Philadelphia Phillies: Francisco Lindor isn’t a realistic trade target

The Philadelphia Phillies trading for Francisco Lindor seems pretty unlikely.

It was rumored all regular season long, but the reality finally set in once the offseason began. The Cleveland Indians don’t want to hand Francisco Lindor a big time extension, and they intend to trade him prior to next year’s Opening Day (according to Jon Morosi). With that report officially out there, the Philadelphia Phillies were somewhat surprisingly named as a potential suitor.

For starters, Lindor is a ridiculously good player. He’s arguably been the best shortstop in all of baseball since debuting back in 2015, and he’s been the main driving factor behind Cleveland’s success the last couple of seasons. He’s been selected to four All-Star games, won two Gold Gloves, won two Silver Slugger awards, and placed in the top ten for MVP voting on three separate occasions. He’s one of baseball’s rare “five tool” players, and is very much a superstar in today’s modern era.

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Value and cost aside for a second, any team would be extremely lucky to have a player of his caliber.

However, when it comes specifically to the Philadelphia Phillies, I’m failing to see how this connection makes any sort of sense. Sure, they have a glaring hole at shortstop now that Didi Gregorius has departed, but a “Hail Mary” move for Lindor does little to fix the organizational wide failures that the team has been experiencing as of late.

The Phillies had the second worst bullpen in baseball history last year, their farm system ranks towards the bottom of the MLB at the moment, they’re set to lose two key offensive starters via free agency, and a handful of their promising young players still can’t seem to find everyday roles on the team. Lindor is an absolutely surreal player, but it’s just genuinely challenging to imagine a scenario where just acquiring him is what vaults this team back into World Series contention.

Lindor’s impact aside for the moment, the simple act of trading for him would be a severely costly one. With teams like the Yankees and the Mets reportedly in on the shortstop’s services, the bidding war projects to be intense. The Phillies at minimum would likely have to give up both Spencer Howard and Adam Haseley, along with other players to sweeten the deal.

Even that might not be enough to land the 4x All-Star.

With Phillies ownership already unwilling to shell out the required money to keep JT Realmuto in town, the possibility of Lindor not receiving his own lucrative contract extension following a hypothetical trade looms overhead as well. I’d really rather not have a repeat Sixto Sanchez experience if I’m being completely honest.

Ultimately, I find it really hard to believe the Phillies will even make an offer on the disgruntled Lindor. John Middleton likes to act like he’s an aggressive owner, but outside of the Bryce Harper deal, he’s really failed to bring the appropriate pieces to Philadelphia over the last few years.

Oh, and the Phillies still don’t even have a new general manager lined up. Are we really going with the idea that interim GM Ned Rice is going to pull the trigger on a blockbuster trade for Lindor? I think not.

The MLB hot stove can get wild, and we’ve definitely seen the Philadelphia Phillies pull off impromptu trades in the past. However, this entire scenario just doesn’t seem realistic, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.