The Philadelphia Phillies are making major changes to their roster, bringing in former batting champion Luis Arraez and reliever Brooks Raley in a pair of deals Monday.
The Phillies added veteran reliever Brooks Raley to their bullpen after striking a deal with the New York Mets which will see their divisional foe receive Luke Gabrysh and John Spikerman. Raley becomes the latest Mets veteran to be dealt ahead of the MLB trade deadline, following in the footsteps of Freddy Peralta and A.J. Minter who were shipped out earlier this week.
The 38 year old lefty sports a 1.96 ERA with 40 Ks across 41.1IP this season with New York. He’s likely to factor into the Phils late inning pecking order as a bridge arm to get to closer Jhoan Duran down the homestretch. Philadelphia currently sports the 7th worst bullpen ERA across the Majors at 4.40 entering Monday’s slate of games.
In addition to Raley, the club will also add RHP Caleb Kilian and 2B Luis Arraez to their roster from the San Francisco Giants in a separate deal.
Philadelphia will send their number 4 prospect in Ramon Marquez alongside reliever Marty Gair to the Giants to complete the deal.
Kilian is 3-6 with a 4.26 ERA and 8 saves on the season for the Giants, and will add some depth to the aforementioned struggling Phillies bullpen. However the real addition here is Arraez who is once again amongst the most consistent hitters in baseball, sporting a .324 average with 52 runs scored, 43 RBIs and 10 stolen bases on the season.
Multiple sources indicated that Philadelphia was in the market for a right handed bat, preferably an outfielder in the lead up to the deadline. Instead, they get a consistent top of the order lefty who can set the table for the Phillies big bats behind him in the postseason. A 4x All-Star, and 3x batting champion, Arraez has been playing mostly 2nd base this season in San Francisco, where he’s shown a fairly substantial improvement on his defence this season.
While the deal works great for Philadelphia in a vacuum, it will have some domino effects on their lineup barring another deal involving a current roster player. Bryson Stott is the team’s current second baseman, however reports have indicated that he could be moved to third base to accommodate Arraez.
This would then shift third baseman Alec Bohm over to 1st base, and move Bryce Harper to the outfield. While Harper has ample experience in the outfield, he’s been primarily an infielder since 2021 in an effort to keep him healthy after elbow injuries sent him to the injured list on multiple occasions.
Harper could also get some additional reps at DH down the homestretch to keep him fresh for the playoffs, but needless to say, there will be some shuffling of defensive assignments coming up for the Phillies in the near future.
Photo: D. Benjamin Miller. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.