Here’s the latest from the City Of Brotherly Love…
- Maikel Franco is “more than available” in trade talks, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports. Franco is struggling through a terrible 2017 season that has seen him hit just .224/.284/.371 over 285 plate appearances — between Franco’s subpar hitting, fielding and baserunning, he has delivered below replacement-level (-0.6 fWAR) production. A trade would be surprising given that Franco was seen as a potential building block piece for the Phillies less than two years ago, though it’s worth noting that he was also a below-average hitter (92 wRC+) in 2016, his first full season in the majors. Franco’s age (24) and past status as a well-regarded prospect would net him some trade interest, though Philadelphia would definitely be selling low on the third baseman.
- The Phillies have already received a “standing offer” for Pat Neshek, CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury reports. The veteran reliever is expected to draw wide interest in the weeks leading to the trade deadline and as Salisbury notes, the Phils must believe they can do better than the current offer on the table. It’s hard to predict who the Neshek suitor is, given the widespread need for bullpen help across the league (though feel free to speculate on the #MysteryTeam in the comments section!)
- The Adeiny Hechavarria trade buzz could be of interest to the Phillies as a gauge on what Freddy Galvis could net on the open market, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Galvis is seven months younger than Hechavarria, also a free agent after the 2018 season and is better known for his glove than his bat, though Galvis did manage 20 homers last year. Over their careers, Galvis has been worth 5.1 fWAR over 2059 PA as compared to Hechavarria’s 1.7 fWAR in 2402 PA. Gelb reasons that a team who fails to land Hechavarria could turn to Galvis as an alternate plan.
Nats, both LAs, Boston, NYY, Arizona, Tampa all could be on in Neshek. Give me a middle level prospect and a fringe guy and call it a trade.
Regardless of what the return is Phillies did a good job getting Neshek for nothing. Astros goofed
Jeremy Hellickson was good to go last July. Instead the Phillies have paid him $25+ million to help them pick 8th in the draft this year.
Hector Neris was 24 carat gold last July. Now he’d bring back the Panda’s used iPad.
Don’t be so sure it was the Astros who screwed up. The Phillies F.O. may steal that spotlight from them.
The Phillies had a deal in place with the Marlins for Josh Naylor that fell through too late to reengage other clubs. It’s hard to fault them for not moving Hellickson at that point.
Pitching was in demand like no other time in the past decade. The Phillies should have had at least three deals for Hellickson and even more for Hector neris.
Did you ever seen a rumor for Hector Neris last summer?
EPIC FAIL
Why settle for a mid level prospect and a fringe guy if there’s already obvious interest? Get as big of a package as possible. If nobody is willing to give up a solid prospect (which I doubt) at least try to get a mid level prospect and two lottery tickets instead of one.
Give me an arm out of low A-ball with some ceiling.
Why would the Yankees be in on him? Do you even know?
…….Um…….Simple……
Because they “Need A New 3B”……..especially since Franco is young and has power that hasn’t really developed yet.
Um…was answering to…”in on Neshek”. Besides they have internal options for 3B without wasting prospects on him!
Sorry…..my bad.
Who is the internal piece, and why don’t we hear much about it?
First off theirs Wade who can play multiple positions and is raking. Second Headley won’t be out the year and is under contact thru 2018,and his slash line is better with decent enough defense. Then theirs Torreyes who’s done an admirable job while filling in at third. Then of course Gleyber will be ready next spring.
Wade doesn’t look like he’ll offer much in the power category, and is thought to be more of a 2B than a 3B.
Headley is a complete Meh for me. Nothing special at all. Upgrade required.
Torres just had TJ surgery, and there’s no guarantee that he’ll be ready in April.
Meh or not they have to live with Headley for one more year. They have plenty of power as it is. Wade is playing multiple positions to become a Zobrist type. If and when they upgrade at 3B hopefully it’s the 2018 offseason*Machado*.
Speaking of MEH….put Franco at the top of that list for sure. …the Yankees don’t want him nor need another underperforming sub par hitting, fielding, base running blunder of a player….pawn him off on another team.
They won’t waste prospects on that guy for sure.
