Phillies trade deadline notes: Valuing Edmundo Sosa, looking for another starter

Jul 16, 2022; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Edmundo Sosa (63) safely steals second base against the Cincinnati Reds in the fourth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-USA TODAY Sports
By Matt Gelb
Aug 1, 2022

PITTSBURGH — A Cardinals duffel bag rested on top of Edmundo Sosa’s locker at PNC Park, and it wasn’t lost on the new Phillies infielder how he went from one side of a postseason race to another. “It’s a really tight race,” Sosa said. “But I’m happy to be here.” He replaced a friend and fellow Panamanian, Johan Camargo, on the active roster. It was a minor transaction, albeit somewhat instructive to understand how the Phillies are operating.

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There is no marginal improvement too small.

The biggest fishes on the trade market will not be Phillies when the dust settles Tuesday evening. Even the second-tier players available in trades might not become Phillies. The club, sources told The Athletic, is focused most on a rotation upgrade while holding firm on not surrendering any of its top prospects. The deadline, which is 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, has a way of changing hardline stances.

But there are some interesting dynamics at play. For one, it looks like there are seven teams for six postseason spots in the National League. The Phillies are not in a position to take anything for granted — not when it’s been a decade since they last appeared in the playoffs — but in a best-of-three series, with all games on the road, is the payoff worth sacrificing top prospects to gain a starter who might pitch a decisive Game 3?

Could Ranger Suárez go once through the order with a big-strikeout bullpen behind him? How big is the difference between that and, say, a mid-rotation starter who costs good prospects? It is a situation worth debating.

“My focus is here, with these guys,” Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said after a four-game sweep of the hapless Pirates. “If we can’t get anything done for whatever reason, I’m good. I’m good. I’ll take this club and we’ll do whatever we need to do.”

There’s a good chance Sosa, a 26-year-old defensive standout, is not the club’s marquee addition. Sosa fell out of favor in St. Louis, and the Phillies were one of numerous teams angling to acquire him. The Phillies didn’t just like Sosa; they also believe he has enough upside to be a regular. (He was a 2- to 3-win player last season by different WAR measurements.) Maybe it’s not now, but they viewed the trade as a buy-low opportunity that improved their immediate depth with the potential for more. The cost — JoJo Romero, a usable lefty who throws in the mid-90s — represented how the Phillies valued Sosa.

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Sosa, in their eyes, represented a big defensive and running upgrade at shortstop. With Jean Segura returning soon, it’s unclear how everything fits together, but it is difficult to not focus on Didi Gregorius. Whatever the roster situation is, Gregorius stands to lose playing time once Segura is back.

The veteran shortstop has hit .184/.239/.293 in 159 plate appearances since being activated from the injured list June 5. His defensive work at shortstop has improved, but his range is still limited compared to others.

Camargo, signed to a $1.4 million contract after spending most of last season at Triple A in Atlanta’s organization, has been a disappointment. The Phillies, in general, have accumulated far better depth in 2022 than before. Garrett Stubbs, Andrew Bellatti, Nick Nelson and Yairo Muñoz were under-the-radar acquisitions who have helped this team. Camargo hasn’t been a glaring weakness, but if the Phillies are going to sharpen the edges rather than add a big-ticket item, it was one way to improve.

“He just wants to play,” Thomson said of Camargo. “And I told him, ‘For your career and for us, you need to get some reps.’ He hasn’t been getting much playing time. And he understood. At the end of it, he said ‘I just want to play.’ He was a real pro.”

The power’s back

All J.T. Realmuto has done in his last 11 games is raise his season OPS by 76 points. He’s hitting .264/.340/.420 for the season.

“I think it’s no secret that I wasn’t myself in the first two or three months of the year,” Realmuto said. “I just feel like I’ve kind of gotten back what I’ve done well in the past, and it’s taking a consistent approach. I just have more confidence at the plate right now than I did earlier in the year. So I’ll just try to ride the wave. Everybody knows hitting is an up-and-down thing.”

Is part of getting back to himself driving the ball to the opposite field like he did in Saturday night’s win?

“Yeah, absolutely,” Realmuto said. “And even earlier in the year when I was struggling, I was thinking about driving it the other way. But I had some bad things going on in my swing that wasn’t allowing me to do that. So I cleaned those things up. Some small mechanical issues. My approach is working well for me.”

