PHILADELPHIA -- David Robertson is the Phillies’ first move before the July 31 Trade Deadline.
More moves are coming.
Well, more moves are expected. The Phillies paid Robertson a prorated $16 million for the remainder of the season, plus a 110% tax penalty on his salary, because it allowed them to upgrade the bullpen and keep their top prospects for potential trades. The Phils have six Top 100 prospects, per MLB Pipeline: Andrew Painter (No. 8), Aidan Miller (No. 20), Justin Crawford (No. 46), Eduardo Tait (No. 60), Mick Abel (No. 84) and Aroon Escobar (No. 94).
Any of them (other than Painter) could be traded before July 31.
“We will do what we can to try to make [the team] better,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said.
The Phillies have been aggressively pursuing bullpen help, which they desperately need. They need a bat, too.
There is pressure to win this year. The core is getting older, and Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Ranger Suárez will be free agents after the season. On Monday, however, Dombrowski downplayed the suggestion that the Phillies’ window to win is closing.
“Somebody from another organization said, ‘I’ve never heard that statement more for an organization that also has really good pitching, some really good players and six players that rank in the Top 100 prospects in Major League Baseball,’” Dombrowski said. “I do think that we can keep having a good club for years to come.”
But the Phillies will have to trade some of those prospects to fill the holes they need to win a World Series. They have those holes, in part, because their free-agent acquisitions from the past offseason have not performed as expected: Right-hander Jordan Romano (6.88 ERA in 39 appearances), left fielder Max Kepler (.660 OPS in 321 plate appearances) and right-hander Joe Ross (5.28 ERA in 31 appearances).
Dombrowski said he has no regrets with how the organization constructed its bullpen in the offseason. It chose to sign two relievers to one-year deals rather than sign others to multiyear deals, such as Jeff Hoffman.
The Phils could not have predicted left-hander José Alvarado being suspended 80 games in May for using a performance-enhancing substance, which was a major blow. Alvarado will rejoin the bullpen on Aug. 19, though he is ineligible for the postseason.
There is always the concern that Alvarado will not be the hard-throwing, late-inning weapon he was earlier this season upon his return.
“I don’t think that will happen with this case at all,” Dombrowski said. “I know what the situation was. I don’t think that [the PEDs] were assisting him at all.”
Third baseman Alec Bohm is sidelined for a few weeks with a fractured left rib. The Phillies haven’t gotten much production from the bottom half of their lineup, so losing him is big.
Dombrowski said Bohm’s injury doesn’t change how he views the team’s need for a bat, possibly because he already knew the Phils needed one. The team entered Monday’s series opener against the Red Sox just 20-21 since June 1. They have scored two runs or fewer in 15 of those games.
“It’s been hot and cold,” Dombrowski said about the offense. “Some of that fix has to come internal. It just has to. You’re not going to go out and make a bunch of trades. You can look to supplement, but some of our guys internally, I think, we hope will do better.”
Crawford could help the Phillies in the season’s final months, but they might be waiting to see what happens before the Trade Deadline to see if he will join them or not.
“We just haven’t had the right time to do it yet,” Dombrowski said. “But he’s a person that’s always in our minds. … We need to kind of just sort out our own situation here, and see that when he comes up that he's going to be a guy that's playing all the time.
"He is a player that is very good, very talented. Will more development time hurt him? No. … But if we had to bring them up, or we decide to bring him up, it's not like he can't contribute by any means. But it really comes down to, if he's going to come here, we need him to be able to play the majority of the time.”
The same is true for Painter, who is considered the Phillies’ only untouchable.
“We’ve always said July-ish that he'd be ready to join the rotation, not that he was going to join the rotation,” Dombrowski said. “Because if you have five guys pitching well, he has to be pitching well. He is ready to join the rotation if we have the need and if he is throwing well at that time. He isn't guaranteed a spot in a rotation at any point. He's never been told that he is. We’ll just play it by ear, see how he's throwing, how our club fits together.”
The Phillies entered the week in first place in the NL East. They aren’t perfect. Far from it. But most teams aren’t.
“We’re in first place, we have a chance to make the postseason and that’s what you hope will happen,” Dombrowski said. “But, like any club, we can get better in certain spots.”