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ESPN's Buster Olney connected the Philadelphia Phillies to Tarik Skubal, as Dave Dombrowski hopes to make a major splash at the Trade Deadline.
The Philadelphia Phillies are in catch-up mode, trying to find a way to get back in contention with the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. This comes in what has sometimes been regarded as a closing championship window for Philadelphia, which makes it no surprise that President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski may be looking to make a major Trade Deadline move.
ESPN’s Buster Olney recently explained the situation in Philadelphia. The Phillies’ core is aging, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t win this season. So, it would make sense to go after Tarik Skubal.
“The Phillies are a big-market team with a lot of resources,” Olney wrote. “So there can be healthy debate about whether Philadelphia is limited by a window of opportunity, with a number of stars in their 30s, such as Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Trea Turner and Zack Wheeler. But with Cristopher Sanchez dominating and Brandon Marsh playing well, the Phillies have a really good team this season — and should be looking to take advantage of that.”
Starting pitcher isn’t the first need most people see when they look at the Phillies. After all, the right-handed bats have struggled for Philadelphia, not producing much power at all. Meanwhile, the top of the Phillies’ rotation has thrived. However, Olney explained that Skubal makes sense based on who Dombrowski has been in his career.
“Dombrowski made a big move last summer in paying a relatively high price for closer Jhoan Duran, and now Dombrowski’s professional peers are speculating about whether he might be the most apt executive to make another major play. Dombrowski has constructed dominant rotations in the past, and a ‘Big Three’ in the postseason of Sanchez, Wheeler and Skubal could look pretty good in October,” Olney wrote.
It’s not a surprise that Dave Dombrowski might want to make a big move at the Trade Deadline. A bigger question, however, is what the Philadelphia Phillies have available to trade.
In a move for a player like Tarik Skubal, conversations would likely include top pitching prospect Gage Wood. That would be a major loss, but as Paul Casella of MLB.com explained recently, Wood is the Phillies’ top trade piece.
“The Phillies don’t want to trade Wood, their No. 2 prospect, and in a perfect world, he may be in a spot to impact the big league bullpen as soon as later this season,” Casella wrote. “However, if the Phils get to a point where they decide they need to make a substantial splash at the Deadline, they’d almost certainly have to include Wood in any trade package. Top prospect Aidan Miller will be sidelined until right around the Deadline with his back injury, and none of the Phillies’ other top-five prospects are making much noise in the Minors. The club doesn’t have a ton of flexibility to make a big move … unless Wood is involved.”
A first-round pick in 2025, Wood played his college baseball at Arkansas. There, he threw a no-hitter in the College World Series. As it stands now, he’s pitching for the Single-A Clearwater Threshers, and has a 3.42 ER and 13.7 strikeouts per nine in 8 starts at that level.
Trading for Tarik Skubal is a bit of a roll of the dice right now. The back-to-back AL Cy Young winner, Skubal, is headed for free agency this offseason. So, he’s only a rental for a couple of months of play before either walking or commanding a massive contract.
On top of that, Skubal just made his first start in return from injury. In it, he only pitched 4.2 innings and gave up three runs, two of which were earned runs.
On May 4th, Skubal needed elbow surgery for loose bodies in his throwing elbow. It was considered a two-to-three-month recovery window at the time, but he’s already back, just about one and a half months later.
In other words, it’s fair to have some questions about his health. Interested teams like the Phillies, as well as numerous others, will want to track that over the coming weeks, before making any major Trade Deadline moves.
Dan Morrison After graduating from UMass in 2019, Dan Morrison quickly began a career in sports journalism and digital media. That has seen him work both as a contributing writer at several publications, as well as spending time on the National News Desk at On3. During that time, he has spent the majority of his time covering football, both at the college and NFL levels. Currently residing in Central Florida, his focus with Heavy is on the NFL. More about Dan Morrison
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