CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs are poised to acquire pitcher Clay Holmes and outfielder Tyrone Taylor from the New York Mets for touted infield prospect Jefferson Rojas.
The teams have agreed to the trade pending medical reviews, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because the move hadn’t been announced by either side.
It’s the latest effort by the busy Cubs to replenish an injury-depleted pitching staff as they attempt to chase down first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central and hang onto the National League’s top wild-card spot.
Earlier in the day, Chicago obtained reliever Ryan Zeferjahn from the Los Angeles Angels for two minor leaguers: catcher Moisés Ballesteros and right-hander Mason McGwire — son of retired slugger Mark McGwire. The team also added left-hander Braxton Garrett from the Miami Marlins for a pair of minor leaguers: infielder Jonathon Long and right-hander Jace Beck.
Holmes appears just about ready to return from a broken right leg that has sidelined him since mid-May. He was 4-4 with a 2.39 ERA in nine starts before getting hurt.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates made a significant push to improve their beleaguered bullpen at the trade deadline, acquiring veteran right-hander Luke Weaver from the New York Mets, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.
Pittsburgh, looking to end a decade-long playoff drought, sent shortstop prospect Sammy Stafura to the Mets in exchange for the 32-year-old Weaver, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not yet official.
The addition of Weaver signals an unusually aggressive financial push by the typically frugal Pirates. Weaver is in the first season of a two-year, $22 million deal.
The move comes with Pittsburgh’s bid for the National League’s third wild-card spot flickering a bit following a 2-7 stretch in which the bullpen has faltered repeatedly.
The trade for Weaver is the second significant acquisition by the Pirates around the deadline. Pittsburgh brought in former All-Star reliever Camilo Doval from the New York Yankees on Saturday. Doval allowed a run in one inning of work in his Pirates’ debut in a loss to Cincinnati on Sunday.
Weaver had been one of the few bright spots this season for the last-place Mets, going 2-1 with a 1.84 ERA with one save in 42 appearances. A converted starting pitcher, Weaver has been excellent since moving to the bullpen full-time in 2024 with the New York Yankees. He has a 13-8 record with a 2.90 ERA in 168 games with 13 saves with the Mets and Yankees over the last two-plus seasons.
In a move to reinforce the bullpen, the Phillies turned to … the Mets?
On the heels of a larger trade for second baseman Luis Arraez and reliever Caleb Kilian from the Giants, the Phillies acquired lefty reliever Brooks Raley from the Mets for minor league right-hander Luke Gabrysh and outfielder John Spikerman.
Raley, 38, has a 1.96 ERA in 41⅓ innings for the Mets. A pending free agent, he figures to slot into the bullpen alongside fellow lefties José Alvarado and Tim Mayza and righties Orion Kerkering and Jonathan Bowlan as the primary pieces in the bridge to closer Jhoan Duran.
All along, the Mets appeared to be a source for the Phillies to find relief help. The Mets are among the few aggressive sellers in the marketplace and already moved relievers A.J. Minter (to the Twins) and Huascar Brazobán (to the White Sox). They also have gotten offers for Luke Weaver, who is under contract for 2027, and closer-turned-starter Clay Holmes.
Right-handed pitcher Nolan Hoffman was designated for assignment to make room for Raley on the Phillies’ 40-man roster.
Luis Arraez is neither an outfielder nor a right-handed hitter. But he is the Phillies’ solution for scoring more runs.
Even though it puts Bryce Harper back in right field.
Welcome to the Phillies’ brave new world.
Amid an underwhelming market for righty-swinging outfielders, Dave Dombrowski made a trade-deadline splash Monday, acquiring Arraez — a lefty-hitting second baseman — and reliever Caleb Kilian from the Giants for two minor leaguers, including breakout pitching prospect Ramon Marquez — and in the process, uprooting three-quarters of the infield and transplanting Harper to the outfield for the first time since April 2022.
Then, in an almost concurrent trade, the Phillies picked up veteran lefty reliever Brooks Raley from the Mets for minor-league outfielder John Spikerman and right-hander Luke Gabrysh.
“Obviously,” Harper said, “it’s been a good deadline. I think [Dombrowski]’s done a great job.”
Harper said he didn’t know the Phillies were talking to the Giants about Arraez when he texted Dombrowski on Sunday night, after a conversation over the weekend in Baltimore with manager Don Mattingly. In both cases, he reiterated what he has said for years: For another productive hitter who played in the infield, he would make a short-term move back to right field.
With Harper clearing the way, the Phillies pivoted to Arraez, a contact-hitting savant and three-time batting champion with a bead on a fourth. He’s leading the National League with a .324 average and has struck out only 21 times in 464 plate appearances.
In short, he’s like almost no other modern hitter.
Luis Arraez has more walks (25) than strikeouts (21). Gregory Bull
“He’s kind of like the modern day like Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs,” said Mattingly, who played with both. “The guy just hits. He’s always hit, [won] batting titles, and just continues to do it. Obviously a huge addition to the lineup.”
But in pivoting to a hitter whom they believe will have a bigger impact than any of the righty-hitting outfielders they were scouting, the Phillies threw into flux an infield that already ranks among the worst defensive groups in the majors.
Arraez wants to stay at second base, where he improved defensively this season under Giants infield coach Ron Washington. Mattingly said the Phillies “wouldn’t have made the trade if we weren’t going to put him at second,” but really, they had little choice. The out-of-contention Giants assured Arraez they would only trade him to a team that would use him there.
Effective Tuesday night, then, when Arraez joins the Phillies, second baseman Bryson Stott will move to third base, third baseman Alec Bohm will go to first, and yes, Harper will shift back to the grass.
“The key for me is Harp,” Mattingly said. “Harp moving to the outfield is really the key to this.”
Said Harper: “I’ve said it in years past — I mean, I know everybody thinks it’s crap when I say it, but it’s not. Any chance that we have an opportunity to win, I’d do anything for this organization. And they know that.”
In the weeks leading up to the deadline, the Phillies focused on three areas: a right-handed bat, a late-inning reliever, and a starting pitcher. With so many needs and few assets in the farm system, it seemed like a challenge for Dombrowski to get everything.
As a team, the Phillies entered the week tied for 28th in the majors in on-base percentage (.304). In particular, they have gotten less production than any team from the right side of the plate, with a worst-in-the-majors .280 on-base percentage and .644 OPS.
But neither Mike Trout nor Byron Buxton has signaled a willingness to waive their no-trade rights. (In Buxton’s case, the Twins are a playoff contender in the American League.) The Reds’ Spencer Steer injured his wrist and may miss the rest of the season; the Royals traded Lane Thomas to the Braves; the Angels’ Jo Adell has a .279 career on-base percentage; and the Orioles were noncommittal on trading Taylor Ward.
