Hello and welcome to the Trade Deadline edition of the Weekly Wrap-up! I will recap the Trade Deadline and the quest of my Phillies towards the lofty goal of *checks notes* not disappointing me. But first, as promised in the last edition:
My Analysis of the Devers Deal
The biggest trades come when no one expects them. I heard about the Mikko Rantanen trade to the Hurricanes while watching my Flyers pass the puck on a power play. Amidst another busy day in the MLB season, the Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, stunning the entire baseball world1. While stories broke about Devers’ unwillingness to play first base in spring training, it seemed like the Red Sox and Devers had made amends regarding that particular sticking point. Unfortunately for Giants fans, Devers has not lived up to the statistics that made him a Red Sox star. Before the trade, Devers had a .272 batting average, with a .905 OPS and a .504 slugging percentage. Since the trade, he has a .218 batting average with a .683 OPS and a paltry .359 slugging percentage. Devers has not made an immediate impact on a Giants team that needs stable hitting outside of Jung Hoo Lee2.
The only good news for Giants fans in the short term is rookie President of Business Operations Buster Posey’s willingness to acquire a big star. The Giants missed out on big names like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani when they reached the open market under the tenure of the previous president, Farhan Zaidl. The move shows a willingness by Posey to improve the team beyond the mediocrity they’ve mired themselves in over the past few seasons. While Posey does have the big name, he and GM Zach Minasian need to make personnel changes. While manager Bob Melvin should definitely get fired at the end of this season because of his questionable pitching moves, Posey should definitely think of getting a new hitting coach to help Devers regain his slugger status.
The Sights and Sounds of the Game: TANK SERIES
While some relish games with implications for playoff positions or rivalry games, others revel in two bad teams competing against each other. These contests of ineptitude in football and hockey get dubbed as Tank Bowls. The objective of such Tank Bowls is simple: lose and get a higher draft pick so you don’t have to go through an endless parade of Tank Bowls. While football and hockey have one game for such Tank Bowls, baseball drags the agony and ecstasy of Tank Bowls into a three to four-game series. I have come to call baseball bottom-feeder brawls a Tank Series.
Yours truly saw the final game of a Tank Series in person, which featured the Orioles and Rockies in a bottom-feeder brawl for prospect hauls that they hopefully will not ruin. Unfortunately for Bird Land, the Orioles got the same injury bug the Braves have had this year. It also does not help that their young core of Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, and Jackson Holliday has not only regressed but also shown what happens when a team does not make off-season moves to bolster said core. The Rockies have traded years of bad seasons for a generational run in ineptitude. They already have the least amount of wins before the All-Star Break since the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics and have a chance to break the 2024 White Sox’s record for the most losses in a season, so yeah, they’re bad.
The game got delayed by thirty minutes due to a storm cell, but unlike the Bristol Speedway Classic, the storm cell passed quickly. The Rockies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first on the first major league home run by Warming Bernabel. Why a parent would name a kid Warming, as in the verb phrase, is beyond the purview of this newsletter. Anyway, the Orioles took back the lead on a Dylan Carlson double, and a Tyler O’Neill two-run home run solidified the lead for the Orioles. Besides the Bernabel home run, pitcher Tomoyuki Sugamo had an amazing outing. He struck out seven Rockies and allowed three hits in his six innings of work. While bullpen arm Andrew Hedge nearly blew it for the Orioles by allowing a double, he did get out of the jam through a fortunate lineout and striking out the next two batters he faced. Below is my scorecard for the glorious game I got to witness, featuring tank drawings for the Rockies and Orioles. Enjoy.
Trade Deadline Time!
I will not recap every single one of the thirty-six trades that occurred during the Trade Deadline, which would make this Weekly Wrap-up about as long as a dissertation. However, I will express my takeaways from this Trade Deadline using the Winners and Losers format I used when talking about PWHL free agency, with some modifications. I will list the winners and losers in each team and then bold the name of the team I am referring to in the Winners and Losers sections. I will reserve talking about the Phillies’ trade deadline for the Phillies-specific section later in the Weekly Wrap-up.
Winners: Padres, Astros, Mariners, Tigers, Rangers, Guardians
The Padres will do anything to avoid the Little Brother narratives when compared to their rivals in Dodger Blue. The Padres sold much of their prospect pool to hopefully, maybe, make it past Los Angeles and then get cocky enough to make a cringeworthy rap. And what glories they got; designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn is having a career year, as well as bullpen depth with Mason Miller and Robert Suarez. They also got a better catcher than Martin Maldonado in Freddy Fermin! I know full well that the Dodgers will find a way to beat them in the division series. I’m sorry, Padres fans, I know how this will go.
