👋 Good morning! A little Undertaker into Daddy Yankee, why not?

I am doing today’s trade deadline show with Tyler, and I need to figure out the right pronunciation of this name. I have already heard five different versions, and y’all, it is driving me crazy. I guess this one has to be right. RIGHT?

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Righteous Felon Craft Jerky.

This Chester County based company has the perfect snack that satisfies your hunger and provides the right amount of protein to fulfill your body’s daily needs, and they have been doing it for over a decade. if you are the kind of person who wants a deal and snacks delivered right to your doorstep, you can order online using discount code PHLY20 for 20% off. Righteous Felon has all kinds of cool variety packs and bundles on the site.

Let’s do some Phillies trade trivia.

Here is how this works: I am gonna give you a prospect name and you have to tell me the high-profile Phillie who was on the move in the other direction of the deal.

This list includes examples of the Phillies both buying and selling, so this prospect could have been plucked from or added to the Phils’ farm system in the deal. But in every case, there is always a high-profile Phillie on the move in the other direction. One other hint, all of these trades happened after 2000.

Answers at the bottom.

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Wait, wrong picture.

That’s better. Man, J.K. Simmons was a pretty good get for that show, huh?

All along, there was reporting that the Phillies were dead-set on trying to improve the bullpen. I did not necessarily agree with that strategy, but as it turned out, that is exactly what Dave Dombrowski did. Ol’ Davey Boy got the best reliever on the market. Well, at least the best reliever that was not potentially spiking 0-0 breaking balls on purpose for nefarious reasons. The deal…

Tyler is so good at breaking down this stuff. His emergency pod is here. Some scattered thoughts…

What type of pitcher is Durán? Ever since Rob Thomson took over from Joe Girardi, the Phillies have not had a set closer. I know that strategy has frustrated some super-traditional fans who want CLOSER/8TH INNING GUY/7TH INNING GUY/LEFTY SPECIALIST/LONG MAN, but it never really bothered me. Thomson had his high-leverage arms, and he deployed them the best way he saw fit. Not like all of his decisions worked out, but that is with the benefit of hindsight. If you are facing 2-3-4 in the eighth inning and there are two lefties, sure, use Jose Alvarado and figure out the ninth later.

If you listen to Tyler regularly, he also agrees with the No Labels Bullpen. But the additional point that he will often make is that once the Phillies develop or acquire a traditional, light-out closer, then by all means deploy that person as a closer.

Well, this guy is a closer. The first elite closer for the Phillies since Jonathan Papelbon, and the first elite closer when the team was any good since… Ryan Madson in 2011? If not him, it was You-Know-Who in either 2010 or You-Know-When.

In 3.5 years of major-league service, Durán has a 2.47 ERA, strikes out 11.2 hitters per nine innings, and has collected 74 saves. He is a big boy, 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds. And as Tyler mentioned, Durán has one of the best pitches in all of baseball in his splitter.

Pitching Ninja calls it a “splinker” — Paul Skenes also throws that pitch, and no, do not ask me how exactly that pitch differentiates it from a traditional splitter or sinker, do I look like I work for Driveline? — and you can see the overlay in the video below. Durán’s regular four-seam fastball rises and moves to the right. His splitter is a tick slower (but still 98 mph, lol) drops and moves to the left. Good luck figuring out which is which in the batter’s box.

Those two pitches account for over 70 percent of Durán’s arsenal, so you are mostly getting gas from him. He also mixes in a couple of breaking pitches, a curveball and a sweeper.

Did Durán get actual hugs from his teammates after expertly mocking the #HugWatch crowd on Tuesday night? I do not know, you will have to ask him.

Where does this leave the Phillies bullpen? Judging from Thomson’s comments, I see it like this…

Max Lazar has been pretty good for a few months, but he completely goofed up the game yesterday. I am leaving him off the list, solely because I am mad at him about yesterday. Thomson told reporters in Chicago that Jordan RoMANo is someone who can “finish an inning with runners on base,” and that was polite of him.

OK, so what about the price? When reading some of the trade rumours over the past few days, the reliever market seemed to be completely out of control. The Twins were asking for Andrew Freaking Painter for a reliever, the Pirates wanted an insane haul for David Bednar and it seemed to me that the Phils were just gonna have to settle for the Ryan Helsley aisle. That was actually the Mets.

