On Wednesday night Adolis Garcia hurt his shoulder, and without information about what the long term prognosis was, the Phillies made a trade for an outfielder. The Phillies are sending out IF/OF Dylan Campbell and IF Jose Colmenares to the White Sox for OF Derek Hill and $250,000 of international signing bonus money, and DFA’ing Jackson Rutledge to make 40 man space. It is sort of a lot of moving parts and interesting tendrils around a relatively minor deal, without considering just how long Garcia will be out just after his bat was heating up.
First the player coming back. Hill has bounced around teams for the last 7 seasons, compiling 715 PAs and using all of his options. This year he is hitting .213/.284/.375 which is slightly better than his career line of .227/.278/.351. In reality, the number the Phillies care about is that he is hitting .245/.298/.491 this year vs LHPs and is .272/.317/.463 vs them for his career. He can play all over the outfielder and has plus speed. He should never be allowed to face a RHP, but represents a direct upgrade on Steward Berroa, and the now out for the season Johan Rojas. In the short term he probably platoons with potentially another move and the long term he probably does some platooning with Justin Crawford. They are also unlikely to be committed enough to him to not move on if another move comes along.
The cost wasn’t nothing, but it also wasn’t enormous. Colmenares is an org infielder who is having a decent year at age 24 in Jersey Shore, but doesn’t have power and is slated to be a minor league free agent after the season. Rutledge was acquired on waivers when the Phillies had an open roster spot and has not been impressive, and was likely to be caught in churn regardless. Campbell is the actual prospect here, ranking #30 on my preseason list and about to rank in about the same spot on my in progress update. He was originally acquired from the Dodgers for a large chunk of $ that went to Roki Sasaki once he chose LA. He is an interesting prospect because he can play all over the outfield, and second base. That makes him a potentially interesting bench bat. Last season he crushed lefties, and couldn’t hit righties, this year has been the opposite. He had a hot start to May, but is hitting .216/.281/.412 for Reading for the season. He might have fit a role for a Phillies team desperate for home grown bench bats, but he wasn’t a lock to reach that upside.
The actual interesting parts of the deal might be the players not named directly in the deal. Adolis Garcia was starting to heat up, and his defense in right field has been an actual asset. As much as he has struggled, the good version of Garcia is someone the Phillies desperately needed. The tea leaves as read by Matt Gelb of the Athletic is that Gabriel Rincones Jr. will be heading to the Phillies to make his major league debut and will be the initial platoon partner with Hill. Rincones has been smacking the ball into the ground all year and probably should not see many left handed pitchers, but has prodigious raw power. He is a poor defender with a big arm, which makes him only a partial replacement for Garcia. To make room for Hill and Rincones the Phillies will need to make a decision between Berroa and carrying three catchers with Garrett Stubbs. Brandon Marsh has been playing almost everyday, but unless the Phillies want more Sosa in LF, then keeping Berroa would allow them to platoon both Crawford and Rincones.
The international bonus space is also intriguing. The Phillies acquired $750,000 in total for Andrew Baker and Griff McGarry that went to signing Chan-Min Park, and theoretically had no money left. This could be a move that was just an opportunistic way to balance the deal and they don’t have a player in mind. It could also be a move with a target in mind. In addition to Park, the Phillies signed Cuban RHP Cristian Rego late in the process as well.