I don’t know who really would go after Franco right now. Perhaps Baltimore then shift Machado to SS, maybe Boston or NYY? Boston then could use Devers as a trade chip.
Maybeeeee Pittsburgh? I dont know
I think Boston would be much better off trying to bring Devers up to the bigs before moving pieces to get Franco…
Franco would not be starting on the Os
No one would go after Franco unless the price was really low.
Why would a rebuilding team deal low on a hitting talent like Franco?
Because John Middleton is a r—– and the Phillies F.O. is gutless and incompetent.
You’re completely clueless, watch Franco at the plate. He’ll be a career .245 hitter with 20/75 a year. Middleton is the best thing that’s happened to Phils in 20 plus years
The guy in my avatar told me my ideas are “idiotic and absurd”.
That guy thought Ben Revere was going to Cooperstown in a Phillies uniform. He’ll be torturing your kids and grandkids with his thievery and stupidity for decades.
Middleton took over as majority owner in November of 2016. Must have been his fault.
WRONG
Google: John Middleton Phillies Palm Beach
Middleton drove out Scott Rolen and signed Jim Thome.
John Middleton is an owner with balls. Anyone with balls would have drove Scott Rolen out.
I’d imagine it’d be “our under performing young player for your under performing young player.” Type of deal.
I’d rather get rid of the manager and see if someone else can get anything out of Franco. At this point the Phillies have nothing to lose. If Franco doesn’t turn it around then go after Machado when he is a free agent.
Pete is doing fine as the manager.
Franco’s outcomes could be like the haters here described it or he could win an MVP award playing 1B.
Franco’s future is not at 3B so Machado is a must sign like Bryce Harper in December 2018.
Fortunately, the Phillies have payroll space for Machado, Harper, Kershaw and Trout.
Unfortunately the Phillies have an owner who has already made plans to steal that money for himself.
You’re joking, right? $30M+ for Machado, $40M+ for Harper, $30M+ for Kershaw, $40M+ for Trout. Phillies are not adding $140M+ of payroll in one offseason.
I also probably undersold the AAV for each.
I can only realistically see Machado coming to the Phils. Keyshawn and trout won’t even sniff free agency if they’re clubs can do anything about it, while Harper is going to go to the highest bidder.
“Phillies are not adding $140M+ of payroll in one offseason.”
Why not? The tax thing doesn’t kick in for another $70 million.
You think John Middleton should steal that $70 million ( or $140 million) and buy more mansions and film production companies?
What has John Middleton ever done to earn one dollar of the Phillies fans money?
Remember, there are no savings accounts for MLB teams. Every dollar not spent is removed by the owner to his personal account and that money never returns to the team. That’s a MLB rule.
The money the Phillies had to spend for Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert was stolen by John Middleton.
The Phillies ballpark is always sold out when they are a division winner. That’s a fact just as much as the Marlins park is always mostly empty.
The current payroll for Phillies next year is 3.5 million
Trade Devers and Chavis, 2 of the best boston has that are 3b prospects for one in Franco already on the path of failure to replace the failed sandoval sign? that would go over the New England media really well wouldn’t it?
That story in the Globe looks like a lot of the fake news being passed off the last few months as legit news and nothing more… Just hot air.
“Trade Devers and Chavis”
I was screaming for the Phillies to take Deavers away from the Red Sox that July 2nd.
If I were making the call Aaron Nola wouldn’t be a Phillies player, Michael Chavis would have been drafted there.
If this rebuild were done right from the beginning I would have got Kris Bryant and Kyle Tucker too.
TANK…..tank……and tank some more.
1st pick next summer. Harper, Machado, and the first pick in 2019 MLB Draft. Next year is all about the first pick again.
This is the Phillies last rebuild.
That Hamels to boston deal was never going to work out. Amaro couldn’t stop dreaming about Betts++ and Boston valued swihart to highly. Doomed with Amaro thinking he could rebuild that team with 1 deal, then taking a lot less from texas in the end than he was supposedly asking from boston.
Had boston only been asked for a combo of swihart/devers and another lower value piece back then, it probably would have gone down.
Swihart sucks. I didn’t like him as soon s I saw him. No power.
