Philadelphia Phillies: 3 reasons trading for Byron Buxton makes sense
By David Esser
Dave Dombrowski was brought in to make moves, and with the Philadelphia Phillies teetering just around the .500 mark through the first 90 games of the season, it appears the future Hall of Fame executive has his eyes set on improving the roster sooner rather than later.
Philadelphia has already been named as an organization “looking to buy” at this year’s trade deadline, and now they’re beginning to be linked to specific players, with Minnesota’s Byron Buxton being name-dropped earlier this week:
The Phillies would be at or near the front of the line if Byron Buxton became available. As @Ken_Rosenthal said the Twins are first attempting to lock him up. Tricky negotiation tough: superstar who’s been hurt a lot.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 16, 2021
While there’s no guarantee that the Twins even make Buxton available sometime over the following weeks, it’s encouraging to see the Phillies looking to add some legit All-Star caliber talent to the roster – and there’s plenty of reasons as to why a hypothetical move for Buxton in particular would make sense.
3 reasons trading for Byron Buxton makes sense for the Philadelphia Phillies:
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Buxton fits the timeline
Set to turn 28 in December, Buxton quite perfectly lines up with the Phillies current timeline. The likes of Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Zack Wheeler, and Aaron Nola are all in their “athletic primes” at the moment, with Buxton being in a very similar spot.
A lot has been said as of late in regards to capitalizing on the peaks of said players (specifically Harper), which is a completely fair point to make. Even the best of MLB talent start to regress as they get deeper into their 30s – making substantial moves to “win now” while the core guys are still in their late 20s/early 30s is the correct plan of attack for Dombrowski to have.
Even if the Phillies are forced to give up valuable prospects, Buxton coming in and hypothetically adding a third offensive star to the mix would immediately put the organization in a better spot to contend moving forward.