Basically, I did not think that the Phils were gonna be able to afford Durán. That said, Durán did not come “cheap.”

Eduardo Tait was the first consensus Top-100 prospect to move at the trade deadline in a few years. He is not gonna turn 19 until next month and already is showing real pop at Low-A Clearwater. A lefty power bat, most evaluators believe Tait is gonna be a major-league hitter. But, and this is the key, what position will he play? If Tait can stick at catcher, he becomes an even more valuable piece because catchers who can mash at that level are rare. But it is unclear if Tait will stick behind the plate, so we could be talking about an all-star catcher or a middling DH. There is real upside here, though, Twins fans should be happy to get Tait.

If part of Tait’s profile is the positional uncertainty, the other is the longer timeline. He is two years away from the big leagues, minimum. More on that in a second.

We are better informed about Abel, who has the chance to be a mid-rotation starter but is currently blocked by the Phils’ loaded rotation. I hope to see him do well in Minnesota. Last year, Abel was quietly the biggest non-Taijuan reason that the Phillies’ No. 5 starter spot proved to be an unmitigated disaster. After that completely lost season, Abel rebounded in a big way and rehabbed his trade value.

Salute to you, McLean. This deal does not happen without you.

What is the best part of this trade? Durán is under team control for how long, LeBron?

2.5 years! So, not a rental! A closer for the foreseeable future! More on that in a second.

What is the worst part of this trade? We are not gonna gloss over the fact that this offense scored five runs over two games this week in Chicago, right? As much as I think Durán will help and the price was reasonable, I just do not trust this extremely streaky offense. And the best right-handed hitter is now off the board.

Dombrowski keeps talking about how some of the current pieces in the lineup simply need to play better. But Dombrowski also has agency here, he can make tweaks to that underperforming lineup. Steven Kwan appears to be the best player on the board by a decent bit, even if his skill-set does not address this lineup’s obvious weakness (right-handed power). Taylor Ward, Luis Robert Jr., and Ramon Laureano are all still out there as well.

Jim did offer some good perspective in his piece for the site, though.

And if you want to read more insight from Jim, or all of the other writers we have on the site (Fran Duffy, Charlie O’Connor, Alex Appleyard, Kyle Neubeck, Derek Bodner, Zach Berman, etc.), we have a Diehard deal going for a short time. You get a shirt from the store included, plus we have this crazy Discord community where people are talkin’ ball and a bunch of other stuff all day, every day. Come join the fastest-growing Philly sports community.

Only a few days left to jump on this offer and save over 40 bucks on your first year! Join our vibrant community of Diehards!

Any other big-picture takeaways? Two.

The first is that this was the first real Dave Dombrowski Move during his time running the Phillies. Dombrowski’s rep is not one of a prospect-hugger. The book on Dombrowski is that he builds a great roster by depleting your farm system, wins you a World Series… but then leaves you in a rough spot down the line after depleting your farm system. I think we would all sign up for that, to a degree. But for the most part, Dombrowski has kept his top prospects in Philadelphia.

The Phils still have some big names in the system, but it is a top-heavy one: Painter, Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, Aroon Escobar and hopefully Gage Wood and Matthew Fisher. Will Dombrowski continue to hold on to those guys?

The second takeaway is that there is a clear timeline forming here. I have seen it called The Wheeler Window in a few places, because Zack Wheeler is on record saying that he is done pitching after his contract runs out following the 2027 season (hopefully we have one of those). And look, it is not so simple say that there are 2.5 years left of this thing. You have some larger contracts on the books past then (Aaron Nola, Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Cris Sánchez) and you have some larger contracts coming off the books before then (Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos, Ranger Suárez).

It is also too simplistic to say that the Phils are definitively cooked in 2028. Maybe Andrew Painter and Aidan Miller turn into monsters, maybe Kyle Schwarber gets re-signed and he and Bryce Harper age well, maybe Cris Sánchez is still good, maybe Trea Turner is a decent left fielder, maybe Gage Wood is screaming at and striking out everyone, etc.

But this is an aging core, Wheeler is a huge part of it, and Wednesday was definitely a big Wheeler Window day. How many years left does Jhoan Durán have left under team control? Two and a half. How many years is it roughly gonna take Eduardo Tait to reach the majors? Two and a half.

Birds are back at practice today. Plus, the trade deadline is actually today.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at ​PHLY​:

And oh, the trivia:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS