The Phillies and Orioles completed an intriguing trade Friday that saw Baltimore land Seranthony Dominguez and Cristian Pache in exchange for Austin Hays, which represented something of a lengthy pursuit for Phils president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. The executive revealed an interesting tidbit to reporters (including The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber ) regarding the team's long-standing admiration of Hays “I’ve actually tried to acquire him the last two trading deadlines," Dombrowski said, "and [the Orioles] were asking for much more than we wanted to give.” The O’s finally budged, perhaps due to both Dominguez addressing Baltimore’s bullpen needs and Hays’ increasingly expendable nature within a crowded Orioles outfield.
An ice-cold start to the season and then a four-week IL stint due to a calf strain led to Hays’ playing time being reduced, though he has hit quite well in a more limited capacity over the last two-plus months. Even with the first six weeks of the season essentially being a wash, Hays has gotten his offensive production back above league average, delivering a 102 wRC+ from a .255/.
316/.395 slash line over 175 plate appearances. It isn’t too far removed from the 108 wRC+ Hays posted over 1677 PA with Baltimore from 2021-23 and his recent hot streak indicates that Hays could certainly still match or surpass that number over the rest of the 2024 campaign.
Hays’ numbers against right-handed pitching are far below his career norms, so if those stats in particular pick up, Hays will certainly put himself in line for more of a regular role in the Phillies’ lineup. “We don’t think he’s just in a position where he has to be platooned by any means,” Dombrowski said about Hays, who for now seemingly will join with the left-handed hitting Brandon Marsh as part of a timeshare in left field. Marsh could also be moved to center field to split time with the righty-swinging Johan Rojas should Hays force his way into everyday duty in left field.
As Lauber notes, Marsh’s own splits have cut into his playing time — Marsh has been crushing righties but struggling badly against lefties this season, thus necessitating the Phillies’ need for a right-handed bat for the outfield picture. Addressing that need cost the Phils an experienced reliever in Dominguez, which was no small matter for a Philadelphia team that was already known to be looking for bullpen help prior to the trade. “We just felt that for us to get a right-handed hitter we had to give up something,” Dombrowski said, adding that the club will now target “somebody who can pitch innings late in a game that are important innings for us, like our other guys do.
” Carlos Estevez, Tanner Scott, Kyle Finnegan and Michael Kopech are some of the more prominent relievers linked to Philadelphia’s trade pursuits in recent weeks and Blue Jays right-hander Chad Green is also “one of the Phillies’ top targets,” in the words of MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. Green is generally considered to be available given how the struggling Jays will be selling to some extent at the deadline, though Toronto is reportedly focusing on selling pending free agents, whereas Green is under contract through the 2025 season. As per the unusual multi-option terms of the deal Green signed in January 2023, he ended up earning $21M over the 2024-25 seasons, once the Blue Jays exercised the two-year version of their club option last fall.
This translates to $10.5M in 2025 and roughly $3.5M left in salary this season.
This is no small matter to a Phillies team that is on pace to exceed the luxury tax threshold for the third straight season, and would ideally like to avoid the third penalty tier of $277M. RosterResource has the Phils at roughly a $262.3M tax number right now and crossing the $277M line would give the Phillies a 95% tax on any overages, plus their first pick in the 2025 draft would be dropped back by 10 spots.
The Jays could potentially eat more of Green’s salary if the Phillies were to offer a better prospect return, so there are ways for the Phils to work around the payroll issue (while leaving room for other deadline upgrades) if they decide Green is their guy on the trade market. The veteran righty has a 1.74 ERA over 31 innings for Toronto this season, though his 3.
82 SIERA is perhaps a more accurate reflection of Green’s performance. Green has benefited greatly from a 100% strand rate and a .187 BABIP and his 23.
1% strikeout rate is a little below average, while his 7.7% walk rate is pretty respectable. In other trade roads not taken, Lauber and Gelb both wrote that the Phillies talked with the Rays about Randy Arozarena before the outfielder was dealt to the Mariners on Thursday.
Gelb noted that Tampa Bay wanted a" top prospect” in exchange for Arozarena, but the Phils weren’t willing to part with the unknown player. Landing Arozarena would’ve certainly counted as more of a blockbuster move to address Philadelphia’s need for a right-handed hitting outfielder. While Dombrowski has made a habit of trading prospects for established stars during his storied front-office career, it could be that the PBO didn’t want to move whatever particular minor leaguer the Rays wanted or Dombrowski was wary in general about depleting from the Phillies’ somewhat limited farm system.
This article first appeared on MLB Trade Rumors and was syndicated with permission..
