Jason Vargas could turn out to be steal for Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Jason Vargas from the New York Mets on Monday leading up to the trade deadline.

While there was already some frustration from the Philadelphia Phillies fan base after the team failed to land Marcus Stroman in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays, it looks like the team ended up with a different prize instead in Jason Vargas.

Looking at some of the areas in need of improvement over the last few months, there’s no question that Philadelphia was in need of help in the pitching department, especially with Jake Arrieta dealing with an elbow injury.

As much as Arrieta wants to battle through the injury, the Phillies are smart enough to realize there are no guarantees in regards to these next few months.

But when it comes to this latest deal involving Vargas, this seems like a move that some will criticize at first, but could end up working wonders for Philadelphia during this final stretch.

First off, sometimes a fresh start on a new team can help certain players get back on the right track, but also Vargas has looked pretty sharp for the most part over his previous three starts.

Not only is Vargas bringing an impressive winning streak to Philadelphia with three wins in a row, but he’s only allowed six earned run in 17.2 innings of action.

Assuming Vargas picks up where he left off during his first start as a member of the Phillies, whenever that may be, this trade could very well turn into a key piece for Philadelphia, as they head into August looking to remain in the playoff hunt.

For a team with high expectations at the beginning of the year thanks to an impressive offseason that consisted of numerous key additions led by Bryce Harper, it’s been frustrating at times to watch the Phillies struggle in numerous areas over these last few months.

Vargas isn’t going to solve all of the problems Philadelphia has been dealing with, but at least this seems well worth the risk after looking at some of the other player they already missed out on before the trade deadline.

Plus, since Vargas is coming over from the Mets, at least this addition adds another factor to the already fun rivalry the Phillies have within the NL East.