(Adell and Ward were ultimately dealt to the Guardians and Mariners, respectively, Monday.)
Given the state of the market, the Phillies felt they needed to get creative. So, they widened their search over the weekend, according to major league sources, and landed on Arraez, who has a .360 on-base percentage and figures to help set the table for Kyle Schwarber and Harper.
“He’s a guy that won the batting title a couple of years and somebody that’s going to put the bat on the ball,” Harper said. “Exciting player, you know? I think he just brings a lot to our lineup. He’s got that hit tool, and it’s somebody that can be really good for us.”
The Phillies also acquired Kilian, a 29-year-old righty, to add depth to the middle of the bullpen. He has a 4.26 ERA in 46 games this season, but hasn’t allowed a run in eight of his last 11 appearances.
The move comes at a cost for a farm system that was already ranked among the worst in baseball.
Marquez, a hard-throwing 20-year-old right-hander, has emerged this season, prompting debate among scouts about whether he or 2025 first-round pick Gage Wood was the best pitching prospect in the system. Scouts are impressed by Marquez’s changeup and an uptick in his fastball velocity. He has a 1.50 ERA in six starts since moving up to high-A Jersey Shore.
Marty Gair, a 23-year-old, was recently promoted to Jersey Shore. He has a 4.50 ERA and six saves in 30 appearances overall this season.
Raley is shaping up as an important addition, especially given the powerhouse Dodgers’ lefty-heavy lineup. In 41⅓ innings with the Mets, the 38-year-old veteran had a 1.96 ERA. A pending free agent, he will join José Alvarado as the lefty weapons to combat Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and Kyle Tucker in the middle and late innings.
“I see him more towards the back end,” Mattingly said. “Obviously we’ve got Alvy, who’s throwing the ball really good. But we’ll take all the arms we can get out there.”
Phillies acquire infielder Luis Arraez from the Giants
Luis Arraez leads the National League with a .324 average and has more walks than strikeouts.Jeff Chiu
Luis Arraez is neither a right-handed hitter nor an outfielder.
But he’s the Phillies’ solution to help the offense.
The Phillies beat the trade deadline Monday by acquiring Arraez and reliever Caleb Kilian from the Giants, according to a major-league source.
Philly will send breakout pitching prospect Ramon Marquez and minor league reliever Marty Gair to San Francisco, according to USA Today, although the teams haven’t announced the trade because players were still being informed.
Arraez, 29, has said he prefers to stay at second base, where he has improved defensively this season. In that case, the move for Arraez will force the Phillies to shuffle the defense. It’s unclear how they will do that.
But Arraez is a contact-hitting, on-base machine. He’s leading the National League with a .324 average and has more walks (25) than strikeouts (21). He has a .360 on-base percentage and figures to help set the table for Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
Right-hander Anthony Eyanson is going to the Baltimore Orioles in the Adley Rutschman deal, a source tells ESPN. Big-time pitching prospect who's the centerpiece of the deal.
“His contact-based approach will aid a lineup built around sluggers hitting .250,” McCullough wrote. “The Phillies will also have to hope that his recent defensive improvement can continue without the daily tutelage of infield guru Ron Washington.”
Elsewhere, CBS Sports gave the Phillies a “B+” in part because the deal won’t move “the defensively deficient Trea Turner off of shortstop.” Sports Illustrated gave the Phillies an “A” despite giving up pitching prospect Ramon Marquez because “Arraez is a natural fit to boost an otherwise underperforming offense.”
Braves acquire reliever Brent Suter from the Angels
Trade news: The Atlanta Braves are acquiring left-handed reliever Brent Suter from the Los Angeles Angels for infielder Nacho Alvarez Jr., sources tell ESPN.
Phillies trade for Arraez creates more questions than answers
Will Luis Arraez play second base? Gregory Bull
Do the Phillies have something bigger in play?
You have to wonder because, right now, the decision to trade fast-rising pitching prospect Ramon Marquez for Giants infielder Luis Arraez creates far more questions than answers.
With Arraez reportedly insisting on remaining at second base, where he has graded out as a subpar defender for most of his career, the Phillies don’t have many palatable options to accommodate him within their current personnel structure.
Their best defensive alignment would be putting Arraez at first and moving Bryce Harper to the outfield. But, again, Arraez reportedly doesn’t want to play first. Yet it would be hard to justify moving Trea Turner to the outfield against his will to accommodate Arraez, rather than vice versa.
A report in the Athletic suggests the Phillies are considering putting Bryson Stott at third and Alec Bohm at first. But Stott has played 12 games of third base in his professional career, minor leagues included. That’s an awfully big unknown defensively.
All of these defensive questions might make sense if Arraez were a clear difference-maker. In reality, he’s a left-handed, contact-hitting bat whose batting average is nearly 70 points lower on the road this season, away from San Francisco’s massive outfield. He also has five extra base hits in 111 at-bats since the start of July, with an OPS below .700.
There is a scenario where Arraez could make a great deal of sense. A lot of people have focused on the potential of trading Bohm. But I wonder if Stott is a more likely candidate to move.
I’m having a hard time convincing myself the Phillies would consider such a thing, given how ingrained Stott is within the fabric of the current team. But he still has a year left on his contract after 2026, which means he would have more appeal to a selling team than somebody like Bohm, who will be a free agent after the season.
With an .820 OPS since mid-June, Stott might be a piece the Phillies could leverage for one that better fits their roster, whether in the form of a right-handed hitting outfielder or starting pitcher or both.
Luis Arraez has a career .363 on-base percentageCharlie Riedel
The Phillies are well-acquainted with Luis Arraez’s exceptional bat control.
It’s what’s helped the second baseman build a career .363 on-base percentage. And when he was on the other side — on the Padres in 2024 and 2025 and on the Giants this season — it made him a challenge for the Phillies to defend against.
“We started just moving around in the infield, because he’d look around and just find a hole and hit it there,” Alec Bohm said after the Phillies played San Francisco in April. “He’s just that talented.”
It’s the type of skill that has been missing from the Phillies’ lineup. Arraez doesn’t have much pop, with just four homers this year, but his contact ability helps manufacture offense.
According to Baseball Reference, when Arraez comes to the plate with less than two outs and a runner on third, that runner has scored 72.7% of the time. The league average for those situations is just 50.6%.
Bryce Harper back to the outfield after Phillies land Luis Arraez?
Bryce Harper could move to outfield to make room for Luis Arraez.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
A half-hour after the Phillies lost Friday night in Baltimore, Dave Dombrowski intercepted Bryce Harper in a hallway outside the clubhouse, draped an arm around him, and started talking.
