July 29, 2024
The Phillies got Austin Hays for the outfield and Carlos Estévez for the back of the bullpen, but with just over 24 hours still to go until the July 30 MLB trade deadline, Dave Dombrowski may not have put his phone down just yet.
The Phils' president of baseball ops is still on the lookout for more relievers, per The Athletic's MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, and he could still be willing to put more higher-end prospects on the table to find one.
Wrote Rosenthal on what he's been hearing as the 6 p.m. ET deadline on Tuesday nears:
The Philadelphia Phillies continue to search for additional relief help, even after acquiring Carlos Estévez from the Angels.
The price for Estévez, pitching prospects George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri, is perceived within the industry to be the highest paid for any reliever – and completely on brand for Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies president of baseball operations.
Dombrowski chases the best major major leaguers. And if he needs to trade quality prospects to get them, so be it.
“Every seller in America wants to deal with Dave,” said one rival executive, who was granted anonymity for his candor. [The Athletic]
The Phillies are running the home stretch of the season with a bullpen headlined by Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, Jeff Hoffman, José Alvarado, and now Estévez, which is a strong group on paper, but each has been vulnerable at their own spots in the summer, with Alvarado being the most recent.
Plus, when it comes to arms, there's no club in baseball that can ever have too many to sure themselves up.
The catch now is that the market is rapidly starting to narrow.
The Phillies acquired Estévez from the Angels on Saturday, Oakland's Mason Miller essentially took himself off the block when he broke his pinky finger last week, and the Dodgers just landed a deal with the White Sox for Michael Kopech.
Marlins lefthander Tanner Scott and Nationals righthander Kyle Finnegan are still out there, and both were on the Phillies' radar alongside Estévez, per the New York Post's and MLB Network's Jon Heyman, up until they sealed the deal for the Angels closer. The former two could still be in play.
Likewise, Rays righthander Pete Fairbanks – with a 3.11 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 38 appearances – and Blue Jays righthander Chad Green – with a 1.74 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in 30 appearances – are a couple of other notable names still available, too, with Green already having reported interest from the Phillies, per MLB Network's Jon Morosi late last week.
The Phillies still have a good ball club as is, but Dombrowski is a notoriously aggressive executive, especially when World Series ambitions are on the line.
We'll see if he has one more ace up his sleeve as the clock ticks down.
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