3 disastrous ways the Phillies could mess up this year's MLB trade deadline
There’s no way the Phillies can mess up their fantastic 2024 season at the upcoming deadline, is there?
The Philadelphia Phillies have certainly come a long way to produce the current dominant winning product on the field that we are all witnessing. Whether it be the signing of key players, the recruitment of stars via the trade route, or just developing solid homegrown talent, they have all come together and bred success in 2024 like no other season in recent years.
As of this moment, the Phillies find themselves leading the MLB with an impressive 64-39 record. They are currently ahead of the second-place New York Mets by a whopping 9.0 games in the NL East, as well as being the top home warriors in the league with a stellar 37-17 record at Citizens Bank Park. More impressively, they are on pace for close to 100 wins, a mark they haven’t topped since 2011. They have an outside shot of breaking the franchise record of 102 wins set that very same year.
3 disastrous ways the Phillies could mess up this year's MLB trade deadline
With all that they have accomplished this season, the Phillies can’t take their foot off the pedal now with the trade deadline fast approaching. They should take full advantage of the occasion by significantly upgrading the roster to the point that they would become World Series favorites going forward. Therefore, they should do their best not to blow this opportunity in any way such that it could ultimately affect their success down the stretch.
So how could they blow it with such a successful season that they had been having? Well, just out of curiosity, we will take a look at three possible ways the Phillies could inadvertently mess up the upcoming trade deadline. Hopefully, they don’t end up doing any of the following, or else it could really put them behind the eight-ball in the process.
1. The Phillies end up doing nothing else at the deadline
Luckily, this option won't come to fruition, as the Phillies have already swung a trade, acquiring outfielder Austin Hays from the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. Now, they need to not rest on their laurels and must keep working the trade market for more pieces.
No matter what the Phillies do, they better not just stand pat at the trade deadline. If their recent play is any indication of what the team’s true identity is, then it clearly has shown that work is still left to be done in the coming few days if they want to be a true winner.
After putting together their strongest month of the season in May with a 20-7 record, the Phillies have been trending in the wrong direction. In June, they still managed to stay above .500, but with a less impressive 15-11 record.
July has been even worse, as they have struggled to just a 9-9 record to date with upcoming tough matchups against the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees. Some could argue that the Phillies' missteps have been due to injuries to some of their key players. But a truly dominant, well-rounded team should be able to grind it out and find ways to win.
The Phillies need to address all of their weaknesses to ensure that they will be in the best shape possible going into the stretch run. Holding the status quo isn't an option. If they don’t do anything else at the deadline, other contenders will be making their own big moves, putting themselves in a better position than the Phillies.
2. The Phillies trade for under-the-radar targets who end up being negligible
The last thing the Phillies should do is just trade for under-the-radar targets to fill their roster needs. If they need a lesson to be learned, just rewind back to last season. When the Phillies had the chance to make a huge splash at the 2023 trade deadline, they ended up with Michael Lorenzen and Rodolfo Castro as their two main pickups.
Sure, Lorenzen was an All-Star last year and produced a dazzling no-hitter in just his second start with the Phillies. However, he ended up struggling for the remainder of the season and became more of an afterthought when all was said and done. The team had so much doubt in him that he made just two postseason appearances and never really played a role in affecting the overall outcome.
Castro was expected to fill the utilityman role off the bench when Josh Harrison was designated for assignment at last year’s deadline. However, he turned out to be even worse than Lorenzen, as he appeared in just 14 games and posted a .100 batting average, .256 OPS, two runs scored, two RBI and 12 strikeouts. And without a question, he was nowhere close to the Phillies’ 2023 playoff run.
Overall, both deadline players ended up providing negligible value to the Phillies. The worst part of it all was the fact that the Phillies also sacrificed a promising top-5 prospect Hao-Yu Lee in the process.
So the moral of the story is they need to go after pieces that could at least be potential difference-makers for the ballclub. If the focus is just to fill in holes with just serviceable candidates, then they might as well just go with what they already have and save the prospects for the future. So whatever the Phillies end up doing, they should avoid repeating the strategy from last season in just going for the lesser targets.
3. The Phillies go all-in on one player and fail to address all their needs
If the Phillies intend to go all-in by sacrificing a boatload of prospects for a shot at the World Series championship, they better not do it for just one prominent player. In recent rumors, it was proposed that the Phillies would need to give up a massive haul of prospects for star outfielder Luis Robert Jr.
At first look, it might seem all worthwhile because Robert could be a huge difference-maker both in the field and at the plate for the Phillies. With the ability to provide Gold Glove-calibre defense, while averaging 30+ home runs, 90+ RBI and 20+ stolen bases a season, what is there not to like?
However, if the Phillies end up emptying the farm for just one star player, they might not have enough assets left to sufficiently address some of their other significant needs, such as desperate help for their bullpen. For a relief corps that at one point in time ranked near the top of the league in the major pitching categories, they now find themselves in the middle of the pack.
As much as the bulk of their relievers were having a career year, some of them have been struggling of late. Most notable being closer José Alvarado, who in his past seven games entering Friday, had posted a dismal 9.95 ERA and 2.37 WHIP, giving up seven earned runs on 10 hits, five walks and six strikeouts in just 6 1/3 innings pitched. Even the once infallible Orion Kerkering has entered a slump, compiling an ERA of 9.00 and WHIP of 2.20 in his last seven appearances before Friday’s game.
The Phillies can definitely go all-in, but they have to make sure that they get multiple key players in return to address all their needs. The last thing they should do is put all of their marbles in one basket, in case that player turns out to be a bust or, in the case of Robert, injury-prone. That would result in a high probability of backfiring big-time on the Phillies.
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