It may have been the genesis of a creative deadline trade.
The move Monday for three-time batting champion Luis Arraez left people, even some within the Phillies organization, guessing about how the infield pieces will fit. The Phillies were trying to add a righty-hitting outfielder, a creature that was more scarce in this marketplace than a Mickey Mantle rookie card. And so, they widened their search over the weekend, according to major league sources, and landed on Arraez, a lefty-hitting contact machine who has made clear that he wants to stay at second base.
One issue: The Phillies’ infield has been set in stone, with Bryson Stott at second base, Trea Turner at shortstop, Alec Bohm at third base, and Harper at first.
The Phillies have been looking for a righty-hitting outfielder for years. Harper, who hasn’t played right field since 2022 and moved to first base midway through the 2023 season after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery, repeatedly offered to move back to right field, on a short-term basis, even reportedly bringing his outfield glove on the Phillies’ road trip last week. Each time, Dombrowski declined.
“I’ve said it multiple years before — and this year, still: For the right player, I would do it,” Harper said in June. “I mean, that’s as real as it gets. I don’t want to do it long-term. But if the right player comes along and that’s what we need, or if that’s what we want, I’d be open to it at any point. I still feel like I can throw a baseball from right field, and I can catch a fly ball. It’s been a long time. But, yeah, I would do it in a heartbeat for us to win a World Series, without a doubt.”
Dombrowski’s response: “I know he’s always been very open-minded to trying to help the organization however he can, but we haven’t talked to him. And I really don’t contemplate it because I really like the way he goes about his business at first base. … I’m looking at him as being a first baseman.”
But market forces appear to have changed Dombrowski’s thinking.
Most of the available righty-hitting outfielders are platoon players. The Royals dealt one such option, Lane Thomas, to the Braves over the weekend. The Angels are holding Jo Adell, who has a .279 career on-base percentage and another year of club control. The Reds’ Spencer Steer may have been an option for the Phillies, but he sprained his wrist last week and may be out for the rest of the season. Mike Trout and Byron Buxton have indicated they won’t waive their no-trade clauses.
The Phillies turned to Arraez, who is unlike almost any hitter in baseball. He’s a .318 career hitter, including a National League-leading .324 mark this year, and has more walks (25) than strikeouts (21). He has 236 career strikeouts, fewer than the combined total of Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner … this year.
Arraez is having his best defensive season at second base, although Stott plays Gold Glove-caliber defense at second. In any case, Arraez is a pending free agent and isn’t likely to occupy second base beyond this season.
Moving Harper back to right field – plus, Stott to third base and Bohm to first — is probably the cleanest way for the Phillies to accommodate Arraez.
But there are other options. Turner, who leads the majors with 18 errors, briefly played center field with the Nationals in 2016. In that scenario, Stott would return to shortstop, where he played in 2022 when the Phillies went to the World Series.
Or the Phillies could attempt to trade Bohm for a starting pitcher — perhaps in a buyer-to-buyer swap – and move Stott to third base.
Phillies trade for Mets relief pitcher Brooks Raley
Reliever Brooks Raley is reportedly heading to the Phillies’ bullpen.Erin Hooley
In a move to reinforce the bullpen, the Phillies turned to … the Mets?
On the heels of a larger trade for second baseman Luis Arraez and reliever Caleb Kilian from the Giants, the Phillies acquired lefty reliever Brooks Raley from the Mets for minor league right-hander Luke Gabrysh and outfielder John Spikerman, a major-league source confirmed. The teams haven’t announced the deal because the players were being informed.
Raley, 38, has a 1.96 ERA in 41 1/3 innings for the Mets. A pending free agent, he figures to slot into the bullpen alongside fellow lefties Jose Alvarado and Tim Mayza and righties Orion Kerkering and Jonathan Bowlan as the primary pieces in the bridge to closer Jhoan Duran.
All along, the Mets appeared to be a source for the Phillies to find relief help. The Mets are among the few aggressive sellers in the marketplace and already moved relievers A.J. Minter (to the Twins) and Huascar Brazobán (to the White Sox). They also have gotten offers for Luke Weaver, who is under contract for 2027, and closer-turned-starter Clay Holmes.
The Angels will receive SS Arjun Nimmala (TOR No. 2 prospect per @MLBPipeline, No. 43 overall), OF Eddie Micheletti and RHP Angel Rivero in return for Soriano, sources tell me and @JonathanMayo.
The Mets’ Clay Holmes could give the Mets help in the rotation for the rest of the regular season and then move into the bullpen for the playoffs.Ross D. Franklin
Mets right-hander Clay Holmes made three minor league starts in his recovery from a right leg fracture.
The Phillies scouted all of them.
Holmes, who threw 73 pitches Sunday for high-A Brooklyn, was the Mets’ best starter until he got hit by a comebacker on May 15. The 33-year-old is uniquely suited to help the Phillies address their pitching needs on multiple levels.
Initially, Holmes could slot into the rotation behind Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler, and Jesús Luzardo to help nudge the Phillies into the postseason. And then, once they get there, the former All-Star closer with the Yankees could slide into the bullpen to give interim manager Don Mattingly another late-inning option before closer Jhoan Duran.
But would the out-of-contention Mets trade with a division rival, especially the Phillies? The teams haven’t paired up on a trade since New York sent lefty Jason Vargas to the Phillies for a minor leaguer at the deadline in 2019.
Holmes is almost certain to decline his $12 million player option for 2027, which would make him a free agent. The Mets have only four games remaining against the Phillies this season. Holmes has a 2.39 ERA in 52⅔ innings in nine starts.
In addition to having a scout follow Holmes’ rehab starts, the Phillies have gotten looks at most other starting pitchers in the marketplace, including Giants lefty Robbie Ray, who has a 1.69 ERA in 64 innings over his last 11 starts. Although Ray doesn’t have as much experience or success out of the bullpen as Holmes, he has appeared in relief in the postseason, including twice for the Mariners in 2022.
Could Bryan De La Cruz be a trade-day alternative?
Bryan De La Cruz is giving the Phillies something to think about ahead of the deadline. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Last year, on the eve of the deadline, the Phillies completed a massive trade for star closer Jhoan Duran during a rain delay.
They had two downpours Sunday to make another splash.
No such luck.
There’s still time. Club executives have until 6 p.m. Monday before they must put down their pencils and live with the rosters they’ve built, at least for the duration of the season. And so, Dave Dombrowski keeps working the phones.
In the meantime, Bryan De La Cruz is giving the Phillies something to think about.
A veteran outfielder who finally got called up two weeks ago after 3½ months in triple A, De La Cruz crushed a two-run homer in the third inning of a rain-interrupted (twice) 8-0 thumping of the Orioles that was shortened to six innings after a second midgame downpour.
