Philly Leader

The Philadelphia Phillies are in a period of reflection following the conclusion of the Winter Meetings in Dallas. Despite their efforts, they have not made significant moves, leaving them with work to do as acknowledged by Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. "I wish we would have maybe done a little more," Dombrowski stated after the Rule 5 Draft. He emphasized that while the meetings have ended, discussions continue.

Dombrowski noted that trading top prospects was not considered appropriate at this time due to several reasons. The team currently has four quality starting pitchers and a promising young pitcher, Andrew Painter. He added, "We’ve had [Alec] Bohm, [Bryson] Stott, [Brandon] Marsh, [Cristopher] Sánchez, [Johan] Rojas, but we really rode out the development of our farm system over the last few years."

Recently traded players Garrett Crochet, Kyle Tucker, and Devin Williams were linked to potential interest from the Phillies. Crochet was traded by the White Sox to Boston for prospects including Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery. According to MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo, a comparable offer from Philadelphia might have involved Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford among others.

Kyle Tucker moved from the Astros to the Cubs in exchange for Isaac Paredes and others. Tucker's addition would have been significant for Philadelphia but his upcoming free agency and expected high contract value posed challenges.

Devin Williams was acquired by the Yankees from Milwaukee in return for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin. For Philadelphia to make a similar trade could have involved left-hander Ranger Suárez.

Dombrowski remarked on their approach stating: “You’d trade anybody at a particular time... We’d give up anybody for the right player."