How did the Phillies’ NL East rivals fare at the trade deadline?
Did the Phillies do enough at the trade deadline compared to their divisional rivals?
The Philadelphia Phillies may have had a more or less underwhelming trade deadline, with their lone acquisition, albeit a solid one, being starter Michael Lorenzen from the Detroit Tigers. But how did they do compared to the rest of their rivals in the NL East division? Are the Phillies actually better off than they appear to be, or have they squandered the chance to improve their ballclub, putting them at a distinct disadvantage going into the stretch run? Let’s take a closer look at how their competition in the NL East did in retrospect.
Washington Nationals
Among the teams in the NL East division, it was quite evident that the Washington Nationals were in sell mode prior to the trade deadline. They weren’t going to challenge the Phillies for a Wild Card spot, and they definitely weren’t dreaming about even trying for a division title.
However, to the surprise of many, the Nationals did not end up selling many big assets, other than third baseman Jeimer Candelario, who went to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for minor league prospects DJ Herz and Kevin Made. Those are definitely not names that would ring a bell as they weren’t among the Cubs’ top prospects in their system, so the Cubs appeared to be the clear winners here in nabbing Candelario to help them with their playoff hopes.
The Nationals certainly dropped the ball at the deadline, with the opportunity to restock and reload for the future, but instead fell flat and may be forced now to have a slightly longer rebuild in the coming years. At least for the Phillies’ sake, that means one less foe to worry about for now and the near future.
New York Mets
The massive exodus of key players by the New York Mets at the trade deadline was the prime example of a team going into a complete tear down to give up most of their major assets that probably would no longer help them this year anymore, to obtain strong and valuable assets for their future to give them a chance to compete again after a short turnaround. The moment they determined they were sellers at the trade deadline, one could really imagine that basically almost everything other than the kitchen sink was probably available from the ballclub.
In the end, the Mets gave up prime pitching studs in Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Robertson, along with solid MLB players in Tommy Pham, Dominic Leone and Mark Canha. In return, the Mets brought in a huge haul of minor league prospects including 2B Marco Vargas, C Ronald Hernandez, SS Luisangel Acuna (brother of superstar Ronald Acuna Jr., so he’s got to be good, right?), RHP Justin Jarvis, OF Drew Gilbert, 1B/OF Ryan Clifford, SS Jeremy Rodriguez, INF Jeremiah Jackson, along with some serviceable players in pitchers Adam Kolarek and Phil Bickford.
In doing so, if it wasn’t obvious already, the Mets took themselves way out of the playoff picture, leaving the Phillies again with one less thing to worry about for the rest of this year. However, the Mets have now stocked up for the future, added to the fact that they love to spend big money to create a complete overhaul of their roster in free agency, they can quickly become another huge roadblock for the Phillies in the not-so-distant future.
Miami Marlins
The Mets may have been the most active sellers at the trade deadline, but the Miami Marlins were the complete opposite, as they were one of the most active buyers at the trade deadline. In doing so, they have sent the message for the world to know that they are indeed committed and determined to make it back into the playoffs this year since their last appearance in 2020. Altogether, the Marlins completed five trade transactions at the deadline, including reeling in some big time fish in the process.
All of a sudden, the Marlins have definitely become a force to be reckoned with, as they added one-time All-Star and Silver Slugger Josh Bell from the Cleveland Guardians, slugger Jake Burger from the Chicago White Sox, premium veteran closer David Robertson from the Mets, and former All-Star reliever Jorge López from the Minnesota Twins. They certainly gave up some promising prospects in the process, but they have definitely enhanced their lineup both in the hitting and pitching aspects of their game to put them now in strong contention for the playoffs in the coming weeks.
As a result, don’t look now but the Marlins have no doubt become the Phillies main competitors for potentially one of the Wild Card spots down the stretch, as the Phillies will now have to stay on their toes to keep the Marlins at bay so that they don’t end up pushing them out of a playoff spot at the end of the year. If so, they will definitely regret not having done more at the trade deadline when they had the chance.
Atlanta Braves
Being the division leaders of the NL East by a wide and comfortable margin, the Atlanta Braves really believed in the team they had already constructed was more than enough to be strong contenders for the playoffs. As a result, they did minimal work at the trade deadline, as they just acquired bullpen reinforcements in Brad Hand and Pierce Johnson from the Colorado Rockies and Taylor Hearn from the Texas Rangers, and then flipping Hearn to nab 2B Nicky Lopez from the Kansas City Royals.
Both Hand and Johnson will serve as pitching depth for their back end of the bullpen, despite their stats for 2023 not being at all that spectacular. However, both have had valuable postseason experience in the past, so they could definitely come in handy come playoff time. For the case of Lopez, he will serve as the infield backup depth for the ballclub. So from the looks of it, the Braves were basically filling up minor gaps in their 26-man roster in preparation for the postseason, as barring a complete collapse in the final two months of the season, they have the division title all but sewn up already and could use the remaining regular season time to gear up for the playoffs.
The Phillies definitely won’t be catching the Braves, unless they suddenly go on some crazy run, so it is probably in their best interest to make sure they just focus on getting into the playoffs by nabbing one of the three Wild Card spots by season’s end. At the same time, they will need some of their current players to step up their game in order to have a successful run down the stretch. Hopefully, together with the under-the-radar addition of Lorenzen, it will be sufficient enough to give the Phillies that needed boost to make it back to the postseason for the second consecutive season.