Make it back-to-back victories for the Phillies after four consecutive losses. And make it nine hits and six RBIs in 20 at-bats for De La Cruz since his arrival.
Impressive? Sure. Enough to call off the Phillies’ search for a right-handed bat? Probably not. But it might alter it.
Orioles slugger Taylor Ward fits the Phillies’ needs. But is he on the market?
Taylor Ward has a .383 on-base percentage and fits the Phillies’ needs.Chris O'Meara
Outfielders who are productive from the right side of the plate and potentially available in this trade market are almost as rare as a Mickey Mantle rookie card.
The Phillies just got an up-close look at one of them.
The Orioles’ Taylor Ward would be a fit for the Phillies, who were last in the majors with a .279 on-base mark and .639 OPS from their right-handed hitters.
One obstacle: The Orioles are on the buyer-seller fence.
“We’re not going to have a strong bias in either direction,” Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias said before Baltimore opened a three-game series against the Phillies. “We put ourselves in a position where we’re not declaring ourselves to be in one bucket or another in terms of buying or selling.”
After losing two of three to the Phillies this weekend, The Orioles are 54-58 and haven’t been over .500 since April 14 (9-8). But they were only 2½ games out of a wild-card spot in a mediocre, to put it kindly, American League.
Elias said the Orioles are closing in on getting catchers Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo, third baseman Blaze Alexander, starter Chris Bassitt, and closer Ryan Helsley back from the injured list.
And unlike National League bubble teams, who would have to contend in October with the superpower Dodgers and Brewers, the field is wide-open in the AL. Any team that makes the playoffs has a chance to make a deep run.
In that case, the Orioles may hold on to Ward, sixth in the AL in on-base percentage. Then again, he’s a pending free agent. And the righty-hitting outfield market got even thinner last week with injuries to the Reds’ Spencer Steer and Giants’ Casey Schmitt.
So, if the Orioles try to buy and sell simultaneously, maybe they can cash in Ward for a controllable asset.
Other right-hitting outfield options for the Phillies
Los Angeles Angels’ Jo Adell is on the Phillies’ radar ahead of the trade deadline.Caroline Brehman
Dave Dombrowski convened more than a dozen executives, analysts, and scouts in Baltimore for the weekend. They continue to pursue a right-handed bat, a late-inning reliever, and a starting pitcher, according to multiple league sources.
In addition to Orioles slugger Taylor Ward, the Phillies are exploring other righty-hitting outfield options.
Among them are Angels’ Jo Adell, the Dodgers’ Alex Call, and the Giants’ Heliot Ramos.
The Reds’ Spencer Steer and the Giants’ Casey Schmitt might have been options if they hadn’t gotten injured. The Phillies were interested in the Royals’ Lane Thomas before he got traded to the Braves late Saturday night.
The Phillies have been linked Jeff Hoffman, who pitched in Philly two seasons.Julio Cortez
The trade deadline is just hours away — 6 p.m. Monday — and Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is trying to fill multiple needs.
Chief among them: late-inning relief, which was amplified by Friday night’s seventh-inning meltdown.
The Phillies have been linked to old friend Jeff Hoffman, who has a 4.02 ERA for the Blue Jays but also has given up two earned runs in 19⅔ innings since June 9.
They have expressed interest in Padres lefty Adrián Morejón, but San Diego was only game behind the Phillies for the last wild-card spot entering play Saturday.
Kerkering sounded like he expects that the Phillies will reinforce the bullpen.
“Everyone knows it at the end of the day,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone thinks about it, like when you’re out there or getting ready for the day.”
Latest MLB trade deals includes the Braves adding a starter
Tyler Mahle is headed to Atlanta.Jed Jacobsohn
Here are some notable MLB trades that have happened so far, according to team announcements and multiple reports:
Braves land starter Tyler Mahle: The veteran right hander heads to his fifth team, while the Giants receive Anthony Molina.
White Sox trade for Huascar Brazobán: In exchange, the selling Mets landed two prospects, per reports – starter Gabe Davis and reliever Zach Franklin.
Cubs acquire veteran pitcher Kevin Gausman: The Cubs land a starter while sending the Blue Jays two prospects – infielder Ty Southisene and outfielder Brett Bateman
Dodgers landing Tarik Skubal is humbling to the Phillies
The centerpiece of the Tarik Skubal trade is a good example of the Dodgers’ skill in this prospect thing.Paul Sancya
Nobody wants to admit it, but the Dodgers deserve Tarik Skubal.
Los Angeles landed him the old fashioned way. They drafted, developed, traded, and signed their way to a circumstance where they could trade a highly valued outfield prospect for three months of service that will only pad their odds of completing a three-peat that they were favored to accomplish anyway.
That’s what you should focus on. The dignity of the deal. Not the Dodgers’ myriad of other competitive advantages. The endless payroll. The creative accounting. The market size, location, and glitz. None of them matter as much as the fundamentals. The Dodgers are simply better at identifying and nurturing talent than any other organization. To focus on anything else is to give your own organization a pass.
The Dodgers traded for Skubal because they could.
They had four outfielders ranked among the 40 best prospects in the game, for crying out loud. Three of them were at Double-A already. Their big league outfield already includes young breakout star Andy Pages in center field and Kyle Tucker in right. Not only do they have high-end prospects that other teams want, they can afford to trade some of them. In fact, they almost have to trade some of them.
From 2021 through 2026, the Dodgers had 22 players appear on at least one of the major national Top 100 lists. The Phillies had eight during the same time span. Only two teams in the majors had fewer than the Phillies. Only three teams in the majors had more than the Dodgers.
MLB’s trade deadline is 6 p.m. Monday.Mitchell Leff / MCT
The MLB trade deadline is Monday at 6 p.m.
Historically, the trade deadline always fell on July 31, but commissioner Rob Manfred is able to set the deadline any day between July 28 and Aug. 3, so it avoids falling on a weekend and doesn’t conflict with any games.
After the trade deadline expires, players on 40-man rosters can no longer be traded from club to club. Players can still be placed and claimed on outright waivers.
Minor league players not on 40-man rosters can still be traded after the deadline.
BALTIMORE — Last year, on the eve of the deadline, the Phillies completed a massive trade for star closer Jhoan Duran during a rain delay.
They had two downpours Sunday to make another splash.
No such luck.
There’s still time. Club executives have until 6 p.m. Monday before they must put down their pencils and live with the rosters they’ve built, at least for the duration of the season. And so, Dave Dombrowski keeps working the phones.
In the meantime, Bryan De La Cruz is giving the Phillies something to think about.
