Phillies Mailbag: Trade Target, Keller, Mattingly

We are back once again with the 97.3 ESPN Phillies Mailbag.  Each week we take your questions and answer them on The Sports Bash with Mike Gill.  Tune in each week to hear your questions answered on the air.

Thoughts on eyeing Isaac Paredes as a trade target? The Astros are going nowhere fast and he might not be a *perfect* fit defensively but it's a right-handed bat that is much needed.
~Anthony

The Phillies will indeed need some reinforcements.  They currently have three catchers on their roster, and the Felix Reyes/Otto Kemp spot is certainly one that the club can improve.  In particularly, right-handed bats will be of interest to the Phillies.

Isaac Paredes is probably going to be available at the trade deadline.  The Houston Astros seem to have everything going wrong.  The latest is an injury to All-Star Jose Altuve.  An oblique strain will keep him out for weeks.  They cannot catch a break.

Paredes is underperforming some, but he is a two-time All-Star who can play third base, second base, and shortstop.  Paredes has not played in the outfield.

But what he could do for the Phillies is be a right-handed option to mix in.  One of the issues the Phillies have is that depth on the bench.  I can see someone like Paredes being someone to fill the Edmundo Sosa role, playing against left-handed pitching.

Sosa has played some outfield lately.  That could be something he does more of to accomodate Paredes.

But should the Phillies have an injury after the trade deadline, there would be little depth behind what they have.  So yes, I think that Paredes would represent good fit, especially with some uncertain bench bats.

I do wonder what he might cost, especially if the Phillies maybe can find a right-handed solution in the outfield.

What can the Phillies do about Brad Keller?
~Brian

If I had to list a top disappointment for the 2026 Phillies, sans the 9-19 start, I would say that Brad Keller is at the top of the list.  The move seemed like a really shrewed signing by the Phillies.  With a two-year, $22 million contract, the Phillies cannot easily move on.

I think that the Phillies will have to do something that they signed Keller to avoid: put Orion Kerkering as the late-inning right-handed setup man.  They could match him with Jose Alvarado in the seventh and eighth innings to get those key outs ahead of Jhoan Duran.

Keller's numbers are not completely terrible - a 4.12 ERA - but not what you would expect out of your eighth inning reliever.

I would see if Keller can be used in some lower leverage situations to get his command back.  I think that is the story of Brad Keller this year.

There is a lot of baseball left this year, so I would be sure he is working to get that back.  In the meanwhile, Kerkering has been pretty good, going 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA through his first 19 games.

I prefer Kerkering gets a clean inning, but he could be an option.

What did Don Mattingly do that made Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott suddenly good?
~Jeremy

First, lets acknowledge how good Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott have been in the month of May.  The DayCare duo each hit home runs in last night's victory over Cincinnati.  But the whole month has been good to them.

Bohm: .345 BA, .953 OPS, 3 HR, 8 RBI
Stott: .254 BA, .890 OPS, 5 HR, 18 RBI

This has a lot to do with why the Phillies are surging.

I think you can give interim manager Don Mattingly some credit for sitting Bohm for a couple of days to let him clear his head.   Stott had no such thing, though he continued to sit against some of the left-handed pitching (but did not last night).

But the firing of Rob Thomson was meant more than anything to be a wakeup call to the players.  I think we were getting close to a Stott demotion or a Bohm benching.  They had to know that they needed to step up or they could be next.

One thing that Bohm and Stott have in common is that they are contact hitters.  It just did not make sense that they were performing that poorly.  So in some ways I am not surprised they are performing now.

But as I said last week, the month of April is not going to matter if the Phillies perform this point forward. The Phillies will not surge indefinitely, but if Bohm and Stott can keep being productive, the Phillies will be in good shape.