Happy Holidays! Trade Deadline Review

The first half of the season had every fan, Ricky Botalico especially, constantly complaining about the performance of nearly every reliever that came through the gates. Ultimately, these performances saw many relievers lose their jobs to be designated for assignment or traded; goodbye Pivetta and Austin Davis. Whether you believe Matt Klentak took it upon himself to improve the pen or that Joe Girardi went into his office demanding better relievers (nobody will convince me that didn’t happen). The Phillies wound up striking first in the trade deadline arms race, acquiring David Hale for Addison Russ from the Yankees and then getting both Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman from the Boston Red Sox for Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold. To me it seems like the Hale trade wasn’t necessary. He had been DFA’d already by the Yankees. While I’m not as crazy high on Addison Russ as others seemed to be, he definitely has a lot more upside at 25 years old than Hale at 32. Furthermore, Hale has never shown to be a reliever you could consistently rely on, owning a 4.32 ERA for his career. Considering they looked to be progressing on the deal with Boston, there wouldn’t have been as big a need to bring in Hale and they could have instead risked trying to claim him on waivers. Not giving up Russ would’ve also made it easier to move on from Seabold as they would’ve kept a youthful bullpen option.

It seems much of the Phillies social media community weren’t a huge fan of the deal with the Red Sox, I was a big fan of it. While I thought the Hale deal was unnecessary, this deal was a clear must make for the Phils. Had the Phillies not acted first the cost could have been greater, but they acted fast in order to get the reliever market moving. I also believe part of this was to show JT Realmuto and his camp that they are committed to trying to win. Workman had a great season for any reliever last year with a 1.88 ERA and 104 strikeouts in 71.2 innings pitched. While he’s only under contract for this year, hopefully getting him the organization gives us an advantage for re-signing him should we want to. Hembree on the other hand is under contract for next season as well. Hembree started off really hot with the Phillies, coming in and shutting down in high leverage situations, however, he got roughed up in his last outing and will need to bounce back. Hembree at the very least is a better option than some of the guys whose spot he fills into. Overall, I like the trade for the Phillies as it clearly improves their roster this year.

On deadline day the Phillies went back to the reliever market and brought in righty David Phelps from Milwaukee. In return the Phillies gave up 3 19 year old prospects. To me it seems that we gave quantity rather than quality. One statistic that stood out to me, though I don’t remember the exact numbers, was in 34 plate appearances against left handed hitters, he struck out around 15 of them. Paired with his 2.77 ERA on the year, expect Phelps to come into late inning, high leverage roles. For the low price we paid, this deal on paper seems to be our biggest win of trade deadline season.

There’s no doubt that Klentak improved the bullpen at the deadline with these additions. We brought in guys that could not only eat innings, but at times, take down meaningful innings. It’s now up to Girardi and the staff to get the most out of them for the stretch run as we chase the Braves and our first playoff appearance since 2011.