A veteran outfielder who finally got called up two weeks ago after 3½ months in triple A, De La Cruz crushed a two-run homer in the third inning of a rain-interrupted (twice) 8-0 thumping of the Orioles that was shortened to six innings after a second midgame downpour.
Make it back-to-back victories for the Phillies after four consecutive losses. And make it nine hits and six RBIs in 20 at-bats for De La Cruz since his arrival.
Impressive? Sure. Enough to call off the Phillies’ search for a right-handed bat? Probably not. But it might alter it.
“I mean, we played against him a lot, obviously seeing him in Miami,” said Bryce Harper, who homered in the fifth inning in between the rain. “He’s always got a good swing, good pop. Good to see him swinging that well.”
The Orioles’ grounds crew was busy Sunday with two rain delays in the middle of an 8-0 Phillies victory that was shortened to six innings.Stephanie Scarbrough
Speaking of sights for sore eyes, six days after Zack Wheeler’s fastball velocity nosedived in his worst start of the season, his heater climbed back to 96 mph and sat at 94-95. All along, interim manager Don Mattingly claimed he wasn’t concerned; Wheeler dismissed Monday night in Miami as merely a bad day.
But still, given his importance to the whole thing, team officials were relieved to see Wheeler look like Wheeler.
If only he got to do it for more than two innings.
“It is what it is,” said Wheeler, who retired six of seven batters on 32 pitches, then said he threw another 40-something pitches under the stands during a 1-hour, 49-minute rain delay. “I’m not frustrated, really. I felt good. I felt better than the other day.”
As a group, the Phillies said the same after rebounding from getting swept in Miami by taking two of three from the Orioles.
By Monday evening, they hope to feel even better.
Dombrowski convened more than a dozen executives, analysts, and scouts in Baltimore for the weekend. They continue to pursue a right-handed bat, a late-inning reliever, and a starting pitcher, according to multiple league sources.
Given the supply in an extreme seller’s market, the bat may be the hardest thing to find. The Reds’ Spencer Steer and the Giants’ Casey Schmitt might have been options if they hadn’t gotten injured. The Phillies were interested in the Royals’ Lane Thomas before he got traded to the Braves late Saturday night.
The Phillies got an up-close look at the Orioles’ Taylor Ward over the weekend. But Baltimore is straddling the buyer-seller fence, as president of baseball operations Mike Elias said Friday, and might choose to hold on to Ward, even though he’s a pending free agent.
Other possibilities include the Angels’ Jo Adell and the Dodgers’ Alex Call.
Then, there’s De La Cruz, a 29-year-old righty-hitting outfielder with 60 homers as a replacement-level player in a winding major league career. He wasn’t called up from triple A until after the Phillies gave looks to Otto Kemp, Felix Reyes, and lefty-hitting Gabriel Rincones Jr.
“It’s a dream come true, really,” De La Cruz said through a team interpreter. “I spent the last three or four years playing against this team, so being a part of it, it’s just really fun. I’m just thankful and grateful for the opportunity.”
Mattingly was De La Cruz’s first major league manager with the Marlins in 2021. As a rookie, De La Cruz batted .297 with five homers and a .783 OPS.
Upon getting called up after the All-Star break, De La Cruz started mostly against lefties. Lately, Mattingly has given him at-bats against righties, too, leaving Rincones as an odd-man out.
“De La’s been good, right?” Mattingly said. “He’s just solid. And he’s been that guy that, parts of his career, it’s like been really good.”
If anything, De La Cruz’s production may compel the Phillies to widen their search to include a left-handed bat, such as Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho. Outfield remains the easiest place to add a hitter, but if they trust De La Cruz, they could shift to Giants second baseman Luis Arraez, a move that would require a reshuffling of the infield.
Brandon Marsh singled as part of a two-run fourth inning in the Phillies’ rain-shortened 8-0 victory over the Orioles.Stephanie Scarbrough
Or they could reserve their biggest swing for pitching help. The Phillies had a scout in Brooklyn on Sunday to watch Mets righty Clay Holmes, who is coming back from a leg fracture. As a former closer and now a starter, Holmes could help deepen the rotation before shifting to the bullpen in the playoffs.
In any case, De La Cruz could create additional options.
“I can’t control what the team wants to do or doesn’t want to do, or if they make a move,” De La Cruz said. “I can’t control that. What I can control is what I do on the field, and I think that’s something that I’ll be focusing on.”
The Phillies couldn’t control the weather in the finale against the Orioles. Mattingly said the forecast he received before the game called for the rain to hold off until 3 p.m. It started almost 90 minutes earlier, and by the third inning, with the Phillies leading 2-0 on De La Cruz’s homer, puddles began forming in the infield. The conditions were unplayable.
And by the time the first wave of rain tapered off and the field was prepared, too much time had elapsed for either team to bring back their starting pitcher.
″I know they’re trying to make the best decision, but that was a little frustrating,” Mattingly said. “At the end of the day, it worked out.”
BALTIMORE — Bryson Stott was back in his room at the Phillies’ hotel here late Saturday night when the news came across his phone.
Tarik Skubal was traded …
… to the Dodgers.
Gulp?
“No, I mean, you don’t say that,” Stott said Sunday — a.k.a., Trade Deadline Eve — before the Phillies wrapped up a series against the Orioles. “Everyone’s trying to get better. You’re not scared of anyone or anything like that. As a competitor, you’re not like, ‘Oh great, they got him.’”
Sure, but the road to the World Series in the National League was always going to run through the Dodgers. And the two-time defending champs just landed the two-time reigning Cy Young winner in the other league.
“It’s a little shocking with [the Tigers] being still in it,” Kyle Schwarber said. “That was the weird thing to me. Maybe they just know something that none of us know and they just wanted to do something. I guess it was what they thought was the best quote-unquote deal.”
OK, to be clear: This isn’t simply a case of the rich getting richer. In addition to being a financial goliath, the Dodgers have the third-best farm system in the sport, according to Baseball America’s midseason rankings, with seven top-100 prospects.
The Phillies’ system ranks 29th and was labeled Sunday by one rival talent evaluator as “weak.” Zyhir Hope, a 21-year-old outfielder and the centerpiece of the three players headed to Detroit, is the No. 55 prospect in baseball and the sixth-best in the Dodgers’ system. He would likely be the Phillies’ top prospect.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is working the phones to try to add players before Monday’s trade deadline.Gene J. Puskar
So, no, the Phillies couldn’t put together a package to compete with the Dodgers for Skubal. Besides, they need a late-inning reliever and a right-handed bat, in addition to a starting pitcher. It puts Dave Dombrowski in “a tough spot,” as one NL team official said, because he has multiple holes to fill and few high-level prospects to cash in.