Every single baseball fan knows the Mariners have good pitching. The legendary Randy Johnson and “King” Felix Hernandez paved the way for the current rotation, including aces Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert. What the Mariners have struggled with is hitting. While adding Randy Arozarena in the last trade deadline has bolstered the offense, the Mariners need more than him and Cal Raleigh having a career year to give their pitchers run support, and maybe make a deep playoff run. So they acquired Josh Naylor from the Diamondbacks and reunited with Eugenio Suarez. Both have had great hitting seasons, with Naylor hitting .291 and, despite having a .243 batting average, he does have 36 home runs. The Mariners hit the Trade Deadline sweet spot of acquiring big names that fill holes that the team needs to make a playoff run. The motivation behind contending teams at the Trade Deadline is to address areas of need, such as pitching holes and adding depth to the lineup, to gear up for the playoffs. If you get a big name in the process like the Mariners did (and I covered above), well, that’s a bonus. The Tigers and Rangers both are contenders who added for need and did not acquire a significant player; the Tigers lead the AL Central, and the Rangers find themselves in the midst of a tight AL Wild Card race. Both need pitching due to injuries; the Tigers to pitchers like Alex Cobb and Jose Urquidy (to the dreaded Tommy John), and the Rangers with depth pitchers like Josh Sborz and Mark Church. Detroit got Chris Paddock and Charlie Morton, the latter a Phillies legend.
Thank goodness the Guardians kept Steven Kwan, one of the few players who can actually hit with consistency this season. I know that rumors swirled about him going to the Phillies (and I would have enjoyed seeing him in pinstripes), but if the Guardians need Kwan for any chance of saving their season. They could become the Gritty Guards (GG for short). Any resemblance to the Internet slang GG (short for good game, and usually used when a video game player loses) is purely coincidental.
Losers: Twins, Yankees, Orioles, Pirates, Angels
The only explanation for the Twins’ fire sale is that they confused selling the team to new ownership with selling the players. That, or they want to get rid of as many costs (i.e., contracts) for the new ownership group to contend with. Victims of the Twins’ killing include Jhoan Duran, Harrison Bader (both now Phillies, yay!), Carlos Correa, Willi Castro, Ty France, Danny Coloumbe, and Brock Stewart. 40% of their team’s roster now plays elsewhere. Now, can the Twins please hurry up on the whole “sell the team” promise before the Pohlads put the team’s fans through more misery?
The Yankees have bullpen issues; one of many examples this year includes when they blow a lead to the Phillies, who also have a bad bullpen. So it makes sense that Brian Cashman acquired bullpen help in David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird at the deadline. All looks good for a contending team looking for depth. But when Bednar, Doval, and Bird appeared against the lowly Marlins after the Trade Deadline, Bednar and Doval ended up blowing the Yankees’ 9-4 lead in the bottom of the 7th. While the Yankees regained a 12-10 lead by the top of the 9th, Doval allowed two runners on base. And while Doval does not hold responsibility for the ball getting past Jose Caballero on an error, he does deserve blame for allowing runners in scoring position in the first place. The Marlins went on to win on a fielder’s choice and ended up sweeping the series. While the Yankees addressed their need, their bullpen yet again imploded. Can we say their bullpen has a curse on it? That’s the only explanation at this point.
Of course, the Orioles sold off some of their best players. They’re in the cellar, what more can you expect?! But I’m putting them as losers because they traded Cedric Mullens to the Mets. The Mets, our division rivals. The Mets, the team that treats the NL East division title as a dance partner swap. I guess the Orioles wanted to reassert their love for the 1983 World Series championship. That, or they like acting petty towards the Phillies even when in the cellar of the AL East.
It’s not what the Pirates did at the Deadline that has angered fans. It is what they did not do. You’d expect a rebuilding team to sell off any good players on their team to get some better hitting or pitching prospects. While the Pirates have a glut of pitching prospects, they do have Tommy Pham and Ke’Bryan Hayes, who they could trade for hitters that could support their elite pitching core. While the Pirates did trade away Ke’Bryan Hayes, they got a confusing return. Oh great, another reliever and a shortstop prospect developing in single A who has years to get to the majors. While the reliever move has a move for a team looking to get out of a cellar spot, the shortstop move has a rebuild vibe.
Can you pick one lane, Pirates? Will the 2015 Wild Card game be your highlight for the next decade? And I think the Phillies have bad stretches, my goodness! The Pirates’ rebuild will continue until morale improves.
And the Angels still think they can contend for the AL Wild Card spot. They decided to buy, yes, buy during the deadline when their middling selves should have sold and rebuilt. I hate them for wasting Mike Trout’s career. Dude deserved more than a single Wild Card Game appearance in 2015. For that, Arte Moreno should get booed at every Angels game for time immemorial. It’s what he deserves.
How About the Phightins?
When thinking about the Phillies’ performance in the last series, one word comes to mind: copacetic. This year is the year for the Phillies to win. We know this. We also know how well the team can perform. But the Phils just can’t put it together. They dropped series to the Red Sox and White Sox in humiliating fashion. In the Red Sox series, Jesus Luzardo reverted to his L-zardo form by blowing a lead. How did he do it? Why, by giving up four intentional walks and a grand slam, of course! The Phillies have a problem if I’m reminded of my middle school softball team’s pitching from a professional pitcher. And because Aaron Nola still has to recover from his injury, Zach Wheeler got overworked. While he has gone six innings in each of his last few starts, he has given up at least four earned runs. Not great from our ace. We need Nola back as soon as he’s healthy. The Phillies also made it to the deadline, needing a consistent closer and an outfield bat. They got both from the Twins’ fire sale. Jhoan Duran is an amazing closer with an entrance routine that rivals Mariano Rivera and Edwin Diaz’s shticks. And Harrison Bader not only has a serviceable bat, but also can play well in center field.
And that’s all for this edition of the Weekly Wrapup! Feel free to share this post on your social media accounts and make sure to subscribe.
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