It’s now been two hours since the 2016 MLB trade deadline came and went, and first year GM Matt Klentak decided to keep his team intact.
The Phils’ top trade candidate, pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, who is 8-7 with a 3.70 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP, attracted a lot of interest from teams that include the Orioles, Dodgers, Giants, Marlins, Rangers, and Blue Jays. Ultimmately, the Phillies high asking price was too much for all these teams and they all moved in a different direction and went after pitchers having a worse season than Hellickson in order to save prospects. The Phillies were asking for a top five prospect, becuase if the Phils kept the righty and after the season offered him a qualifing offer and he declined, the Phillies would recieve a draft pick between 31-41 overall in the draft. To Klentak, that was equivalent to a top 5 prospect.
It doesn’t hurt to keep Jeremy, he’s the oldest guy on a very young staff and has shown great leadership throughout the season. Some may argue that they would have liked to see Hellickson traded so top pitching prospect Jake Thompson could come up, butit may serve the Phillies well to bring up Thompson and go to a 6 man rotation and protect the young arms in the rotation.
Closer Jeanmar Gomez was also reported to be drawing interest from a few teams, most notably the Giants. The 28 year old is 27/30 in save oppurtunities and has a 2.77 ERA in his first season as the Phillies closer. The deep market for relief pitching at the deadline had teams looking at top options instead of a secondary choice like Gomez.
Phillies veteran catcher Carlos Ruiz was also on the market. In the backup role, he has hit .255 with 3 homers and 11 RBIs. There was really no market for Ruiz as the only teams in contention who needed a catcher were the Rangers and Indians. The Indians went aftter the top catcher on the market, the Brewers’ Johathan Lucroy. Lucroy rejected the deal and was traded to the Rangers today, a deal that reportedly he couldn’t/didn’t reject. I thought the Indians would try to make another run at a catcher considering how bad the production from their catcher spot has been this season. I thought they would maybe even consider Rupp, becuase he is a far better offensive catcher than Ruiz, but nothing transpired.
Role players Andres Blanco and Peter Bourjos were reportedly available, but both suffered injuries this past week and forced them to the DL. Blanco, who is htting .271 with 4 homers and 21 RBIs as a bench player, would have been an intriguing option for a lot of teams looking to make a playoff push, becuase he can play all four infield spots and brings veteran leadership.
At the end of the day, the Phillies did not have many players to offer to teams except Hellickson, and it may be smarter to hold onto him. This trade season was the complete opposite of last year when the Phillies traded ace Cole Hamels, closer Jonathan Papelbon, and outfielder Ben Revere.
There’s always a chance the Phils could make a move before the waiver trade deadline at the end of the month, like they did last year with Chase Utley.
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