Phillies rumors: Starling Marte has emerged as a potential trade target

With the MLB trade deadline now less than two weeks away, a rather notable name has been connected to the Philadelphia Phillies. According to MLB insider Jon Heyman, the Phillies are one of three teams to “check in on” Marlins center fielder Starling Marte:

While a lot of attention has been on the bullpen – most notably the closer position – over the past few weeks, center field has remained a pretty glaring hole for the Phillies this season. Odubel Herrera was slumping hard prior to his injured list assignment, and it’s fairly unreasonable to expect Travis Jankowski to continue to hit .375 at the plate.

In Marte, the Phillies would be acquiring one of the better center fielders in all of baseball. He’s currently slashing .285/.387/.444, and has a defensive runs saved above average total of four. Marte’s career batting average is also .287 – such production at the plate should be expected to continue moving forward.

Additionally, Marte has had some pretty insane success at Citizens Bank Park in particular, something that I am positive Dave Dombrowski is factoring into his evaluation process:

Miami CF Starling Marte has emerged as a Phillies trade target.

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Marte is on the final year of his contract, and early signs are pointing to the Marlins being unable to re-sign him for the longterm, which should in theory drive his price down when it comes to a potential trade. Philadelphia has one of the lower ranked farm systems in baseball – getting Marte at a reasonable price needs to be a necessity.

If Marte were to be acquired by the Phillies over the next 12 days, they too would have to make a decision on if he’s a player they want to keep around for the longterm. The Phillies center field problem isn’t just exclusive to 2021, and will need to be addressed in the offseason.

There’s still plenty of time between now and the July 30 trade deadline, but I would expect more Philly targets to emerge over the following days. The Phillies were already planning to buy heading into the All-Star break, and are now coming of a successful four-game series against the Marlins, while the Mets stumbled against the lowly Pirates.

Pressure to get better has only gotten larger in Philly.