1 trade candidate from every AL East team the Phillies should consider
The AL East teams all have deep rosters and are primed to make a deal. Let's take a look at some players the Phillies should consider targeting.
With free agency in full swing and as teams continue to round out their rosters, organizations scrutinize every roster spot to determine who might be expendable or who they will lock in as a contributor for the 2024 season.
Last season, the AL East sent three teams to the playoffs: the Baltimore Orioles, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Toronto Blue Jays, while the other historically good teams, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, missed out. Perennially, the AL East produces high-quality teams and World Series contenders with deep rosters full of under-the-radar contributors.
As the Phillies inch towards Spring Training and continue to finalize their roster, they will surely look to upgrade the team in creative ways with players who might not be the most obvious additions.
There are a number of players across the five AL East teams that would greatly benefit the 2024 Phillies, but let’s take a look at just one player from each team the Phillies should consider targeting in a trade.
Harold Ramírez, OF/DH/1B, Tampa Bay Rays
Harold Ramírez broke into the league in 2019 with the Miami Marlins and has been relatively consistent throughout his career. He's a career .289 hitter with an on-base percentage of .329 and OPS of .748.
This past season, over 122 games, he hit just 12 home runs but hit for a .313 average, displaying his bat-to-ball skills. His versatility in the field is intriguing with him being able to play both corner outfield positions and first base.
But almost most important for a team like the Phillies, Ramírez is a right-handed bat who has proven to be able to hit Major League pitching. He hit an outstanding .387 against left-handed pitching, which is where the Phillies have lacked a punch in the last couple of years. He would be a valuable bat off the bench and a worthy candidate to give a breather to the everyday guys like Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Bryce Harper.
Jorge Mateo, INF/UTL, Baltimore Orioles
Mateo is a 28-year-old shortstop who has made a name for himself with his glove. As good as his defense has been since his Major League debut in 2020, his offense has left a lot to be desired.
In 2023, he slashed .217/.267/.607 with a strikeout rate of 23.4 percent and a walk rate of 6.3 percent. But the Phillies don’t need him for his offense. They would be looking to him as a defensive replacement in late-game scenarios, à la Edmundo Sosa or the failed mid-season acquisition experiment of Rodolfo Castro.
Mateo also has game-changing speed and could provide a valuable pinch-running punch in those same late-game scenarios. In just 113 games played, Mateo stole 32 bags which was good for 11th in all of baseball. Only one player in front of him played fewer games, and seven of the 10 ahead of him played over 150 games. Speed kills, and the Phillies could always use more of it.
The speedy infielder isn't a player that will single-handily carry a team to the playoffs and beyond, but luckily for him and the Phillies, they wouldn’t need him to. He would be a complementary piece to a championship-caliber team that could use his specific set of skills.
Nick Pivetta, RHP, Boston Red Sox
Here’s a name Phillies fans will recognize. Playing three and a half seasons with the Phillies and being traded to the Red Sox in 2020, Pivetta was one of the more frustrating players to follow. Not because he didn’t perform but because he never consistently found his peak that we only so often caught a glimpse of.
When the righty is cruising, he can be downright mesmerizing, but when there’s a bump in the road, it all falls apart quickly. It has been much of the same story with the Red Sox. He couldn't find his stride as a starter, so he was converted to a relief pitcher, where he found a great rhythm in the middle parts of the 2023 season, pitching to a 2.53 ERA in June and a 1.91 ERA in July over 14 games.
As the season came to a close, the Red Sox asked him to start again, and the ERA increased as the innings built up. This year as a starter he accumulated a 4.66 ERA over 16 starts with a batting average against of .234 and a WHIP of 1.218. However, in 22 appearances out of the bullpen, his ERA was 3.07 with the batting average against dropping to .166 and a WHIP of 0.970.
But Pivetta’s willingness to be used out of the bullpen can be something of value to the Phillies. The Phillies always value bullpen depth, especially guys who are versatile and have the ability to go multiple innings and can also be starting depth if someone on the rotation goes down. A reunion between the Phillies and Pivetta could be just what the doctor ordered for both.
Nick Ramirez, LHP, New York Yankees
Nick Ramirez, the left-handed reliever out of the Bronx, is not the first person that comes to mind when you think of the Yankees pinstripes. But the 34-year-old had quite a surprising and successful season last year for the Yankees.
After making his MLB debut in 2019 for the Detroit Tigers, he bounced around for a few years before being completely out of the Majors for the entirety of 2022. The Yankees took a chance on him, and he repaid their faith by posting a 2.66 ERA over 40 2/3 innings, allowing just one home run and striking out 28 batters.
Ramirez doesn’t have the pitching repertoire that will blow you away, but he is quite effective with it. His sinker sits at just 89 mph, his changeup at 79 mph, and his sweeper at 80 mph. He's able to induce ground balls at a 48.5 percent rate, which allows him to get out of trouble and limit any damage.
He would be an interesting, inexpensive option for the Phillies to take a chance on. They have overhauled their bullpen in recent years and can now say they have one of the hardest-throwing bullpens in the league. It would be interesting to insert a pitcher like Ramirez with a much slower repertoire to counterbalance the other arms in the relief corps.
Alek Manoah, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
Saying that Alek Manoah had a “down year” would be an understatement.
After a stellar 2022 season in which he was an All-Star and came in third in AL Cy Young voting, his 2023 couldn't have been more opposite. Over just 19 starts in the Majors, he had a disappointing 5.87 ERA and a 1.740 WHIP.
He was sent all the way down to the Florida Complex League to sort things out but once he was recalled, the issues continued. He was sent down again but was so frustrated with the decision that he didn't report to Triple-A Buffalo. It was a distraction and a headache for a team that had World Series aspirations.
The differences between 2022 and 2023 for the big right-hander are evident. In 2022, he was able to miss more bats (5.4 percent 2022 barrel rate vs. 9 percent in 2023), keep the walks to a minimum (6.5 percent 2022 walk rate vs. 14.2 percent 2023 walk rate) and his WHIP was much lower (0.99 in 2022 vs. 1.74 in 2023).
Manoah is capable of being a big piece for a World Series contending team, and it’s just about reverting to what he was doing just one year before. Manoah is just 25 years old, and his situation screams that he is a “change of scenery” candidate. There's no doubt that Manoah has the stuff to be a highly effective pitcher in the bigs, and whatever team taps into that potential can reap the rewards for a long time.
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