Unlike the Dodgers, who led the NL West by 10 games entering play Sunday, the Phillies aren’t a shoo-in for the postseason. Although they were in possession of the final NL playoff spot, they led the Padres by only one game and the Marlins by 1½.
Asked for his reaction to Skubal-to-the-Dodgers, interim manager Don Mattingly joked, “What happened?”
“No, we’ve got enough issues just taking care of our own business,” Mattingly said. “If we get to them, we’ll deal with it then.”
If the Phillies do get to the postseason, they’re viewed across the sport — even within the Dodgers’ front office — as a tough matchup, especially in a seven-game series, because of their starting pitching. Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo, in particular, are left-handed; the Dodgers are far more productive from the left side of the plate (.811 OPS) than the right (.721).
Last year, the Dodgers won two one-run games to edge the Phillies in the division series and expressed relief to have advanced. But that was before Skubal, who will join Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan, and maybe Shohei Ohtani in the Dodgers’ bottomless stable of starters.
It only makes the challenge more formidable.
“You know how good they are and how good we are,” Stott said. “I think our starters match up with anybody in the league. Obviously I think everyone would love a guy like [Skubal]. I’m sure there were other teams involved, too, and that’s who [the Tigers] went with. Can’t fault them.”
In three career starts against the Phillies, Tarik Skubal has a 2.37 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 19 innings.Paul Sancya
The Phillies faced Skubal three weeks ago in Detroit and scored two runs in five innings of a 5-0 victory behind Wheeler. In three career starts against the Phillies, the hard-throwing lefty has a 2.37 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 19 innings.
Schwarber, who played with Skubal on Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, recalled facing him for the first time in spring training in 2022.
“I was like, ‘Oh [crap], this kid’s throwing 100,’ you know, with a hard-breaking ball and then the good changeup,“ Schwarber said. ”I was like, ‘Well, the kid’s got some good stuff.’ And then to see where he developed to, the picture of where he is now.
“So, yeah, good trade for [the Dodgers], right? I don’t think anyone would look and say, if they traded for that caliber of a starting pitcher, that they would be upset.”
But Schwarber said the Phillies won’t like their chances against the Dodgers any less if they get to face them in the playoffs.
“Everyone always talks about their payroll. That hasn’t guaranteed them anything,” Schwarber said. “It’s worked out these last two years. But you kind of go back, I remember when I was with Chicago, [the Dodgers] won the West for how many years? I mean, 2020 was their first championship.
“I think one of our biggest things is that we’ve got to make it there, right? And if we match up with them again, anyone can beat anyone.”
The Dodgers made their big move. Dombrowski has two more days to come up with a counter.
Aidan Miller had a spinal procedure in early June to treat a back conditionJose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Extra bases
Backup catcher Rafael Marchan (knee) could play in minor-league games later in the week, according to Mattingly. … Top prospect Aidan Miller, who had a spinal procedure in early June to treat a back condition, is “back to playing catch,” according to a source. … The Phillies return home Monday night. Aaron Nola (3-9, 5.61 ERA) is scheduled to face the Nationals, who haven’t named a starting pitcher.
Nobody wants to admit it, but the Dodgers deserve Tarik Skubal. They landed him the old fashioned way. They drafted, developed, traded, and signed their way to a circumstance where they could trade a highly valued outfield prospect for three months of service that will only pad their odds of completing a three-peat that they were favored to accomplish anyway.
That’s what you should focus on. The dignity of the deal. Not the Dodgers’ myriad other competitive advantages. The endless payroll. The creative accounting. The market size, location, and glitz. None of them matter as much as the fundamentals. The Dodgers are simply better at identifying and nurturing talent than any other organization. To focus on anything else is to give your own organization a pass.
They had four outfielders ranked among the 40 best prospects in the game, for crying out loud. Three of them were at double A already. Their big league outfield already includes young breakout star Andy Pages in center field and Kyle Tucker in right. Not only do they have high-end prospects that other teams want, they can afford to trade some of them. In fact, they almost have to trade some of them.
From 2021 through 2026, the Dodgers had 22 players appear on at least one of the major national Top 100 lists. The Phillies had eight during the same time span. Only two teams in the majors had fewer than the Phillies. Only three teams in the majors had more than the Dodgers.
General managers and scouting directors tend to roll their eyes any time they end up on the wrong side of the Top 100 math. These lists don’t come close to providing an expert-level understanding of a team’s farm system. They are prone to politics and groupthink and statistics without context. All of which is true. But you can’t argue with the market.
The centerpiece of the Skubal trade is a good example of the Dodgers’ skill in this prospect thing. It’s also a good example of why it isn’t too early to expect more out of Dave Dombrowski’s farm system.
Let’s start at the beginning …
February 2020 — Dodgers acquire Mookie Betts for two top-50 prospects, neither of whom is Gavin Lux, who enters the season as a consensus top-five prospect.
January 2022 — Dodgers sign Dominican outfielder Josue De Paula for $400,000 in international bonus money.
March 2022 — Dodgers enter season with six Top 100 prospects, including Michael Busch. Dodgers initially drafted Busch at No. 31 in 2019, four picks after the Cubs took college pitcher Ryan Jensen.
January 2023 — Dodgers sign Venezuelan outfielder Eduardo Quintero for $297,500 in international bonus money.
January 2024 — Dodgers trade Busch to Cubs for Zyhir Hope in what was basically a prospect-for-prospect deal.
January 2025 — Dodgers trade Lux to Reds for outfielder Mike Sirota and a competitive balance pick, which they use on outfielder Charles Davalan.
January 2026 — Hope, Sirota, Quintero and De Paula all enter season as Top 100 prospects. Davalan is ranked as the No. 7 prospect in the Dodgers organization and a potential 2027 Top 100 prospect.
That’s a tidy snapshot of what makes the Dodgers the Dodgers. It isn’t just drafting and development. It’s knowing when to trade your own guys. It’s knowing who to trade for. It’s knowing how to spend international money. Look, a lot of those 22 Top 100 prospects have yet to turn into stars. Josiah Gray, Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, and Keibert Ruiz are some of the names. But all it takes is one Pages or (potentially) Dalton Rushing to turn into a homegrown star.
The Dodgers landed Tarik Skubal the old fashioned way.Paul Sancya
With one day to go before the MLB trade deadline, Phillies fans again are looking to a highly variable and often prohibitively expensive market to remedy roster holes that will never truly be solved without an adequate farm system. Imagine plugging someone like Pages into the lineup. Imagine if Andrew Painter had Justin Wrobleski’s pitching line. More often than not, trade deadlines are won and lost long before they arrive. The losers are the desperate teams. The winners are the ones who can outbid anybody but do not need to unless a game-changing deal comes around.
