Phillies Acquire OF Austin Hays from Baltimore

[andyb]

It is just easier to bring Mercado back tonight if the trade makes an exception where they are allowed to do that move (like the injury exception).

[zambonir]

Well I just saw a tweet that makes it sound like Hays is our new left fielder and Marsh and Rojas will share center.

And also that this is the third straight year DD has tried to acquire Hays

[andyb]

Well without getting a new left-handed bat then Hays is probably our LF 80% of the time (with a few occasional Rojas starts against RHP with Marsh in LF). I just don't see that as the plan after the deadline.

[phillychuck]

Hays is an average to slightly above average MLB hitter. He hits better when he plays regularly, based on his previous performance.

Marsh/Hays is better offensively than Rojas/Marsh, although Rojas/Marsh picks up something on the defensive end. You can get some of that defense back late in games using Rojas for defense.

It would be nice to have a LF OF who mashes righties, but I don't think that guy is on the trade market. Clemens and Dahl occupy that role.

I'll miss SA. Always thought he would get his mojo back eventually.

[VoteForKalas]

Interesting trade, glad DD saw that LF needed help and that it would require going outside the organization to address.

Agree with the sentiment that DD is not done. Reliever is more important after moving SA and I still think another OF bat would help. I can see the Marsh/Hays platoon in LF or a Marsh/Rojas one in CF, but both scenarios demand another OF option to work best IMO.

[Aquapong]

I had sinus surgery today. I got put under and woke up to find we made a trade. I’m still feeling a little Hazy.

Eta: my fav Seranthony memory was seeing him close out the 2022 NLCS game (3?) where we won 4-2. I was with a bunch of drunk kids in left field.

[bkeich]

Sad end to a guy I once thought might someday hold the team record for saves. He looked great when he first came up, but was overused, got hurt and never really found it again (maybe it was just one great season for him including his minor league meteoric rise).

Pache has no value, so I am guessing this was essentially the same as releasing him. Baltimore may just hold on to him to later release.

Hayes looks very ordinary. If we get a CF then he becomes a true platoon in Left with Marsh. I guess it is possible both he and Marsh play together at times with Marsh in CF.

[zambonir]

I don't think it's necessarily a sad end. He could still pitch against us in the World Series, but either way he's going to get some opportunities. We gave up a player who still had value to get one of value.

And he was still ultimately quite good in 2022 (overall, not just in October). No, we would not have predicted that Hector Neris would still have the better career (including Phillies career) but then, Hector also had a better career than Ken Giles. And SA's isn't done yet.

[zambonir]

But manager Rob Thomson and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski indicated that Hays could be more of an everyday player, in which case Marsh would split time in center field with Johan Rojas.

“I do not see him as a platoon,” Thomson said of Hays. “This guy was an All-Star last year. For whatever reason, he wasn’t playing every single day. That’s maybe affected his numbers a little bit. I want to see what we have here.”

Phillies trade for Austin Hays from the Orioles for Seranthony Domínguez and...

The Phillies are likely finished adding to the outfield, according to Dombrowski.

[andyb]

The Phillies are likely finished adding to the outfield, according to Dombrowski.

Then I guess there is a good chance we see Dahl or Clemens shortly. Just too many right-handed bats at the moment. Wilson has done nothing wrong. He is just not the greatest fit for that spot on the bench with Hays added.

[zambonir]

You would think. They should give Clemens another look. But they've been willing to carry one more RHB than they needed all year.

Of course just because he said that doesn't mean it's certain for a few more days.

[Jazzhead]

I think they are going to platoon Hays and Marsh in left field, with Rojas playing against most pitchers in center. I think they want to nail down centerfield defense, and they can afford to do that with Rojas if the left field position will be consistently productive against both types of pitching. I urge folks to go over to youtube and see Hays' defensive gems from last year. Shades of Pete Reiser! (let's hope not).

I was getting more comfortable with SA in recent weeks and think this trade can really work out from the Orioles perspective. Hopefully it will be like Hoppe/Marsh - a good trade for both teams. I think it's cool that the two best teams in baseball (just about) have looked to each other to plug a known gap, each from their own active rosters.

[Dirk41]

All of this scratching and matching to make something work in the outfield. Curious if this is addressed in the off-season. Tyler O'Neill is going to be out there.

[VoteForKalas]

It was really Harper not being able to play RF and the signing of Casty after already having Schwarber that put them in this spot.

Schwarber cannot play LF and so he fills the DH spot which forces Casty to play RF and also cost us Hoskins.

Rojas being a light hitting CF, Marsh having such a struggle vs LH pitching and the ineffectiveness of the various farm hands and bench guys to cover LF has just added to the issues.

[zambonir]

Hays is back next year so seems to me the issue is solved unless they give up on Rojas or view him as a bench player. Or unload Casty.

And even now they still have a top-notch offense, including against LHP specifically (top 3 in MLB I believe a story said yesterday), if not necessaraily in the past month. They went through those first two months as a juggernaut with almost nothing from Casty, not to mention Whit. The team's struggles have had to do with pitching and the star players either being absent or in slumps, not the offensive weaknesses in the OF (though I'd hate to think what the last month would have been like if Casty hadn't stepped at times). They also might have lost just as many games over the past month with slightly better offense and worse defense.

Nothing wrong with running platoons either though it's harder to do now than it was in '93 or '08.

Maybe the people who said it was the schedule were also right. But if that just means this team isn't significantly better than the last couple, that's okay, because both of those teams were good enough to win a championship.

And they've already given themselves such a headstart. I'm still more afraid of being the team that gets upset in the NLDS than I am of going out again in one of the last two rounds.

[Austinfan]

Next year Crawford and Rincones should start in Reading, Pineda is only 22 and he's filled out and is pounding the ball in Reading as well. So by the end of next season, this may be the starting OF in Lehigh and pushing for jobs in 2026. Lee Sang started well but has really fallen off.

After that, they're pretty weak in the OF, Viars, Walton, Flores not showing a lot in Clearwater.
That might explain why they took OFs in this draft, the "hole" made that position a tie-breaker.
The top IF prospects might mean a move to LF for Turner by 2026 or 2027 as well, as they may be 3 years away.

But it makes Hayes a good fit, bring him back in 2025 to buy time for the OF prospects to mature.

[VoteForKalas]

Our OF is generating below average production which does need to be fixed, likely in the off-season since they failed to do it last off-season and it is harder to do in season.

[LegoDoom]

But manager Rob Thomson and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski indicated that Hays could be more of an everyday player, in which case Marsh would split time in center field with Johan Rojas.

“I do not see him as a platoon,” Thomson said of Hays. “This guy was an All-Star last year. For whatever reason, he wasn’t playing every single day. That’s maybe affected his numbers a little bit. I want to see what we have here.”

Phillies trade for Austin Hays from the Orioles for Seranthony Domínguez and...

The Phillies are likely finished adding to the outfield, according to Dombrowski.

I mean, Whit was an all star last year.

I kind of like the trade... just saying.

[zambonir]

We've also got an all-star closer (Soto)

[zambonir]

Yeah I mean this is a more global question - is Brandon Marsh ever going to be an everyday player? Is Rojas going to be even a 90 OPS+ bat? Will Nick ever top 100 again?

Fortunately there's one built-in answer to two of those problems - Marsh and Nick as a platoon. But that's a lot less Nick than they are paying for or that he would accept.

We'll see how Hays does, he could also be traded again or non-tendered (though given what the Phillies' paid Whit no reason not to pay him even if he's not a full-time OF).