The San Francisco Giants are not a good baseball team. They currently sit at 34-48 on the season, 9.5 games out of a playoff spot. They’ll almost certainly be selling off assets by the time the trade deadline rolls around, and marquee players such as Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman could be on the move. Perhaps the Philadelphia Phillies could catch lightning in a bottle for the second year in a row by re-acquiring center fielder Harrison Bader.
Bader spent his first six years in the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals, providing top-tier defense up the middle along with middle-of-the-pack production at the plate. A 2022 trade to the New York Yankees kicked off a nomadic period for the native New Yorker in which he bounced between seven different franchises over a five-year span. All told, the 32-year-old has put together a lifetime .244/.309/.400 slash line across his decade-long major league career.
While those numbers were fair to middling, Bader went nuclear after a mid-season trade to the Phils last season, appearing in 50 regular season games with the club and posting a terrific .305/.361/.463 line. His presence solidified a centerfield spot that had long been a black hole filled by the likes of Johan Rojas and Odúbel Herrera. In fact, the Phillies became acutely aware of Bader’s importance when a groin injury helped torpedo the team’s chances in their playoff series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Fans clamored for the former Gold Glover to return on a new contract this past winter, but their pleas fell on deaf ears as erstwhile president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spurned the fan favorite in favor of washed up World Series hero Adolis García. Bader was at least able to land on his feet, securing a two-year, $20.5 million pact from the San Francisco Giants.
Neither of those outfield additions have worked out well for the acquiring teams, as García couldn’t hit worth a darn before undergoing season-ending surgery, while Bader has limped to a .557 OPS in just 30 games between trips to the injured list in San Francisco. Considering the Giants’ tragic place in the standings, there’s a good chance they’d be happy to give up Bader for little more than salary relief, which gives the Phillies the perfect opportunity to strike.
Harrison Bader could once again help solve the Phillies' center field problem
Center remains a bit of a troublespot for the Phils, as highly-touted rookie Justin Crawford has failed to find his footing thus far in the majors, and miracle worker Derek Hill is bound to cool off after providing multiple instances of late-game heroics recently. Bader is far from a sure thing, given his terrible start to the season and current bout of plantar fasciitis, but a return to the city that he set ablaze last summer could be just what he needs to get back on track.
A low-risk Harrison Bader acquisition won’t solve the Phillies’ lingering center field issues, but it would add another beloved option to an outfield mix that desperately needs more of those. For a team that doesn’t have much in the way of prospect capital to trade, it would certainly be worth it to take on a modest salary to try to catch lightning in a bottle once more.
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