Standout AFL showing by former Phillies top prospect still won't cause trade regrets

Just before last Christmas, the Philadelphia Phillies dealt rising young prospect Starlyn Caba (and outfielder Emaarion Boyd) to the Miami Marlins for the talented yet injury-prone Jesús Luzardo. It was a calculated gamble for Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, as he attempted to strengthen the team's rotation with a potential long-term asset at the expense of surrendering one of the team's better prospects.

Now, a year later, Caba has made steady progress in the Marlins' system and has looked good in his regular shortstop stint while playing for the Mesa Solar Sox in this year's Arizona Fall League (AFL). The Phillies, however, have no regrets after Luzardo stayed healthy all year and put up 15 wins in his first season in Phillies pinstripes.

Luzardo's accomplishments even earned him a few down-ballot Cy Young votes, leading to a seventh-place finish for the award. It was a real success from a Phillies perspective, and you can be sure that they will strongly look into retaining the 28-year-old southpaw before he has the chance to hit free agency after 2026.

Marlins prospect Starlyn Caba looks good in the AFL, but the Phillies needed Jesús Luzardo

Despite this, you'll always wonder about a player like Caba, who turns 20 next month and has a lot of runway in front of him to turn into a good MLB player. But that's the thing, as his age and likely learning curve just didn't jibe with the Phillies' contention timeline.

Could the Phillies have just held him and relied on him as a lineup fixture in three or four years? Possibly. But this core will have aged out by then, and the opportunity to deal a pliable young talent like Caba for immediate help will have passed. Caba has looked very good in the AFL, but this doesn't seem like one that Phillies fans will obsess over and keep tabs on for years.

In 18 games, Caba is slashing .297/.409/.419, for an .828 OPS, with a pair of home runs, three doubles and 10 RBIs.

Trading Caba was a prudent decision at the time of the deal and remains so now, as Luzardo filled a need for the Phillies and is essentially an in-house replacement for Ranger Suárez, who everyone is assuming will receive too rich a contract in free agency for the Phillies to match. The Phils would really be up a creek without a paddle in terms of their rotation if not for Luzardo's presence.

So, no regrets now, and any that pop up over the next decade or so really should be taken with a grain of salt. Caba can seemingly become an MLB regular, but the same goes for Aidan Miller, probably the Phillies' second-best position prospect.

Miller sat ahead of Caba on the "future shortstop" depth chart at any rate, allowing the team to deal from a position of strength, which is always what you want to do to address immediate needs. We may even see Miller in a prominent role next season for this "win now" team, which is more than Caba can provide. Miller also looks to have the versatility to play third base if Trea Turner remains at short, something that Caba would not be able to do.

It's generally not advisable to trade talent within your division that can bite you in the backside in the future, but let's be real. This is the Marlins. Every year, they have some nice young pieces and play decent enough baseball to be pesky, but those players always find their way out of town if they're good (read: expensive) enough.

And are we really worried about their newly minted general manager building a roster that is going to cause problems for the Phillies at any point this decade?

The Phillies have had a dearth of impactful international signings over the past few decades, but perhaps the Caba signing will end up being one of the shrewder moves they've made in recent years since it paved the way for the Luzardo trade to happen. This was a win in scouting for the team, for once.

There's always a chance that any given player that you trade away turns into a legitimate star, but Caba is extremely unlikely to go down in Phillies lore as "one who got away."