Bryce Harper got what he asked for at the trade deadline: some help. But will it be enough?
On Monday, the Phillies traded for San Francisco Giants second baseman Luis Arraez — a three-time batting champion who leads the National League with a .324 average this season. The team also added some much-needed relief pitching help, acquiring the Giants’ Caleb Kilian and the New York Mets’ Brooks Raley.
Each year after the deadline passes, members of the media rush to their keyboards to grade each teams’ deadline dealings. This year is no different, and the Phillies have been getting mixed reviews.
Here’s what those in the national media are saying:
The Athletic: B+
The Athletics’s Jim Bowden praised Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, noting his deadline moves “proved once again why he’s a future Hall of Famer.”
“Even with a subpar farm system, he was able to add the pieces he needed to improve the Phillies’ chances for a postseason berth,” Bowden wrote. “Arraez will create traffic at the top of the order and turn some of Kyle Schwarber’s solo homers into two-run homers. The bullpen depth is much improved, as well, with the additions of Kilian and Raley.”
However, Bowden did have some reservations that prevented an “A” grade. Namely, the former baseball executive expressed concerns with how the team will adjust to positional changes made due to the acquisition of Arraez. With Arraez playing second base, Harper will move to right field, Alec Bohm to first base, and Bryson Stott to third.
On Tuesday, Stott told the Inquirer that Harper’s willingness to move positions paved the way for the rest of the team to follow suit.
“It should be not lost that our superstar first baseman, two-time MVP is willing to move,” Stott said. “And when you’re on a team and you see a guy do that, what are we going to say, no, we’re not moving?”
Yahoo! Sports: B-
Jake Mintz of Yahoo! Sports called the positional changes “fancy problems” to have, arguing that the addition of Arraez strengthens the team, not harms it.
“This lineup, second-to-last in OBP, needed a boost,” Mintz wrote. “Arraez should provide it and give the Phillies the contact-oriented piece they’ve lacked the past few Octobers, when they’ve collected strikeouts by the dozen.”
Against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series last year, the Phillies hit for a combined .212 average as they were eliminated from the playoffs in four games.
Mintz also praised the bullpen additions of Raley and Kilian, writing that “one or both should find himself tossing high-leverage frames once the weather gets cold.” He then took some time to address the team’s needs that went unanswered.
“The only two unfulfilled items on … Dave Dombrowski’s shopping list were a veteran depth starter and a righty-hitting outfielder,” Mintz wrote. “The reemergence of Andrew Painter (he looked good the other day) should solve the first problem. Dombrowski and Co. likely believe Arraez is good enough that the second problem won’t matter.”
ESPN: Phillies are a deadline ‘loser’
ESPN’s David Schoenfield did not deal out letter grades, but he did look to sort a handful of teams into two categories: winners and losers. The Phillies were placed in the latter.
Before airing out his grievances, Schoenfield praised Dombrowski for “adding Arraez to provide some much-needed OBP at the top of the lineup plus relievers Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian for key bullpen depth.”
However, he felt the position changes that came with the acquisition of Arraez significantly weakened the team’s defense.
“Given Stott’s inexperience at third base, the Phillies are arguably making themselves worse on defense at all four positions if they stick to this plan, which is why they’re a loser and not a winner,” Schoenfield wrote.
He also feels that the Phillies should have added another starting pitcher.
“Oh, and with the Phillies suddenly fighting just to win a wild-card spot, they could have used a starting pitcher, but Dombrowski failed to land one on a day when so many were traded.”
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