Going oppo
Year
  
BIP
  
BA
  
SLG
  
EV
  
2019
104
.354
.677
88.9
2020
27
.407
.926
93.0
2021
114
.386
.746
87.0
2022
74
.338
.568
85.6

The numbers support that. Realmuto has always had power to the opposite field. He slugged .738 to the opposite field from 2019-21 and that was among the 20 best rates in all of baseball. But, in May, he slugged just .346 on balls hit the other way. In June, it was .526.

He crushed the ball to the opposite field in July.

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The Phillies invested big money in Realmuto as an aging catcher because they believed he was more athletic than most behind the plate with an offensive approach that could endure.

Realmuto, 31, entered Sunday having caught 49 more innings than anyone else in the major leagues. Thomson did not think it was a coincidence that Realmuto’s swing looked better after mandated rest (by not being vaccinated for the games in Toronto) and scheduled rest (from the All-Star break).

“I think that factors in,” Thomson said. “I think moving forward, we have to take that into account.”

That makes Thomson the third Phillies manager who has contemplated a little more rest for Realmuto. It’s easy to say and harder to implement. Realmuto likes to play. And managers like it when he plays.

But Thomson will look for more spots. Garrett Stubbs has hit enough to lessen the gap between Realmuto and his backup. Stubbs will probably play Wednesday’s day game despite Realmuto having a day off Monday.

Everyone benefits.

“I mean, Stubby’s played well for us,” Thomson said. “He’s caught well. He’s swung the bat. He’s hit left-handed pitching. He’s played really well. He’s a baseball player. You know?”

Go for the gold

Sometimes, Rhys Hoskins cannot keep a straight face while he stands on first base waiting for Suárez to fire a baseball at him. “I laugh every time he catches it,” Hoskins said. He mimicked Suárez’s casual way of holding the ball after snaring it.

“It’s just smooth,” Hoskins said. “It’s awesome.”

Suárez takes pride in his defense. He’s athletic — in A-ball, he moonlighted in a men’s soccer league. Not much rattles Suárez; it’s one thing for a pitcher to want to be good at fielding his position, it’s another to be elite at it.

Suárez leads all big-league pitchers with six defensive runs saved — two more than the next-closest pitchers. And that’s with only 95 innings this season.

“I think he’s got the best hands I’ve ever seen from a pitcher,” Hoskins said. “Anything that hits his glove sticks in it. What a weapon. We’re still going to shift, but like, I think you can kind of use that (as an advantage) so you don’t have to. Right? You can cover more ground on the infield.”

Suárez has not allowed an earned run since returning from a brief stint on the IL with back spasms. He’s throwing more strikes. That is far more critical to his success than his fielding.

But it doesn’t hurt.

Atlanta’s Max Fried has won the last two NL Gold Gloves. The award, especially for pitchers, is often based on reputation. Suárez has made a decent case and, yeah, he’s thought about it.

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“Every player, everyone wants to have a Gold Glove,” Suárez said. “I’m trying to make good plays. And we’ll see what happens at the end of the season.”

Staying in rotation

On Sunday morning, Zack Wheeler walked to the bullpen mound at PNC Park and practiced his mechanics. Coaches surrounded him as he repeated and repeated his stride.

“I’m still a tick off,” Wheeler said after lowering his ERA to 2.77 on Thursday. “I can’t really pick up what it is. So we’re going to keep working on that.”

Is it velocity or something else?

“Just something else,” Wheeler said.

Mechanical?

“I couldn’t tell you,” Wheeler said. “I’m trying to figure it out.”

Wheeler had a 2.48 ERA in five July starts — four of which were on the standard four days’ rest. The Phillies plan to do a bullpen game Tuesday because Kyle Gibson left the team to be with family following the death of his grandmother. They could have Wheeler pitch Tuesday on regular rest, but they’d rather provide him the extra day.

Wheeler has been better this season with extra rest. He has a 2.55 ERA in 42 1/3 innings on five days’ rest compared to a 3.35 ERA in 48 1/3 innings on four days’ rest. He logged a career-high 213 1/3 innings last season. The Phillies are cognizant of that. They also know they will lean on Wheeler down the stretch. So, one extra day now is something they are willing to spare.

The Phillies would like another starting pitcher for obvious reasons, but there are other considerations. Suárez, who barely pitched in 2020, threw 106 innings last season and is already at 95 this season. The Phillies have managed his pitch count in recent starts as he returned from the IL, but they are expected to let him go in his next start. How far are the Phillies willing to push Suárez? It is something to monitor.

(Top photo of Edmundo Sosa: Joe Puetz / USA Today)

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Matt Gelb

Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.