The Philadelphia Phillies Lost the Luis Arraez Trade

The MLB trade deadline is always an exciting day to be a baseball fan, especially if your team is in contention for the playoffs, as your team may end up with a new impact player. One of the teams that was expected to be the busiest at this year’s deadline was the Philadelphia Phillies.

Heading into the season, the Phillies and their fans had World Series aspirations that didn’t seem too unrealistic, but after a 9-19 start, that all came crumbling down. Ownership then decided to fire manager Rob Thomson and promoted bench coach Don Mattingly to interim manager.

For a while, this seemed to fix their problems, as at the All-Star break the team had rebounded to a 54-43 record, making them 45-24 under Don Mattingly. Unfortunately, in their 15 games following the All-Star break, the Phillies went 5-10 and fell eight games behind the Braves in the NL East.

One of the main reasons for this has been inconsistent hitting. In six of those fifteen games, the Phillies were held to one run or fewer, which, as expected, resulted in six losses. To try to solve this issue, Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski decided to trade for one of the best contact hitters in the modern era,Luis Arraez.

In theory, this move makes a lot of sense, and while there are certainly pros about it, there are some glaring problems with the move as well. How does this affect the Phillies' defensive alignment, and does it make their defense worse? What did they give up, and was it too much? That’s what this piece will give insight into: why trading for Arraez may not have been the best move for the Phillies.

​Defensive Shift

​The most immediate impact the Phillies are going to feel because of this move is going to be the major shift in their defensive alignment. Arraez is a very good fielder, but must play second base, which adds him to an already established infield.

​To adapt, the Phillies are planning on moving Bryce Harperfrom first base back to right field, where he played before his major elbow injury, which he suffered in 2022. This also means a major infield re-adjustment is in order, which would move third baseman Alec Bohm to first base and second baseman Bryson Stott to third base.

​This means that five of the eight defensive positions in baseball, pitcher not included, will be played regularly by a different player than who was originally on the Phillies opening day depth chart. This is going to take some time to get used to for all involved, and with just over 50 games left in the season, the Phillies don’t have ample time to figure it out.

​Trading Ramon Marquez

​The major piece in this trade that Philadelphia had to part with was Ramon Marquez, a right-handed pitcher who was fourth on their top 30 prospect list. Coming into this season, there wasn’t a lot of hype around Marquez, but in his 12 appearances this year, he has been nothing short of dominant, posting a 1.68 ERA, 93 strikeouts (14.19 K/9), and a 0.81 WHIP over 59 innings.

​Considering Marquez is only 20, he may not have made an immediate impact on the Phillies' roster, but for a team in need of pitching to give up their second-best minor league pitcher for an infielder feels strange. This is especially strange, considering their biggest hitting need was a righty outfielder, and instead they added a lefty infielder.

Luis Arraez May Only Be a Rental

The last glaring issue here is that Arraez is only on a one-year contract, so the Phillies are only guaranteed 50 regular-season games and a potential postseason run with Arraez. If Arraez becomes a playoff hero and the Phillies win the World Series, then obviously this trade is a complete success, but if the Phillies struggle the rest of the way and Arraez ends up leaving after the season, this couldn’t be any bigger of a failure.

Realistically, the only way that the Phillies can be labeled as a winner in this deal is if they convince Arraez to sign long-term. If not, and this team fails in the playoffs again, depending on how Ramon Marquez pans out, this could turn out to be a laughable trade for a team clinging desperately to World Series dreams.