Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported last week that while the Philadelphia Phillies were seeking upgrades in advance of the Aug. 2 trade deadline, they had “signaled to other clubs that Andrew Painter, Mick Abel and Griff McGarry are not available.”
The list of prospects that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is telling teams aren’t going to be moved in a trade apparently isn’t limited just to those three.
Jayson Stark of The Athletic hears that in addition to the three names that Gelb mentioned, the Phillies have also “said no” on RHP Ben Brown and catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
Brown was a 33rd-round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft out of Ward Melville High School in New York. Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2019 set Brown back, but he’s pitching at a pretty high level for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in 2022. Still only 22 years old, Brown has a 3.08 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 16 games — 15 of which have been starts — at High-A this season.
Meanwhile, O’Hoppe is slashing .269/.385/.492 with 15 home runs, 45 RBIs and an .977 OPS for Double-A Reading. MLB Pipeline recently ranked O’Hoppe the No. 86 prospect in all of baseball, adding that there’s “every chance of him being a starting catcher in the big leagues soon.”
Perhaps as the Phillies get closer to Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET trade deadline, they’ll become more open to moving someone like O’Hoppe, especially given that J.T. Realmuto is under contract through the 2025 season. Then again, it’s entirely possible that O’Hoppe and Relamuto could co-exist for a season or two before the torch is passed behind the plate to the 22-year-old.
Over the next 48 hours, Dombrowski will be asked to balance trying to help the Phillies return to the postseason for the first time since 2011 with doing the best for a farm system that finally appears to be turning the corner. It’s safe to say that he and general manager Sam Fuld won’t be getting a ton of sleep over the next couple days.
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