How Phillies’ new trade additions will impact them down the stretch: ‘We liked what we did’

“I think we need some help.”

That was the message that Bryce Harper told reporters last Tuesday in Miami, following the Phillies’ 1-0 loss to the Marlins. Harper has been the team’s leader since 2019, and he wants to win a World Series as badly as any other player. He knew the Phillies needed reinforcements. 

The Phillies have been buyers at the trade deadline for the past nine seasons. They have bought in every single trade deadline since Dave Dombrowski became the team’s president of baseball operations.

They came into Monday’s deadline with a record of 59-52, behind the Braves by eight games, and tied for the third and last spot in the NL Wild Card behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. Coming into the August 3 deadline, they lost their first four out of five series after hosting the Midsummer Classic. 

Their current core is aging like flies. The team isn’t getting any younger any time soon. Dombrowski is known not to be a seller when he leads the front office of any team he chooses, and he knows as well as many others that this club only has a few years left before they will most likely have to endure another rebuild.

But Dombrowski has been a pretty good trader during his time with the Phils. He took a chance on Brandon Marsh, who became an All-Star; he got a lockdown closer in Jhoan Duran, and got a dominant lefty starter in Jesus Luzardo. Although Luzardo wasn’t traded at the deadline, he knows a lot when it’s time to make the right trade. 

They needed a lot this deadline. They needed a right-handed hitting outfielder, a late-inning bullpen arm, and a starting pitcher that Dombrowski says “can start a playoff game.” 

He is also very keen on keeping as many top prospects as he can. He kept both Andrew Painter and Aidan Miller during the 2025 deadline, but sometimes in order to win, you need to trade your best prospects. And they had to trade one of their top prospects to get what they wanted. 

And at this deadline, they went out and got one of the best, if not the best, hitters available on the market in Luis Arraez. Arraez is a four-time All-Star, a three-time batting champion, and leads the National League in average. He’ll call Citizens Bank Park home, which is also where he hit his first-ever cycle. 

“Definitely excited about Luis [Arraez]”, interim manager Don Mattingly said pregame on Monday. “Without putting too much pressure on him, he’s like the modern-day Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs type hitter … just a huge addition to the lineup.” 

Arraez brings much-needed stability to this lineup. The Phillies are third in baseball in strikeout rates, and Arraez is known not to strike out. He has just 21 strikeouts the entire season. His 4.5 K% is the lowest among all qualified hitters. For context, Kyle Schwarber, Harper, Marsh, Trea Turner, and Bryson Stott struck out over 22 or more times in the month of July alone. The Phillies are tied for 28th in the Major Leagues with a .304 on-base percentage. They needed someone who can put the ball in play.

“We think we helped our offense,” Dombrowski said. “We added the leading hitter in the league to the offense, and a different type of hitter than somebody we have. Someone that gets on base and sets the stage for some of our big guys.” 

This move also shifts things in the infield. Harper will move back to the outfield, a position he hasn’t played since 2022. Turner will remain at short, with Alec Bohm at first, and Stott to third. Harper brought his outfielders’ glove to Miami when the Phillies visited there to end the month of July.

“Just in case they make a trade,” Harper said.

It’s a defensive mess. Stott has only played 10 games at third between MLB and Triple-A, and hasn’t played the position since 2022. Same with Harper, who has manned down first since 2023 and is now labeled as a primary first baseman. Harper applauded Stott for moving to third; meanwhile, Bohm has a handful of games at first. 

“[Stott’s] one of the best fielders in the league,” Harper said. “I applaud him for even showing that. … He has the ability to do it. I think it’s gonna be easy for him.” 

Stott will also do whatever it takes to play and win.

“I said OK,” Stott said. “I think it’s pretty known now, I don’t care where I play, where I hit, anything like that — I just wanna play. Don [Mattingly] told me it was an option and asked how I would feel about it, and I told him the same thing I’ve said for years, [which] is ‘I don’t care, I just wanna play.’ This morning, he told me that it was happening, so go out there and run with it.” 

And the same goes for Harper as well.

“I said it in years past,” Harper said. “I know people think it’s crap, but I’d do anything for this organization, and they know that.”

Harper texted Dombrowski and said that he would move back to the outfield. He is expected to be in right field for Arraez’s Phillies debut on Tuesday night. Harper said he plans to be back at first base in 2027. 

Another player the Phillies got in this return was reliever Caleb Kilian. He’s pitched to a 4.26 ERA and a 3.59 FIP in 44.1 innings. And he’s still a rookie with five years of control left. There’s a lot that pitching coach Caleb Cotham can work with. 

Another need the Phillies had was a left-handed relief pitcher. Tanner Banks has struggled and is now on the 60-day injured list. Jose Alvarado has also struggled. So, they went out to their rival New York Mets and acquired one of their best relievers.

Even though Brooks Raley is 38, he has an ERA under two. In 149 games for New York, he posted an ERA of 2.31 with 135 strikeouts. This season, he has 40 strikeouts in 41.1 innings. Lefties are hitting .186 off him, and righties are hitting only .216. 

“Think [Raley] is a backend guy,” Mattingly said. “He’s been really good back there.”

This move gives the Phillies bullpen just what they need. Raley can pitch both the seventh and eighth innings. Then you can have Orion Kerkering or Jonathan Bowlan for either one, and then Jhoan Duran comes in for the ninth. 

“We really like the moves we made for our bullpen,” Dombrowski said. “We’re in a position where we think we added what we needed to do. Stepped up another left-hander in Raley, and Killian we like a great deal, a lot of comparisons in our own people to an acquisition of a Bowlan at the time, we really like his arm, and I think we can do some things with him, but yeah, we liked what we did.”

One last thing: the Phillies needed a starting pitcher. It has been an up-and-down rollercoaster of the fourth and fifth starting pitchers heading into the deadline. Aaron Nola has not been consistent at all, and the same goes for Andrew Painter. He was optioned to Triple-A, and after a few starts by Alan Rangel and Brian Keller, the team called him up on July 31 to start against Baltimore, in which he really performed. 

The Phillies did not go after that elusive starter. Casey Mize of the Tigers went to the Padres at the buzzer, and they also failed to acquire a right-handed-hitting outfielder, as Taylor Ward and Jo Adell went off to the Mariners and Guardians, respectively. 

“When we look at it, we have been happy with the job [Bryan] De La Cruz has done,” Dombrowski said. “We feel he has earned that opportunity, and when we compare them to other people that would be out there and available, we like him. 

“I’ve said this all along: you always want to get better at every position. But we feel that if we can make it to the postseason, our starting rotation’s in really solid shape. Other people are looking to add to their top three. In our situation here, that wasn’t a necessity.”

The Phillies’ final move was the trade of Seth Johnson to the Athletics for Colby Thomas. They ended their deadline trading for Arraez, Kilian, and Raley without making an upgrade to either the rotation or the outfield. They got a solidified hitter who will get on base, and two relievers who will make an impact on a weak bullpen. But a whole lot of questions remain about a roster that will see players’ positions change midseason, which could deter the entire outlook of the playoff push.

But the face of the franchise, who has not been on the same page with the team’s president of baseball operations, seems to be pleased:

“I think he’s done a great job,” Harper said about Dombrowski’s moves. “Arraez, Raley, Kilian. It’s been a good deadline.”

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