Now that the dust has settled from the MLB trade deadline, we can take a look at the Phillies' new additions and how they stack up across the 17 buyers.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had a busy Monday morning, bringing in three new players to help bolster the roster as Philadelphia is in the thick of the NL Wild Card race.
Acquired: 2B Luis Arraez, LHP Brooks Raley, RHP Caleb Killian, OF Colby Thomas, RHP Manuel Colon and cash.
Traded: RHP Ramon Marquez (#4 prospect), RHP Marty Gair, RHP Luke Gabrysh, OF John Spikerman (#27 prospect), RHP Seth Johnson, RHP Nolan Hoffman
The prized acquisition is Arraez, and one that not many expected the Phillies to make considering their offensive need was a right-handed outfielder. With the likes of Taylor Ward and Jo Adell going elsewhere, Dombrowski and his staff pivoted in an unconventional way, adding the three-time batting champion to a lineup that desperately needed a jolt ranking near the bottom of the league in on-base percentage and OPS.
How unprecedented was the acquisition for the Phillies?
According to The Athletic’s Jayson Stark, it is the first time a hitter who was leading the National League in batting average was ever traded.
Arraez has made an instant impact. In his debut, batting cleanup, to the surprise of many around the baseball world, he delivered with a pair of run-scoring hits while driving in two. For an encore, he hit a towering game-tying solo homer off the right field foul pole on Wednesday.
Despite not being a right-handed bat, it may simply not matter due to Arraez’s elite bat-to-ball skills. Entering Wednesday, he owned a career slash line of .280/.331/.358 with a .689 OPS against left-handed pitching.
The biggest flaw of the trade is the fact the Phillies are deciding to move three-quarters of their infield to accommodate Arraez, who explicitly shared he did not want to move off second base when he was being discussed in trade conversations. The new-look infield features Alec Bohm sliding across the diamond from third base to first base, second baseman Bryson Stott moving to third base and Bryce Harper going from first base to right field.
On top of adding to the lineup, Dombrowski was also able to add two solid bullpen arms to a group that has been struggling.
Raley, 38, has quietly been one of the top southpaw relievers, posting a sub-3.00 ERA in four straight seasons where he pitched in 30 or more games. He yielded an impressive 1.96 ERA in 45 appearances with the selling New York Mets averaging nearly a strikeout per inning over 41 ⅓ innings.
Kilian could be one of the more under-the-radar additions for any team. The right-hander has five years of control beyond 2026 and has seen major improvements in terms of his velocity and strikeout percentage (15% in 2024 to 28% in 2026). His season ERA is at 4.17 after he tossed a scoreless ninth in his Phillies debut on Tuesday, but his expected ERA is a respectable 3.24.
Thomas is a depth outfielder who was sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He was the Athletics’ third-ranked prospect last season and a third-round pick in 2022.
Colon is a young, developmental-type arm that will most likely slot in at Low-A Clearwater.
The top name the Phillies had to give up was right-hander Ramon Marquez. Ranked as the fourth-best prospect in the system per MLB Pipeline, he has exploded onto the scene across the sport, finding himself near or on some Top 100 Prospect lists.
With a fastball that continues to see an uptick in velocity paired with perhaps the best changeup in all of minor league baseball, Marquez projects to be a potential mid-rotation type arm with even a higher ceiling if he continues to progress.
This season, between Low-A Clearwater and High-A Jersey Shore he posted an impressive 1.68 ERA in 12 appearances, with 11 being starts, to go with a ridiculous 93 strikeouts to just 19 walks across 59 innings of work.
He slots in as the seventh-ranked prospect in the updated rankings for the San Francisco Giants.
Hard-throwing righty Marty Gair was also sent to San Francisco in the trade. Gair, not a top 30 prospect, certainly throws hard with a fastball that hits triple digits. However, he currently lacks a consistent breaking pitch and currently has a 4.50 ERA in 30 appearances across two levels but does have 66 strikeouts in just 36 innings of work while opponents are hitting .161 against him.
To land Raley, the Phillies sent over a pair of prospects in right-handed pitcher Luke Gabrysh. The former St. Joe’s product has made some strides this season with his arsenal and is 3-8 with a 5.14 ERA in 18 games, 17 of which are starts. He has a career-high 11.72 K/9 rate this season while striking out 29% of the hitters he’s faced but also walking a career-worst 11%.
Outfield prospect John Spikerman was #27 in the farm system but has struggled to stay on the field consistently, dealing with injuries since being drafted in the third round in 2024 out of Oklahoma. The switch-hitter was recently reinstated from the IL at the end of July.
Seth Johnson is a hard-throwing righty who has a 7.18 ERA in 27 career MLB appearances with the Phillies. Nolan Hoffman is another right-hander who has had a cup of coffee pitching in four games for the Phillies over the last two seasons, joining the organization last June.
For what the Phillies added compared to what they gave up, this wasn’t a terrible deadline by Dave Dombrowski. No, they did not get a right-handed outfield bat and the inability to land another starting pitcher certainly frustrates fans, especially with the possibility of Andrew Painter being down with a hamstring injury.
However, adding one of the best available hitters, regardless of whether he is a left-handed bat, still provides a jolt into a lineup that has struggled to consistently put the ball in play when it matters most. Arraez has already shown he’s capable of doing so in his first two games.
Raley has been one of the better left-handed relievers in baseball over the last few seasons, and adding Kilian with the multiple years of team control is a big plus.
For not having as much talent in the farm system compared to other buyers, Dombrowski and the Phillies didn’t give up all that much in order to better this roster to make a push for a World Series title.
Now, it’s up to the players to put it all together.
Overall Grade: B-
