Phillies Postmortem Mailbag: Lineup, Soto, and Trout

We are back to put a wrap on the 97.3 ESPN Phillies Mailbag.  All season long we take your questions and answer them on The Sports Bash with Mike Gill.  Tune in to hear your questions answered on the air.

What changes would you make to the Phillies lineup in 2025?
~Eric

To me, the biggest thing absent in the Phillies lineup was a left-handed hitter in the middle of the lineup.  Bryce Harper batted third, while Kyle Schwarber hit leadoff.  What about 4 through 9 in the order?  That was a deep hole.

The Phillies got early strong production from Brandon Marsh.  The Phillies thought that Bryson Stott would develop into the contact-type bat that Alec Bohm was during the first half of the season that made him an All-Star.   So what we saw down the stretch was that the Phillies did not take advantage of right-handed pitching like they could have.

The Phillies could look to add a left fielder or center fielder who could could hit in the middle of the lineup.  But who would that be?  I think that the prospect is easier said than done.

So could that be why at the press conference today featuring Phillies manager Rob Thomson and President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski the idea was floated out there that Schwarber could bat somewhere other than leadoff.  But as Thomson noted, the Phillies have won a lot of games with Schwarber batting leadoff.

Dombrowski at least sounded open-minded heading into the offseason.  Are there potential trades out there?  Dombrowski will not know until he starts talking to teams.

Do the Phillies have a shot at Juan Soto?
~Seth

I tend to think that the Phillies are about at their max of high-priced players.  When the Phillies added Trea Turner ahead of the 2023 season, his salary roughly equaled the salaries due to Jean Segura and Didi Gregorius, which came off of the books.  There are no real openings like that this year.

Of course, I just said that I would like to see the Phillies add a left-handed bat who can hit in the middle of the order.  That sounds like I am describing Juan Soto perfectly.  If all things were equal, yes, he would be great.

Would the Phillies make an uncomfortable trade, such as to move Schwarber ahead of the last year of his contract and then maybe free up some money towards Soto?  I think it would take something like that in order for the Phillies to get into the running for a Soto.

Making that type of move would be difficult because I would imagine Soto will be a later signing, as Scott Boras signings often are.

My best guess: Soto stays with the Yankees after a long free agency.

How is Juan Soto a finalist for gold glove? How are the final three determined?
~Michael

One of my personal pet peeves is the Gold Glove "finalist" race.  When someone is announced as a "finalist" one might naturally think that the player named one has a chance.  Truth is: they do not.

The voting is done and there is a winner.  As MLB.com describes:

To determine the winners at the nine standard positions, the 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team vote from a pool of players in their league, excluding players from their own team. These votes comprise 75% of the selection total, with the SABR Defensive Index counting for the other 25%.

So who are the other "finalists?"  People who don't win.

The "finalist" idea is that more fans will wait in anticipation and follow the players on their teams.  The Phillies had a few: Bryson Stott at second base, Bryce Harper at first base, Brandon Marsh in left field, and Zack Wheeler at pitcher.

The outcome is already determined.  But it gives people a reason to tune in November 3 and find out who won.

Do you think the Angels would give Mike trout away for free if a team took on his contract?
~C.J.

In a word: yes.   Mike Trout has six years remaining on his contract, at an even $37,166,666 per year.  That's a lot of money.  I am guessing you are asking because you'd be interested in the Phillies taking on Trout.   I just can't see it happening.

Here's why.

I think any team who would take on that money would expect to have the Angels kick in money.  The Angels would expect an acquiring team to send some prospects.   I think if the Angels were going to get nothing back in return, they might as well simply keep him.

One follow-up might be, "Well what if the Angels took money back."

What will the Phillies do, just accumulate some bad contacts and send it back?  Taijuan Walker?  Those types of players are probably of no use to the Angels.

What the Angels should have done is traded Trout once they knew that Shohei Ohtani was not going to sign with the Angels.  They should have traded Ohtani, too.  Those would have been the baseball moves to reignite the Angels.

Instead, they keep signing high-priced, older players.  Pete Alonso to the Angels this offseason and they will try - no matter how hard it will be -  to win next year?  I think that is more likely.