The Dodgers just struck such a deal. In adding Skubal, the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner, they have blunted the one competitive advantage the Phillies might have in a series. Even if Shohei Ohtani is unable to return to the mound this season, L.A. will still be able to go toe-to-toe in the first two games of a series.
Skubal vs. Cristopher Sánchez in Game 1.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Zack Wheeler in Game 2.
Beyond that, the Dodgers could have some combination of Wrobleski, former AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell, and 2025 postseason standout Tyler Glasnow, the latter two of whom are expected to rejoin the rotation off the IL in the near future. Plus, whatever they can get out of Ohtani, another former Cy Young winner.
The Dodgers’ big league depth is overwhelming. Their payroll has a lot to do with that. But a big payroll is no match for elite-level decision-making. Right now, that’s the Dodgers’ greatest competitive advantage.
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired the biggest prize on the trade deadline market, getting two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.
Skubal got the news during the Tigers’ 8-6 win over the Athletics and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a star to join the two-time defending World Series champions.
“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. ”I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”
Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts. If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.
The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West and were already the favorites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000 before adding Skubal. They began the season with a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. They will pay Skubal about $9.5 million for the remainder of the season.
ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.
Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series. He has a $32 million salary, a record total in arbitration, after the team offered $19 million, and is expected to sign a massive contract in the offseason.
The 29-year-old lefty said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal took the loss in the decisive Game 5 of the division series against Cleveland in 2024 and then got a no-decision in a 15-inning loss to Seattle in Game 5 of the division series last year.
He said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.
“Ever since that ’24 Game 5, the failure that I experienced on the mound, I’ve used that as fuel to try and bring a World Series to the city of Detroit. I truly did,” he said. “That whole offseason I’ve never been more motivated and then go in and we lose Game 5 again. That failure kind of sparks some more motivation, just to dig deeper and see how good you can truly be. The goal was always to win a World Series for the city, for the organization that took a chance on me. It’s tough. I love all those guys in there. They’re some of my best friends.”
Detroit planned to contend again this season, bolstering the Skubal-led rotation by giving two-time All-Star pitcher Framber Valdez a $115 million, three-year contract in free agency and retaining three-time All-Star infielder Gleyber Torres with a $22 million deal.
The Tigers, though, got off to a rough start and are currently 2½ games out of the last wild-card spot in the American League.
“It’s crazy. Going into the season, this isn’t what I planned on doing,” Skubal said. “But circumstances change, situations change, and I’m very appreciative of everything the Tigers have done for me.”
They bounced back in June and most of July to get into playoff contention with Skubal leading a rotation and three All-Stars in the lineup: rookie infielder and Delco native Kevin McGonigle, catcher Dillon Dingler and outfielder Riley Greene.
With a chance to possibly persuade management to keep Skubal by improving its playoff positioning, Detroit lost ground by dropping four of its last five games at home, including Skubal’s last start that was made even more memorable by a late-inning collapse.
The Tigers led Baltimore 7-0 after six innings Wednesday and lost 10-9 in 12 innings. Skubal started the game, recorded his 1,000th career strikeout and was cheered at every opportunity by a crowd of 34,406.
“I’ve watched this guy rise to the top of the sport,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s carried us a lot. I’ll forever be grateful that our paths crossed and the things that he did for this organization and for a couple of playoff teams. His presence, his work ethic, his example, his dominance. There’s so much to go through, it’s hard to capture in one quote or kind of one setting. But I’m very grateful that I was able to manage him for the time that I did.”
Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96⅔ innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.
Skubal had a minimally invasive surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.
“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July.
There’s a piano in every studio, a room full of guitars, and a mixing console shipped from Los Angeles that was used to record some of hip-hop’s iconic albums. Everything an artist needs, Will Yip said, is waiting for them in his South Philadelphia music studio.
But perhaps the most important thing is the TV in the lobby that Yip — a Northeast Philly native who won a Grammy earlier this year — flips on each night to catch the Phillies.
The 39-year-old works with some of the biggest acts in rock, continuing a career that started as a teenager volunteering at a Mayfair studio. Music has consumed him ever since he was a kid when he heard his brother listening to Dr. Dre and Nirvana.
He arrives at Memory Music Studios — the spot he opened in December at Swanson and Wolf Streets — each morning and does not leave until late at night. Artists send him ideas or ask for edits at odd hours. It’s a great gig, but a record producer does not clock out.
So that’s why Yip steps outside the studio every night and puts the Phillies on that TV in the lobby.
“When 6:40 comes around, I can check in on the game. Every game,” Yip said. “It’s my comfort zone and something I can count on every day. When they’re off on a Monday or Thursday, I’m like, ‘Damn.’ It kills me. It crushes me. Especially when they’re good.
“If anything, it has helped my music career. I think if all I was doing was music and didn’t have that time to step away a little each day, I think I’d lose my mind. This way, I can refocus and watch the game and come back and say, ‘This song rocks.’ Everyone needs something, a little balance, another place to put their energy in. Three hours a day, I’m forever grateful for the Phillies.”
William Yip at his recording studio in Philadelphia this summer.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
For so many, a game is the reward at the end of a day. The Phils are a conversation starter with a stranger, background noise in the car, and even on the TV at the recording studio. Fandom is what brings people together, Yip said. And it’s that fandom that helped him win that Grammy.
“The Phillies changed my life,” Yip said. “I think if I didn’t have the Phillies, I probably would’ve lost my mind on music. I need it. You can ask my wife. I need something to take my mind off music. If I didn’t have sports, I think I would get too consumed with music. I’m always stressing about music, so to be able to take a step back is huge.”
The Phillies felt cool again to the Yip brothers when Chase Utley arrived.(Michael Bryant / Staff Photographer)
Chase brings them back
Yip remembers how excited his older brother, Wilfred, was to open a pack of cards in the summer of 1993 and find Darren Daulton. The younger brother was hooked. And then Joe Carter hit that homer.
“That stuck with me,” said Yip, who was 6 years old that October.
The Phils bonded Yip with his brother, who is four years older than him. But that connection felt thinner in the early 2000s when the Phillies were in a rut and his brother left for college. Yip, then a teenager, checked out of sports after becoming immersed into music. That was his life.
Then Chase Utley arrived. The Phillies felt cool again. And the Yip brothers had something to share.
They went to Utley’s bobblehead night in 2006, and the crowd was electric. His sabbatical from the Phillies was necessary, as Yip started his path to that Grammy during those few seasons he missed. But he needed to be a fan again. He needed something else.
Yip worked with Lauryn Hill, sat Prince next to his wife at a concert, and met Jay-Z and Beyoncé. But it’s only the Phils who leave him starstruck.
