With their full rosters, the AL East teams are eager to reach a trade agreement. Let’s look at some players the Phillies ought to give some thought to.
Organizations carefully examine each roster spot to decide who they will commit to as a contributor for the 2024 season and who they may consider expendable, especially with free agency in full swing and teams continuing to fill out their rosters.
The AL East’s three teams—the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, and Toronto Blue Jays—made it to the postseason last year, while the two historically strong teams—the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox—did not. The AL East consistently produces elite teams and World Series contenders with rosters full of unsung heroes.
The Phillies will undoubtedly try to improve the team in unique ways with players who might not be the most obvious additions as they get closer to Spring Training and continue to assemble their roster.
The 2024 Phillies would gain a lot of players from each of the five AL East teams, but let’s focus on just one player from each club that the Phillies ought to target in a trade.
Harold Ramírez, OF/DH/1B, Tampa Bay Rays
With the Miami Marlins, Harold Ramírez made his league debut in 2019 and has been largely reliable ever since. His career batting average is.289, his on-base percentage is.329, and his OPS is.748.
He only hit 12 home runs in 122 games during the previous season, but he still showed off his bat-to-ball abilities with an average of.313. His ability to play first base and corner outfield are intriguing examples of his versatility in the field.
Ramírez’s ability to hit Major League pitching is crucial for a team like the Phillies, as he is a right-handed bat. The Phillies have been weak against left-handed pitching the past two years, but he hit an incredible.387 against them. In addition to being a useful bat off the bench, he would be a good choice to relieve regulars like Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Kyle Schwarber.
Jorge Mateo, INF/UTL, Baltimore Orioles
Mateo, a shortstop who is 28 years old, is well-known for his glove. Since making his Major League debut in 2020, his defense has been excellent, but his offense has been far from stellar.
He hit.217/.267/.607 in 2023, walking 6.3% of the time and striking out 23.4 percent of the time. He is not necessary for the Phillies’ offense, though. In situations where the game was close, they would be looking to him as a defensive substitute, similar to Edmundo Sosa or Rodolfo Castro’s unsuccessful mid-season acquisition experiment.
Mateo can also change the course of a game with his speed, and in those same late-game situations, he could be a useful pinch-runner. Mateo stole 32 bags in just 113 games played, ranking him 11th in all of baseball. Of the ten players ahead of him, seven had played more than 150 games, and only one had played fewer games. The Phillies could always use more speed—it kills.
The speedy infielder isn’t a player that will single-handily carry a team to the playoffs and beyond, but luckily for him and the Phillies, they wouldn’t need him to. He would be a complementary piece to a championship-caliber team that could use his specific set of skills.
Fans of the Phillies will recognize this name. One of the harder players to follow, Pivetta spent three and a half seasons with the Phillies before being traded to the Red Sox in 2020. It’s not that he didn’t perform; rather, it’s that he never really reached his peak, which we were only able to glimpse occasionally.
The righty can be utterly captivating when cruising, but when there’s a hiccup, everything comes crashing down. With the Red Sox, it has been essentially the same narrative. Having struggled to establish himself as a starter, he was moved to the relief role and flourished there in the middle of the 2023 season, pitching to an ERA of 1.91 in July and 2.53 in June over 14 games.
The Red Sox asked him to start again as the season was coming to an end, and as the innings added up, so did the ERA. He made 16 starts this year and finished with a 4.66 ERA,.234 batting average against, and 1.218 WHIP as a starter. On the other hand, in 22 appearances coming out of the bullpen, his ERA was 3.07, his WHIP was 0.970, and his batting average against was down to.166.
But Pivetta’s willingness to be used out of the bullpen can be something of value to the Phillies. The Phillies always value bullpen depth, especially guys who are versatile and have the ability to go multiple innings and can also be starting depth if someone on the rotation goes down. A reunion between the Phillies and Pivetta could be just what the doctor ordered for both.
Nick Ramirez, LHP, New York Yankees
Not many people immediately think of the Bronx native and left-handed reliever Nick Ramirez when they think of the Yankees in pinstripes. However, the 34-year-old’s season with the Yankees last year was surprisingly successful.
He bounced around for a few years after making his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2019 with the Detroit Tigers before spending the entire year out of the Majors in 2022. The Yankees gambled on him, and he paid them back handsomely with a 2.66 ERA over 40 2/3 innings, 28 strikeouts, and just one home run allowed.
Although Ramirez’s pitching repertoire isn’t particularly impressive, he still uses it to good effect. His changeup clocks in at 79 mph, his sweeper at 80 mph, and his sinker at a mere 89 mph. With a 48.5 percent ground ball induction rate, he can induce balls to limit damage and escape trouble.
The Phillies should consider taking a chance on him as he is an intriguing and affordable option. They now boast one of the league’s hardest-throwing bullpens after making significant changes to their bullpen in recent years. To balance out the other arms in the relief corps, it would be interesting to insert a pitcher like Ramirez who has a much slower repertoire.
Alek Manoah, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
Alek Manoah had a “down year,” but to say that would be an understatement.
He was an All-Star and finished third in the AL Cy Young voting after an incredible 2022 season; his 2023 season could not have been more different. He only made 19 starts in the Majors, and his 5.87 ERA and 1.740 WHIP were dismal.
After being sent all the way to the Florida Complex League to resolve the situation, the problems persisted even after he was called back. Despite being sent down once more, he didn’t report to Triple-A Buffalo because he was so upset about the ruling. For a team hoping to win the World Series, it was a headache and a distraction.
There are clear differences between the big right-hander in 2022 and 2023. He was able to walk as few walks as possible (6.5 percent in 2022 vs. 14.2 percent in 2023), miss more bats (5.4 percent in 2022 vs. 9 percent in 2023), and have a much lower WHIP (0.99 in 2022 vs. 1.74 in 2023).
Manoah just needs to go back to playing like he did a year ago in order to become a valuable member of a team that is in the running for the World Series. Manoah is only 25 years old, and his circumstances beg for him to be considered as a candidate for a “change of scenery.” Manoah has all the makings of a very successful pitcher in the major leagues, and whichever team can maximize that potential will have a long-term advantage.