Phillies Rumors: Crawford, Castellanos, Suárez

If the Phillies are looking for improvements on the trade market this offseason, outfielder Justin Crawford could be one of their most valuable trade chips. The 20-year-old is widely considered one of the top five prospects in the organization, and he’s coming off a strong season in which he hit .313 with 42 stolen bases and a 130 wRC+ between High-A Jersey Shore and Double-A Reading. To that point, Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports that the Phillies could indeed be persuaded to part with Crawford, although he implies they aren’t actively shopping the center fielder. In Gelb’s words, Philadelphia has “not excluded Crawford from trade talks” but would only be willing to trade him “for a big-league player with multiple years of club control.”

None of that is necessarily surprising. The Phillies aren’t facing any pressure to trade Crawford, and it’s possible (though unlikely) he could contribute to the big league team as early as this coming season. That being said, if top pitching prospect Andrew Painter and top position player prospect Aidan Miller are all but untouchable (which seems to be the case), the Phillies would almost certainly have to include Crawford in a trade for an impactful major leaguer with more than one year of team control. Philadelphia has not yet been formally linked to any trade candidates this offseason, but the first name that comes to mind as a potential target is White Sox ace Garrett Crochet. The Phillies were interested in Crochet at the trade deadline but balked when the White Sox demanded Painter as part of the return package. If Philadelphia is still unwilling to trade Painter, it’s hard to imagine they could land Crochet without including Crawford in the deal.

Gelb also mentioned that the Phillies are at least casually looking to trade Nick Castellanos this winter. Although it would be quite surprising if such a trade materialized, it’s not hard to see why the Phillies would make him available. Even by the most charitable of metrics, Castellanos has been a disappointment on the five-year, $100MM contract he signed prior to the 2022 season. With a 105 wRC+ in 2024, he was barely better than league average at the plate while offering no additional value with his glove or his legs. Yet, for those exact reasons, the Phillies will have a tough time trading him unless they eat the vast majority of the $40MM remaining on his contract for 2025 and ’26. Castellanos still offers value as a durable, contact-oriented hitter with good splits against left-handed pitching, not to mention as a well-liked presence in the clubhouse and within the fanbase. In other words, there’s little reason the Phillies should want to pay him to play for another team without getting anything meaningful back in return.

If the Phillies are planning to shake up their major league roster, a couple of more realistic trade candidates include third baseman Alec Bohm and left-handed starting pitcher Ranger Suárez. Gelb reports that Philadelphia has tried to “gauge other clubs’ interest” in both players. Bohm has been one of the more talked-about trade candidates of the offseason so far, but the fact that the Phillies are actively shopping Suárez, even if just to get a sense of his market, is newer information.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has repeatedly discussed a need to be “open-minded” this winter, telling reporters, including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, that the Phillies might need to “trade good players for good players.” Naturally, that has led to no shortage of speculation about the “good players” to whom Dombrowski could be referring. Bohm, Suárez, second baseman Bryson Stott, and outfielder Brandon Marsh all seem like plausible trade candidates. Until today, however, Bohm was the only one whose name had come up in any credible trade rumors.

Suárez’s trade value is slightly complicated. On the one hand, he’s coming off what was almost certainly the best season of his career. Over 27 starts, the southpaw threw 150 2/3 innings with a 3.46 ERA and 3.61 SIERA, making the NL All-Star team and setting a new career high with 3.5 FanGraphs WAR. On the other hand, he spent time on the injured list for the third year in a row and didn’t look nearly as sharp upon his return. He put up a 5.74 ERA and 4.37 SIERA in his final seven regular season starts.

Therefore, it makes sense that the Phillies are trying to figure out how other teams might value his arm in a trade. Dombrowski has no good reason to sell low on Suárez. However, if he gets a strong enough offer, it’s not as if he doesn’t have ways to replace Suárez in the rotation. The aforementioned possibility of trading for Crochet is one route the Phillies could take. In addition, Painter is likely to pitch meaningful innings out of the rotation at some point in 2025. Moreover, while the Phillies have not yet been linked to any of the top starting pitchers on the free agent market, that would surely change if Suárez were out of the picture.

In a bit of additional Phillies news, the team has hired Blake Crosby to fll the role of assistant director, international scouting. He was formerly a special assignment scout for the Pirates.