Philadelphia Phillies: Catcher Rafael Marchan is the team’s best trade chip

With the MLB trade deadline just over a month away, the Philadelphia Phillies are in quite the tricky position.

For a variety of different reasons (lack of defense, bad bullpen, lackluster pitching, poor offense), the Phillies have monumentally disappointed through the first 70+ games of the season. Despite splitting a four-game series with the New York Mets this weekend, the team is still closer to being in last place than they are first, and are dangerously close to being completely out of the race by the time the trade deadline actually rolls around.

However, despite their below .500 status, the Dave Dombrowski led Phillies aren’t really in a position where they can go full-on “fire sale” mode. They have a ton of money tied up in central pieces like Bryce Harper, Zack Wheeler, and J.T. Realmuto, and are obviously attempting to capitalize on these player’s athletic primes. While I could see Dombrowski parting ways with a few veterans on expiring deals, the Phillies are in a position where they likely want to add talent at this year’s deadline, or at least shuffle pieces around to better flesh out the roster.

Someone like Rhys Hoskins, for example, isn’t on an expiring deal but will likely be involved in trade discussions due to his catastrophic defense at first base, and the likely need to move Alec Bohm off of third in the near future.

When it comes to potentially adding talent at this year’s deadline, the main target should be players with multiple years of team control. The Phillies obviously aren’t contending for a World Series this season, so it makes little sense to go after “rentals” on expiring contracts. 2022 and 2023 are going to be the years that Dombrowski really goes all-in on attempting to win, so prioritizing players who are actually going to be around by then needs to be a must.

The only problem (as Bryce Harper himself pointed out during a recent postgame interview) is that the Philadelphia Phillies don’t have a whole lot to offer teams prospect-wise. The farm system is bare, with the top two prospects (Mick Abel and Bryson Stott) likely being deemed untouchable. Even RHP Francisco Morales, the team’s #3 rated prospect, could be off limits due to the pressing need that the Phillies have at starting pitching.

If the Philadelphia Phillies plan to be active in the trade market, catcher Rafael Marchan is likely to be their top trade piece.

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However, it’s the team’s #4 rated prospect, Rafael Marchan, that could end up being their best trade chip at the deadline (or even in the following offseason). Marchan has been steadily climbing up the Phillies prospect list the past few years, already has MLB experience to his name, and is just 22 years of age. With Realmuto locked into a five-year extension that will carry him through 2025, the Phillies don’t have an immediate spot for Marchan as an everyday player.

Keeping Marchan around to be the team’s backup catcher once Andrew Knapp departs makes some sense, but there’s an argument to be made that reserving your #4 prospect to a bench role is a bit of a waste in the grand scheme of things. If Dombrowski is able to flip Marchan for someone who can play a more consistent role (a starting pitcher, for example), one would have to assume he’d jump at the opportunity to do so.

The Philadelphia Phillies are obviously an incomplete ball club, and Dave Dombrowski is a man who loves himself some big-time trades. If we follow the assumption that Abel and Stott are off limits, then dealing Marchan in some capacity is likely the best way for the Phillis to land some sort of win-now piece via the trade market.