The Philadelphia Phillies are all-in on the 2025 season, and that means they have to exhaust all their options at the upcoming trade deadline.
President of baseball operations David Dombrowski is no stranger to making bold moves in pursuit of a championship. But he’ll have to pull out his full bag of tricks to give these Phillies the best shot at a title.
The Phillies probably need another outfielder, preferably one who can hit against lefties, and they definitely need bullpen help. If the playoffs started Monday, they’d have a devil of a time choosing someone to close games.
Maybe a recently minted eight-time All-Star closer could be of service?
On Monday, Zach Pressnell of FanSided named Boston Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman as an ideal prospective trade target for this Phillies bunch.
“The Phillies need help in the bullpen after they lost a few pieces in free agency in the offseason while also losing their closer, Jose Alvarado, for 80 games and the postseason due to a failed drug test,” Pressnell wrote.
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“Chapman would be the ideal fit for the Phillies, much like Carlos Estévez was last year. The Red Sox could target some top prospects from Philadelphia’s farm system, potentially somebody like Devin Saltiban or Bryan Rincon.”
The 37-year-old Chapman is truly an athletic marvel. He regularly tops 100 miles per hour with both his four-seam fastball and sinker. And in year 16 of his big-league career, he’s got a career-low 7.4 percent walk rate while pitching to a 1.25 ERA.
Obviously, this can’t happen without the Red Sox electing to greatly diminish their own chances at the postseason. So perhaps Dombrowski will have to overpay, which he’s done in the past when he’s believed it was the right time.
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