a spot for a high-caliber player it means something,” Schwarber said, per Cooney. “They really want to help put you over the top and get you going. With our adding him with some of our back-end arms that we have already I feel like that’s going to be a real tough seven, eight and nine to navigate an offense.
“I mean an electric, elite arm who’s been doing it for a quite a while now. I feel like that’s a guy who is going to lengthen our pen. I feel like he’s been getting some really big outs for quite a while now. We ran into him last year, saw him, and it’s electric stuff. It’s exciting to add an arm of that caliber into our bullpen and excited to get him into the field and let him roll out there.”
The bullpen has been a glaringly obvious area of weakness for a stacked, veteran roster. After Wednesday's dismal showing, Philadelphia's relief corps has the seventh-highest ERA at 4.48.
Adding Duran (plus David Robertson soon and the suspended José Alvarado in mid-August) will force the Phillies to trim some fat down the stretch. Reliever Matt Strahm spoke about the message a move of this magnitude sends to the team and the bullpen.
“It obviously sends a message,” Strahm said, per Zolecki. “But what this clubhouse has been through since '22, we don’t need a message. We know what we’ve got to do and whatever they give us or don’t, we’re gonna go do it.”
It wasn't just the players who were excited to have Duran heading to Philadelphia to meet them at Citizens Bank Park on Friday. Manager Rob Thomson shared his excitement for the move.
"This guy is one of the best closers in baseball," Thomson said of Duran, per Cooney. "We’ve turned the bullpen into a really good bullpen, as far as I’m concerned. It lengthens the pen so much."
Hopefully we'll get our first look at Duran on Friday when the Phillies welcome the Detroit Tigers to open a three-game weekend series.