General Manager, Matt Klentak continues to add pitching depth this offseason and he just engineered his first trade as Phillies general manager. The Phillies acquired right-handed pitcher Jeremy Hellickson from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for minor-league pitcher, Sam McWilliams. It’s kind of ironic the Hellickson trade happened today because exactly one year ago, the Tampa Bay Rays shipped him off to the Diamondbacks and now he’s on the move again.
Hellickson, 28, has show flashes of being something special, but hasn’t been able to sustain any kind of consistency throughout his career. He won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2011, winning 13 games and finishing with a 2.95 ERA. Since being rookie of the year, Hellickson has seen his career take a downward turn and he has only had an ERA under 4.50 once since then. One of Hellickson biggest problems is he’s been too susceptible to the home run ball and since 2012, Hellickson has allowed 79 home runs. It remains to be seen if the Phillies will put Hellickson in the rotation or the bullpen, but he can be a real help to this team and his contract is pretty cheap(6.5 million).
McWilliams, 20, was an eighth round pick by the Phillies in the 2014 MLB Draft. The 6’7 right-hander spent the 2015 season with the Gulf Coast Phillies and went 0-2 with a 3.27 ERA and 21 strikeouts over 33 innings of work.
I like this trade because it’s a low risk, high reward type deal and if it doesn’t work out, we didn’t give up anyone special for Hellickson. If Jeremy Hellickson can get anywhere close to the form he was in earlier in his career then he could be a valuable asset for the Phillies.
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