Betts and Bogaerts were the gets and Boston would not give up either, not the year before for Lee or Hamels.
The Red Sox offers as I heard them did not include Deavers either. It was basicly the same as what was shipped to San Diego for Kimbrel.
Boston has never been a match. Moncada would never have been offered either, only for Sale.
Um, #Mysteryteam could be so many teams. Like 29 of them. But maybe Nats, Mariners, DBacks, Royals? Or Cards or Giants but I doubt it
The mystery team will not be Cleveland. Sorry, that’s the best I can do.
An obvious mystery team would be the Nationals. As a division rival, this could also be a reason why the Phillies might want to wait on a better offer. No rush on their part with 5+ weeks until the non-waiver deadline and plenty of contenders looking for bullpen help.
…
“Nationals. As a division rival,”
I would carry Neshek to D.C. on my back if the low A-ball arm coming back had ceiling.
The Phillies F.O. is probably looking for more Tyler Cloyds since John Middleton has figured out that hard throwers get injured more.
Nothing cripples an MLB team more than a bloodsucking owner.
Hechavarria should have been traded already, right? Seems like the Marlins were blowing smoke about interested teams.
The issue is obviously his bat. He doesn’t hit very much (.255/.291/.337/.629), and he doesn’t run (26 career SB / 5+ years service)
He’s a great defender, but SS’s today generally contribute quite a bit on offense. Hech is at/near the bottom of those lists. Plus, with Hech being JUST a SS, he’d have to completely learn another position to switch.
There’s just not a lot of potential buyers.
The Phillies are a mess thanks to Ruben Amaro. He waited too long to initiate a rebuild – frustrating.
The Phillies are a mess because of John Middleton.
Ok. That’s enough. Its obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about, and you’re making a fool of yourself. Please just stop.
Not really. He only just took over last year. They are still digging out from under the Amaro and Montgomery era. It going to take longer than a year to dig out of that mess.
WRONG
Middleton was driving the car 15 years ago. Middleton was publicly credited with the signing of Jim Thome.
Google: John Middleton Phillies Palm Beach
You are off the rails! Citing some stupid blog full of nothing but speculation…that YOU probably wrote…does not reinforce anything you’ve said here. Thank goodness most of of us realize you’re full of it, and you are just trying to defame a man’s character.
You must be the same troll that posts that Middleton crap in the Philadelphia area media sports media commentary. Are you Middleton’s Main Line pool boy?
John Middleton lives in a $50 million castle in Palm Beach, Florida.
If the Phillies trade Franco then I will have lost fath in this rebuild.
Franco has not been great, however it is mostly due to his BABIP which is unsustainably low.
His walks are up, K’s are down and he’s still driving in runs.
Personally I believe thet should send him to AAA- let him beat up AAA pitchers and build his confidence back up.
The Phillies are in Year Six of their rebuild and they don’t have another 3B prospect.
Why is Wandor Franco getting $4.25 million from a team not named “Phillies”?
How long has John Middleton been planning the Phillies _=_ next _=_ rebuild?
Who tf is Wander Franco. Is he another one of those free swinging islanders coming over. Who will probably not make the big leagues and at least not for another 5 years. Phillies hopefully learned their lesson in Jhailyn Ortiz. I’d be disgusted if the Phillies spend millions of dollars on one kid who has never taken a swing against competitive pitching.
“Is he another one of those free swinging islanders coming over”
Oh look, John Middleton himself stopped by to share his and the Phillies organizations opinion on Dominican players.
Too bad he didn’t share his opinion about Japanese and Korean players too, then everyone would understand why the Phillies won’t be signing Shohei Otani. Everyone would understand why the Phillies would have zero interest in Otani unless he was available for fifth round draft money.
When Otani is inducted into Cooperstown and Hollywood has made a remake of “42”, the Phillies still will not have signed their first player out of Japan.
No Phillies won’t sign him. It is the way the organization has always been. Remember they were the last team to sign an African American player for crying out loud
They aren’t in “year six.” The rebuild didn’t start until December ’14 when Rollins was traded.
