2024 Trade Deadline Speculation

One way, I suppose, to improve the bullpen (albeit with two many lefties) is to put Ranger there and then add a starter. There's always the option of managing Ranger's innings so he can be restored to the rotation come playoff time, hopefully at better strength than he's been showing lately as the season slogs along.

A move to acquire a starter also allows the luxury for a team with an 8-game lead to move to a six man rotation, conserving everyone's strength for the playofffs.

The big play, I guess, would be to trade for Crochet and immediately move to a six man rotation. The worry with Crochet is that he'll be spent when the playoffs arrive, and the Phillies have the big advantage here in being in a position to conserve his innings,

Starters are expensive though. There are scenarios, yeah, but it feels like gilding the lily. They already have enough arms to go with a six-man rotation, most of whom are still better than most teams' third starter (not Walker, but Sanchez, and Turnbull if he comes back healthy and Phillips for as long as he can get away with it).

Now, we'd really be talking if they did put Turnbull into another trade, or figured out a way to offload Walker's contract without having to include an extra prospect (just money).

I think it would be hard for Ranger or Suarez to pitch with half a body lol

Ranger hasn't pitched out of the pen since 2021.
He was effective, but moved into the starting rotation in August.
Most of his relief appearances were with 2-3 days rest.

It was the Postseason but Suarez did pitch out of the bullpen to closeout the 2022 NLCS clincher two days after he started Game 3.

After this awfu road trip I think we’re going to get another bullpen arm. I guess the first half was too good to be true.

Bowden's latest suggestion is Robert for Crawford and Abel. More realistic than the last one though I hate trading Abel for a discount (and teams may not want him now anyway).

Well, maybe trading a tarnished top three prospect saves you from trading two other top 10 pitchers instead. But that, on the one hand, still seems like a lot for a player with some flaws, and not enough if other teams want him or the Sox are content to keep him one more season.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just another Bowden fantasy baseball column. Gelb says the Phillies have little interest in trading Crawford, Painter or Miller, which also pretty much means they aren't in the market for an "impact-type" player. Platoon LF and pen remain priority; he dismisses ("according to multiple major league sources") any talk of starting pitchers.

Our two top picks in the draft this year probably do increase the possibility of dealing Crawford. Much depends I think on whether the decision-makers think Rojas will ever hit enough and the book is still very unclear on that. I think Crawford will hit enough to be a starting CF. The question for him is whether he will ever have enough power to be a good starting CF.

Crawford will develop power with that frame.
If he's a plus fielding CF with elite speed, OBP would be more important than OPS anyway.
Same holds for Caba.

This is really a key. If a player with speed and defense brings a high enough OBP, SLG really does become a luxury. If you have both, you're a superstar. We want superstars, of course, but we don't need eight of them in the lineup.

If Crawford and Caba can give you OPB > .350 at the top of the lineup with the speed to pressure pitchers, that a great table setter.

I think the guy under the radar right now is Ricones, who seems to be finally healthy, He could be the replacement for Castellanos in 2027. With Crawford, Ricones, Lee Sang and Pineda the Reading OF ain't a bad group. Unfortunately, Ethan Wilson is looking like a wasted 2nd rd pick.

There are serious doubts about whether Crawford will develop the power to be a good starting CF. And without some power it will be hard to get a 350+ OBP. That is part of Stott's problem now. The jury is still very much out on Crawford as it is with most prospects. Right now Rojas has very little power also. He chases pitches out of the zone and can't do much with pitches in the zone. Crawford has a better hit tool foundation than Rojas, but changing his swing to add power could subtract from other aspects of his game.