The Phillies and Orioles accomplished an intriguing commerce Friday that noticed Baltimore land Seranthony Dominguez and Cristian Pache in alternate for Austin Hays, which represented one thing of a prolonged pursuit for Phils president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.  The manager informed reporters (together with The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber) that “I’ve really tried to amass him the final two buying and selling deadlines, and [the Orioles] have been asking for way more than we needed to present.”

The O’s lastly budged, maybe as a consequence of each Dominguez addressing Baltimore’s bullpen wants, and Hays’ more and more expendable nature inside a crowded Orioles outfield.  An ice-cold begin to the season after which a four-week IL stint as a consequence of a calf pressure led to Hays’ enjoying time being lowered, although he has hit fairly effectively in a extra restricted capability during the last two-plus months.  Even with the primary six weeks of the season basically being a wash, Hays has gotten his offensive manufacturing again above league common, delivering a 102 wRC+ from a .255/.316/.395 slash line over 175 plate appearances.

It isn’t too far faraway from the 108 wRC+ Hays posted over 1677 PA with Baltimore from 2021-23, and his current sizzling streak signifies that Hays may definitely nonetheless match or surpass that quantity over the remainder of the 2024 marketing campaign.  Hays’ numbers towards right-handed pitching are far under his profession norms, so if these stats specifically decide up, Hays will definitely put himself in line for extra of an everyday function within the Phillies’ lineup.

“We don’t assume he’s simply ready the place he needs to be platooned by any means,” Dombrowski mentioned about Hays, who for now seemingly will be part of with the left-handed hitting Brandon Marsh as a part of a timeshare in left discipline.  Marsh may be moved to heart discipline to separate time with the righty-swinging Johan Rojas ought to Hays power his manner into on a regular basis obligation in left discipline.  As Lauber notes, Marsh’s personal splits have reduce into his enjoying time — Marsh has been crushing righties however struggling badly towards lefties this season, thus necessitating the Phillies’ want for a right-handed bat for the outfield image.

Addressing that want value the Phils an skilled reliever in Dominguez, which was no small matter for a Philadelphia crew that was already identified to be on the lookout for bullpen assist previous to the commerce.  “We simply felt that for us to get a right-handed hitter we had to surrender one thing,” Dombrowski mentioned, and the membership will now goal “any person who can pitch innings late in a recreation which might be vital innings for us, like our different guys do.”

Carlos Estevez, Tanner Scott, Kyle Finnegan, and Michael Kopech are a few of the extra outstanding relievers linked to Philadelphia’s commerce pursuits in current weeks, and Blue Jays right-hander Chad Inexperienced can be “one of many Phillies’ prime targets,” within the phrases of MLB Community’s Jon Morosi (X hyperlink).  Inexperienced is usually thought-about to be obtainable given how the struggling Jays might be promoting to some extent on the deadline, although Toronto is reportedly focusing on promoting pending free brokers, whereas Inexperienced is underneath contract by the 2025 season.

As per the bizarre multi-option phrases of the deal Inexperienced signed in January 2023, he ended up incomes $21MM over the 2024-25 seasons, as soon as the Blue Jays exercised the two-year model of their membership possibility final fall.  This interprets to $10.5MM in 2025 and roughly $3.5MM left in wage this season.  That is no small matter to a Phillies crew that’s on tempo to exceed the posh tax threshold for the third straight season, and would ideally prefer to keep away from the third penalty tier of $277MM.  RosterResource has the Phils at roughly a $262.3MM tax quantity proper now, and crossing the $277MM line would give the Phillies a 95% tax on any overages, plus their first decide within the 2025 draft could be dropped again by 10 spots.

The Jays may doubtlessly eat extra of Inexperienced’s wage if the Phillies have been to supply a greater prospect return, so there are methods for the Phils to work across the payroll difficulty (whereas leaving room for different deadline upgrades) in the event that they determine Inexperienced is their man on the commerce market.  The veteran righty has a 1.74 ERA over 31 innings for Toronto this season, although his 3.82 SIERA is maybe a extra correct reflection of Inexperienced’s efficiency.  Inexperienced has benefited significantly from a 100% strand charge and a .187 BABIP, and his 23.1% strikeout charge is a bit of under common, whereas his 7.7% stroll charge is fairly respectable.

In different commerce roads not taken, Lauber and Gelb each wrote that the Phillies talked with the Rays about Randy Arozarena earlier than the outfielder was dealt to the Mariners on Thursday.  Gelb famous that Tampa Bay needed “a prime prospect” in alternate for Arozarena, however the Phils weren’t prepared to half with the unknown participant.

Touchdown Arozarena would’ve definitely counted as extra of a blockbuster transfer to handle Philadelphia’s want for a right-handed hitting outfielder.  Whereas Dombrowski has made a behavior of buying and selling prospects for established stars throughout his storied entrance workplace profession, it could possibly be that the PBO didn’t wish to transfer no matter explicit minor leaguer the Rays needed, or Dombrowski was cautious normally about depleting from the Phillies’ considerably restricted farm system.