The Phillies were a bad team from ’12-’15 because David Montgomery wouldn’t let Amaro break the team apart besides Victorino and Pence
The Phillies rebuild began in October 2011 when they were eliminated. Everyone in the industry knows that. The media knows that.
Eight months later Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino went out the door for nothing.
#facts
Nope. Wrong again.
The Phillies are in this mess because of Amaro and Montgomery delaying the rebuild. Everyone in Philly knew it was time to rebuild but they kept adding band aids in hope of a miracle happening.
John Middleton lied to the fans to keep the ballpark filled so he could rob them.
John Middleton is a thief. His farm director resigned in 2011 because Middleton refused to spend money internationally to fix the farm.
For the previous decade the Phillies farm was the worst in MLB because Middleton stole all the money.
Stop blaming Middleton. You have no clue what you are talking about. Montgomery was in charge during those years and as President had final say on all matters Phillies related. Montgomery had the same mentality as Giles before him and thought the Phillies were family entertainment. Giles was the one who cut the Phillies international spending to save money. Before he was in charge they were one of the biggest spenders in Latin America.
how many hours a week do you spend on your Middleton obsession?
you really ought to consider a therapist.
I think it is better to just let this go. Nothing we say will change his or her mind. This person has no idea how the old Phillies ownership worked.
“This person has no idea how the old Phillies ownership worked.”
Exactly the way this one does.
Bill Giles put this thing together 35 years ago and he’s still there.
The old Phillies ownership was before the 1980 WS win. That one signed top talent from the Dominican and drafted Mike Schmidt. That ownership also signed Pete Rose. Pete was the highest paid professional athlete of any sport when he was a member of the Phillies.
Do you actually look at Franco’s analytics. The guy swings at every pitch. He rolls over on 50% of the balls he hits. There is a reason he has a low batting average and he always will. He isn’t diciplined and also, he is an awful 3rd baseman. He is expendable easily.
Franco’s future is at 1B. He could win an MVP there.
Yeah…he’d be hitting MUCH better at first base. I wish you were the manager.
I should be the GM. The Phillies would be on their way to winning three World Series in five years at a minimum.
They may not even win one before the _=_ next _=_ rebuild.
When did the Dodgers rebuild? The Red Sox? The Yankees?
??? How does playing first base improve your chances at MVP. He will also never play first base for the Phillies
I think Boston picking up a low risk option like Cabrera means they will wait until closer at the deadline to see if he can turn it around and get a call up…..then if still not pleased, they will get a real upgrade like Moose.
Franco should be in Reading or Lehigh Valley. Call up an outfielder and put your best player(Howie) at third base for now.
Kendrick belongs in Toronto playing 2B.
Why would the Phillies bring this guy in here and then keep him, so they can lose out on another Kris Bryant in next years draft?
The rebuild that will never end.
I’m all for the Phillies trading Odubel. Herrera’s lack of hustle and obvious blunders remind me of Manny Ramirez, but Manny never swung at as many 58 foot breaking balls and brought value.
If Odubel and Franco are going to be traded now is definitely not the time to do it.
This is the smartest thing you’ve said on here.
Correct. We need to wait until the time machine is invented and pop back a couple years…then trade them.
So trade two young players controlled for awhile when the team isn’t competing (or near ready) when they are at their lowest value? Sounds like a good plan.
I would love for the astros to get neshek, even tho we gave him away in a salary dump move
I said a few years ago that they should trade Franco a few years ago and I got jumped on by phillies fans and look at them now calling for his head. Do they know how many guys have terrible first halves and come back to tear it up in the second half and then go on to great careers. Wait till the end of the season and phillies fans will be praising Franco.
The Phillies have been in a rebuild for 3+ years now. Why on earth would it have been a good idea to trade a 20/21 year old Franco? Trade him for what exactly? As a package for a stud that’d help this rebuilding team do what exactly?
It would have been dumb to trade him then unless it was for another systems top prospect, thing one top prospect for another top prospect deal, but when does that happen? It’s also be dumb to trade him now unless a team is in love with him and would other two decent type players, think a top 10 and another top 20 guy. That won’t happen, so why trade him?
Neshek to KC for some brisket, a slab of Baby Backs, & Paul Rudd.