“If it’s a Phillie, I lose my s—,” Yip said. “I lose my mind. If John Mayberry Jr. walked in the door right now, I’d go ‘Holy s—! That’s John Mayberry Jr.’ I always tell my buddies that my dream in life is to become friends with Chase Utley and Bryce Harper. That’s my dream. Forget the Grammy. That’s the absolute dream. Chop it up with Chase one day.”
Will Yip (left) and Mark Hoppus from the band Blink-182 watch a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park on July 22.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The Yip brothers have shared season tickets to the Eagles for 10 years, and Yip said the Birds have never lost when the brothers are in the Linc together. If there’s a big game, Wilfred texts his little brother that “they need us today.” The brothers go, and the Eagles win.
“That didn’t work with the Phillies,” Yip said. “In 2023 with the Diamondbacks, it was Game 7 [of the NLCS], and my brother goes, ‘They need us.’ I said, ‘I’m not sure that works with the Phillies.’ We went, and it didn’t work. But at least we shared it together.”
Maybe it would have been easier for Yip to check out after Carter’s homer. That was enough heartbreak. But Yip, just like everyone else, kept coming back. He stepped away as a teenager but returned to the thing that crushed him when he was in elementary school at John Hancock. Why?
“There’s always hope,” Yip said. “I think hope and dreams keep us alive. It’s the journey that keeps us alive. If we all accomplished our dreams right now, what would tomorrow even mean? It’s the hope of ‘Man, we can do it.’ That means so much. Without hope, humans don’t exist. I learned that as a sports fan. ‘This could be the year.’
“But for Philly sports, if we don’t have sports, what do we have? Sports is what ties our community together. Purely culture in terms of art, food, music, sports — and this is coming from a guy who works in music — sports is the most important thing to the city of Philadelphia. It just is. It ties everyone together. There’s no concert that you’ll ever put together or meal you’ll ever put out there that will get 2.1 million people walking Broad Street like that parade did.”
Among Will Yip’s collection of Phillies memorabilia: This cover for “MLB The Show ’19” that hung behind Bryce Harper during his introductory news conference in 2019.Lynne Sladky
The thrill of the hunt
There was something about holding the game-used Utley bat that his wife, Christina, bought him for Christmas in 2010. It was like owning a piece of history. Yip needed more.
“I went down this rabbit hole,” Yip said. “I had to see what else was out there.”
He scoured eBay, joined Facebook groups, and logged onto auction house websites. Yip became a part of what he calls an “underground market” of people who become friends as they help each other find game-used Phillies memorabilia. The search became a thrill as he spent an hour every night browsing for new things to add or became friends with other fans who were searching for others. It was another way to step back from the music he was creating.
He has 100s of jerseys that he keeps in storage and has lost track of how much money he’s spent over the years.
Yip has the last jersey Roy Halladay pitched in and the final uniform Ryan Howard wore. He bought the batting helmet Cole Hamels used when he hit a home run and the first bat Aaron Nola swung. He has World Series jerseys worn by Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Harper and a bunch of game-used Rollins bats. He has a glove used by Utley — which is rare, since fielders use the same glove for years — and the video game cover that hung behind Harper at his introductory news conference in 2019.
Will Yip has the jersey Ryan Howard wore here during his last game as a Phillie in 2016.DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer
Not every purchase has been a great investment. Yip is a fan, so he dreamed on the same players everyone else did. He collected Cody Asche, Darin Ruf, and Domonic Brown jerseys. He bought six of Scott Kingery’s tops and spent too much on Maikel Franco.
“My wife probably wanted to kill me when I got a lot of that stuff,” Yip said. “We were looking for the next guy. You can’t hit on them all. But the ones that hit, hit.”
The attraction to collecting was the ability to own pieces of history, something that never felt tangible for the child of immigrants who grew up in a rowhouse near Frankford Avenue and Knights Road. Yip used to stay up until his dad came home from waiting tables at the restaurant he owned so they could watch the Sixers game he taped that night on VHS.
Now he has a closet full of artifacts. No, he does not wear any of it.
“You don’t do that,” Yip said. “You can’t wear that. I’ve never worn one. I’ve swung a bat though. You can feel the power of Chase.”
Will Yip in the guitar room of his Memory Music Studios in South Philadelphia.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
‘Winning our ’chip’
Yip was at the Grammy Awards in February, but he was thinking like he was in the stands in South Philly as his chances to win started to dim. Turnstile, the band Yip produced, fell to Yungblud for Best Rock Performance and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails for Best Rock Song.
Yip started thinking like a bummed fan late in the game: He talked himself into accepting a loss for Best Rock Album.
“We were like, ‘Hold up. We’re not supposed to be here,’” Yip said. “‘It’s all good. This isn’t built for us. We make punk music, man. We’re lucky to be here.’ I came to terms after the first two that we weren’t going to win the Best Rock Album, which is the one that I really wanted.”
And then Turnstile won. Yip’s wife started crying. It was all so surreal, like that walk-off you saw only because you refused to leave the game early, even though you didn’t think the Phils would come back.
“It was winning our ’chip,” Yip said. “It was hard work, but it doesn’t make me who I am. A statue is never going to make you who you are. But it does make me appreciate the appreciation from other people. They acknowledged our hard work. We don’t need a Grammy to validate who we are, but it was a win that we touched so many people. That’ll be the closest thing I’ll feel to winning a World Series.”
Will Yip (left), with Mark Hoppus, says the Phillies are “the best distraction, the best getaway,” from his music career.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
His family was back home, and his mom told him that his brother cheered louder than he did when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. The brothers watched that game together just like they did when the Phillies won it all in 2008.
They watched the Phils win at Wilfred’s apartment in Gulph Mills and drove back to the Northeast to celebrate at Cottman and Frankford. The brothers stopped at a Wawa as they cut through the city and a man stopped Yip as he walked in.
“If you looked at us, we couldn’t look more different,” Yip said. “He daps me up, gives me a hug outside this North Philly Wawa, and says, ‘We did it, man.’ Me and this guy will probably never see each other again. We’re from completely different neighborhoods, but ‘We did it.’ And that’s what Philly sports is. I’ll never forget that.”
The Phillies were the common bond outside that Wawa, providing a connection between two strangers. The hope that Yip clung to for all those seasons finally paid off. And now the Phils provide a distraction when he turns the music down and takes a brief break from his own dream.
“That is why I lean in on the Phillies so hard and connect with them so hard. It’s the best distraction, the best getaway,” Yip said. “It’s always there. It’s definitely helped my career because it just gives me a reset and a focus. We care so much about sports because of that distraction, that extra thing that connects us all no matter who it is. We can all get together and talk about last night’s game. What else does that? I don’t think anything.”
