It appears as if that the Philadelphia Phillies will not be the winners of the Manny Machado sweepstakes. On Tuesday, Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY reported that the Baltimore Orioles are expected to trade the All-Star shortstop to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
However, Nightengale did mention that the Phillies along with the Milwaukee Brewers could still be in the mix for Machado. But all the signs are pointing to Machado wearing Dodgers’ blue and white and not Phillies’ red pinstripes.
If this trade does come to fruition, the Phillies have their eyes on other players that could give them an offensive boost. According to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, Philadelphia will turn their attention to Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas and Minnesota Twins shortstop Eduardo Escobar.
This is not the first time that we have heard both players linked to the Phillies. Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman mentioned on Tuesday that Escobar makes some sense for Philadelphia, along with a host of other infielders.
In terms of Moustakas, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury reported last month that the Phillies and Royals held preliminary trade talks for the third baseman.
Is either player better than what the Phillies currently have?
This season, Escobar is having a career-year, slashing .271/.327/.507 to go along with 14 home runs and 57 RBIs. These numbers are supremely better than what J.P. Crawford and Scott Kingery have done.
But both Crawford and Kingery are still young and green in their professional baseball careers, so it is too early to give up on them. Moustakas, on the other hand, is slashing .249/.306/.466 with 19 home runs and 58 RBIs.
Even though he may have more home runs and RBIs than current Phillies’ third baseman Maikel Franco, Franco is doing a better job at the plate.
Franco is slashing .269/.317/.459 and has lesser strikeouts (47) than Moustakas (60). On paper, it does not seem in the Phillies’ best interest to trade for the Kansas City third baseman.
The MLB trade deadline is only 14 days away and we should expect the Phillies to at least make a move or two for the stretch run.
