Dee Gordon Trade to Mariners Helps Phillies in Trade Market

With the Winter Meetings set to kick off this weekend in Orlando, the very cold offseason hopefully will begin to pick up some momentum.  Perhaps because Giancarlo Stanton may be traded, perhaps because Shohei Ohtani has not selected a team or for other reasons unknown, there has not been much movement around baseball.  But ahead of the MLB Winter Meetings that begin this Sunday, baseball finally saw a trade take place, and it helps the Phillies.

The Seattle Mariners acquired second baseman Dee Gordon from the Miami Marlins in exchange for pitchers Robert Duggar and Nick Neidert, infielder Christopher Torres and international slot money.   The trade benefits the Mariners in a couple of ways.  For one, they will fill their hole in center field by converting infielder Gordon to that position.  They also now have more money to spend in their pursuit of Ohtani.

This trade helps the Phillies, who have both Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis availble for trade who can play second base.  Not only did teams lose out on acquiring second baseman Gordon, but the acquiring team is not even filling a hole at second base.  The trade leaves one fewer second baseman.

Free agents who could fill a team's hole at second base include free agents Neil Walker, Darwin Barney, Eduardo Nuñez and even former Phillies Howie Kendrick if a team feels he can still play second base.   Walker is probably an attractive name still, but he is rumored to be asking for a four-year contract.  Whoever acquires Hernandez could receive three arbitration years.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were linked to both Gordon and Hernandez in the past.  Money-wise, fit-wise, Hernandez seems to naturally align with the Angels.  Perhaps the Phillies will be able to get a deal done while at the Winter Meetings, and it would not be surprising if a trade involves Hernandez or Galvis, especially with one of the other big names off of the board.