The MLB trade deadline is less than 48 hours away and the Philadelphia Phillies are still looking to upgrade a couple positions of need. One of the positions that the Phillies were looking to acquire was an infielder.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Phillies were rumored to be interested in Eduardo Escobar, Mike Moustakas, and Asdrubal Cabrera. All guys who can provide some offensive firepower to their lineup.
The Phillies missed out on Escobar, who was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier in the week but were able to grab Cabrera. Philadelphia acquired the New York Mets second baseman on Friday in exchange for minor league pitcher Franklyn Kilome.
This season with the Mets, Cabrera was slashing .277/.329/.488 with 18 home runs and 58 RBIs. Cabrera will be splitting time between shortstop and second baseman with the Phillies.
He made his debut on Saturday night against the Cincinnati Reds, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
With the infielder issue solved for the Phillies, they can now turn their attention to acquiring a fourth outfielder.
Last week, it was reported that Philadelphia was talking with the Toronto Blue Jays about Curtis Granderson and considering a trade for Adam Jones out of the Baltimore Orioles.
While there has not been much discussion about Granderson, we did find out something new information about Jones.
According to Dan Connelly of The Athletic, the Phillies, Cleveland Indians, along with other multiple teams have contacted the Orioles to see if the 13-year veteran would waive his 10-5 rights and accept a trade.
To no avail, it seems like Jones will be staying in Baltimore for the rest of the season.
“Based on information gathered from multiple sources, it doesn’t appear Jones is going anywhere, at least not for the remainder of this season,” wrote Connelly in his latest story.
If Jones does want to stay in Baltimore, then the Phillies must turn their attention to other options.
Is Joey Gallo a better option for the Phillies?
Another one of those outfield options could be Joey Gallo of the Texas Rangers. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported that the Phillies along with the Indians are expressing the most interest in the 24-year-old infielder/outfielder.
This season, Gallo is only slashing .191/.307/.465, but has 26 home runs and 59 RBIs. Not to mention, he already has 139 strikeouts and 54 walks through 100 games.
None of these numbers are appealing and actually go against the Phillies’ offensive model. However, what does have teams interested is Gallo’s contract situation and his ability to play multiple positions.
Aforementioned, he is only 24-years-old, but could become arbitration-eligible 2020 and can’t hit free agency until 2023. In layman’s terms, this means that whoever acquires Gallo will have him under team control for a considerable amount of years.
Along with his team-friendly contract, Gallo has shown the ability to play left field (62 games), first base (32 games), right field (five games), and center field (1 game) this season.
With all that being said, a trade for Gallo is not imminent at the moment, but the Rangers have reportedly not dismissed the idea. It should be interesting to see if the Phillies can grab themselves either an extra outfielder or reliever in the bullpen by Tuesday’s 4:00 p.m. ET deadline.
