Phillies acquire Jay Bruce from Mariners (for Jake Scheiner)

[nycphils]

Title says it all. From Jeff Passan.

[zambonir]

well clearly they are not concerned about CF per se. Williams straight-up too much?

(Edit: Bruce is signed through 2020, not sure that's a good thing in the big picture, but it does make more sense to give up additional value for that, especially if Seattle picks up some $).

[zambonir]

Jeff Passan on Twitter

[schooldoc]

Per baseball-reference, Bruce is signed through 2020 at $14M per for both 2019 & 2020. So if acquired now, he'd be owed a little more than $23 million.

At that price, he'd have to be more than a bench bat here....and probably would be. It wouldn't be hard to imagine him playing 4-5 times a week, mixing in Kingery and possibly Quinn against some LHP and on defense late in games.

[zambonir]

Oop, I meant to say he was a free agent come 2021.

I'm sure the Phillies are wanting Seattle to pick up half of next year. I think he'd start 2-3 times a week, you don't want Cutch in CF more than that. Not sure how the M's paid him that much, he's been pretty solid but he's not really a plus starter at this point.

[Purduke]

He had a pretty solid 2017 for them before they dealt him to CLE, around 30 HRs and 75 RBI in two-thirds of a season after a good playoff run in 2016. Think Alderson thought he probably had the guy's secret sauce; one of many errors he made at the end.

[zambonir]

Oh right I forgot it was the Mets' contract. M's made out rather well in that deal, so far Cano is a bust (and they got rid of his contract). Diaz is actually struggling a bit too.

Last year Bruce lost his power. This year he's got it and then some, and has actually got an excellent OPS+, but I doubt the Phillies want to give too many starts to a guy with a .283 OBP. He has very good if obviously limited #s as a PH. To me this is more about Williams.

Forget Herrera, if this was a week ago Bruce would merely be an upgrade over Gosselin (after Williams was demoted).

[bkeich]

Not sure that veteran corner OF is a need at this point, but if we can get a bat cheap then I guess it doesn’t hurt.

I think we have a bigger need in the bullpen and CF, but Bruce is an upgrade over Williams. We could also just use an OF that isn’t hurt/Suspended.

[zambonir]

If it happens, the Klentak/DiPoto relationship continues to bear fruit.

[andyb]

I think we have a bigger need in the bullpen and CF, but Bruce is an upgrade over Williams.

Is he though? This year he has been better but we all know that Williams should be a 750-800 OPS bat given his age and what he did his first two years. This would be a lateral move for a veteran that had a hot streak early in the year but is likely a 220 hitter the rest of his career.

Not sure he is better than Williams. This is not the move to deal with not having Herrera. It is a lateral move at best. If the trade is for Williams then it potentially gives up some value as well.

[zambonir]

Williams is obviously going to be better than Bruce going forward but Bruce is better now, and, in theory, can more easily handle being a bench player (though there's no actual evidence of that other than him being a veteran).

Hard to know what to think of it until we see how the pieces actually fit together, but the bottom line is, the Phillies already preferred having Gosselin and Rodriguez to having Willliams, so Bruce is an upgrade there. It's the Matt Stairs role, quite simply.

And Williams isn't really, and probably won't ever be, a pure power bat. And if he's not in the trade sending him back to AAA is still a possibility.

Bruce didn't have a hot streak early in the year though; his OPS in May is higher than it was in March/April (when he also hit .187). Fewer HRs in May - otherwise he'd be leading the AL - but more SLG overall.

[schooldoc]

The guy the M's really stole is Jarred Kelenic, the Mets' 1st round pick last year. He's 19 & just graduated to high-A.

[phillychuck]

No thanks to Jay Bruce. Rather play 'em as they lie.

[zambonir]

Ken Rosenthal (Ken_Rosenthal)

[Phanatical]

I do not see how Bruce moves the WAR needle much, if at all. No doubt, our outfield depth is thin with the loss of Altherr, Herrera, Cozens and Quinn. If an addition needs to be made, I’d rather it be a better, more versatile player than Bruce. Why the rush? We are in 1st place and have plenty of time until the trade deadline.

[zambonir]

Well, if you wanna just talk WAR, he's at + 0.4. Altherr was - 0.4, Herrera was -0.4, Gosselin -0.5, Quinn -0.5, Williams -0.5. So that's 1 win, in theory. Could be the difference between winning the East or not, or between the 2nd seed and the third seed.

I'll be glad if they don't lose Williams but obviously they just aren't high on Williams, and especially not in a bench role. The Phillies don't have time, and he still wouldn't get the playing time, to see if he can improve. On paper he is actually the worst player on the team (lowest WAR, significantly lower OPS than Gosselin).

I just can't see a downside to getting one of the AL's home run leaders with an .800+ OPS for cheap.

[Phanatical]

Kingery is +0.7 WAR. I do not care so much about the WAR of the players who are gone, just ones in the CF role now. Granted, Kingery is our best infield depth. We are thin everywhere. Gotta believe we can do better than Bruce though.

[zambonir]

But Bruce isn't playing CF. He is replacing Williams as a LF option and/or Gosselin off the bench. And they are both negative.

I don't think it will cost Kingery any playing team either because they don't want McCutchen playing CF 6 times a week and Kingery will also still play 3B, where Franco is not doing well either. Bruce merely plays LF a couple of days a week. Those are starts that were going to go to Williams (or Gosselin or Rodriguez). But it's mostly about coming off the bench as a LHB.

Does Herrera's salary count against the luxury tax while he's suspended (assuming he is)?

[Phanatical]

If Bruce is nothing more than this season’s Matt Stairs, no problem. Williams has not hit. Bruce is likely to do better. I just wonder how often we will see a Bruce-Cutch-Harper OF. If often, I doubt we get any net benefit by trading for Bruce.

[Phanatical]

...but I will still hope he does what Stairs did!