The Phillies made their moves at the trade deadline, bringing in relievers Carlos Estévez and Tanner Banks, outfield bat Austin Hays, plus minor-league arms Seth Johnson and Moisés Chace.
They apparently had at least one more offer on the table, too, for White Sox starter Garrett Crochet, although Chicago ultimately passed on it and opted to hold on to their left-handed All-Star for the rest of the year, as we've come to learn Friday via The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal in a somewhat atypical post-deadline "what if" scenario.
Wrote Rosenthal, who reported that the Phillies and the Dodgers were both in the running for Crochet and had both made what were "attractive" offers to the White Sox:
For Crochet, arguably no prospect should have been off limits. Crochet, 25, is earning $800,000, just $60,000 above the league minimum. He is under club control for two more seasons. And he has emerged as an ace in his first season as a starter, with an expected ERA in the top seven percent of the league and a strikeout rate in the top 3 percent.
But according to sources, the Phillies did not offer righty Andrew Painter, who underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2023. And the Dodgers did not offer catcher Dalton Rushing, who recently started playing left field with All-Star catcher Will Smith in the first year of a 10-year extension. [The Athletic]
So that seems to be where the line was drawn.
Painter, despite being out long-term in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, is still considered the top pitching prospect in the Phillies' system and just overall amongst position players Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford.
That's not to say that the Phillies weren't willing to part with promising pitching talent, club president Dave Dombrowski being OK with sending George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri to Anaheim for Estévez shows that they were, but there's been a lot of stock put into the hopes of Painter being a future ace and obviously the Phillies would much rather see him realize that with them instead of elsewhere.
And granted, up until the post-All-Star break struggles really set in, starting pitching generally wasn't considered much of a heavy priority for the Phillies approaching the deadline, since Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez, and Cristopher Sánchez all looked to have the 1-4 spots in the rotation under control.
Of course that all looks rough now, and Crochet would've theoretically helped if a deal got done, but we're past that now and there is still half of August and all of September left for the Phillies to play to get fully back on track.
MORE: Weston Wilson and the list of Phillies who have hit for the cycle
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