Phillies Mailbag: Trading Prospects, Cold Offense, Relief

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 Tuesday afternoons at 3:00 to hear your questions answered on the air.  Send a text to 609-403-0973 with your questions.

What prospects would you be willing to trade this trade deadline if you were the Phillies?
~Max

I think I would have said that there would be "untouchables" in the Phillies farm system earlier in the season.  I think that I have since come down from that.  I'm going to be a little bold right now with my answer: None.

MLB Pipeline updates their prospect rankings as players rise to the major leagues.  The list will surely change after Sunday's M.L.B. Draft.  But right now the Phillies have six prospects on the MLB Pipeline Top 100 list.

They are: Andrew Painter (10), Aidan Miller (22), Justin Crawford (49), Eduardo Tait (63), Mick Abel (87) and Aroon Escobar (97).

The Phillies will need to count on some in-house prospects at some point.  But they also need to win.  Watching Bryce Harper get banged up, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto age, and seeing the production out of Trea Turner right now, they need to make a push to win with this bunch.

I can think of one trade that required a major prospect return, and that was when the Washington Nationals sent Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres for four prospects.  Three of them - Mackenzie Gore, C.J. Abrams, and James Wood have all been All-Star players for the Nationals.

But that was for 2 1/2 years of an elite superstar in his prime.

I am not sure there is one of those to be had at the trade deadline.  But there could be some pieces the Phillies can land with some years remaining that would soften the blow of losing a prospect.

I would not trade them all but I would keep some that hopefully could stick around in the future.

As for Painter, I think we need to remember that he had Tommy John surgery already.  Some pitchers have undergone it twice.  It's not necessarily a complete fix. And we are seeing Painter not being invincible at Triple-A.

Painter dropped from sixth to 10th-best prospect on MLB Pipeline, even with some players rising off of the list.

Where would the Phillies be had they not traded Sixto Sanchez for J.T. Realmuto? 

Check out the performance from the top three Phillies starters since June 1:

The Phillies are 13-7 in those 20 starts.

With that kind of pitching they should be better.  But interestingly the Phillies are seventh out of 30 teams in hitting with runners in scoring position.

Is it just bad luck?

I think we've discussed many holes on this team before.  Left field has led to next to no production.  Center field has been passable of late, but absolutely could be better.

This trade deadline hopefully can solve some of these issues.

How about Seranthony Dominguez as a bullpen addition?
~CJ

Earlier in the season I might not have been on board with you, but former Phillies reliever Seranthony Dominguez is pitching pretty well.  The righthander is 2-2 with a 3.31 ERA in 36 games and 35 1/3 innings.

Dominguez had an unsightly 7.15 ERA in the month of May.

But in June, Dominguez allowed no earned runs at all.  In July he allowed a run so far, but picked up the save in that game, nonetheless.

Most of the attention on relievers in Baltimore has been on Felix Bautista, the club's closer.  With the team struggling, they will likely make some trades.

But Dominguez, who will be a free agent at season's end could be a less-expensive backup plan for a team like the Phillies.

The Phillies have recently been linked to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the likes of Dennis Santana and David Bednar.

As CJ pointed out to me in a DM, Santana is not striking out a lot of batters (28 in 38 innings).  He was also not good in the past with the New York Yankees.  But he is getting outs and it's hard to argue with a 1.42 ERA.

The smoke in the trade links likely means the Phillies are actively pursuing relief pitchers.  I would have to imagine they will land a couple of relievers.  I think Dominguez would be a good choice as a second acquisition if they are able to acquire someone who is a lock-down relief type.

I would not make Dominguez my only acquisition.