Philadelphia Phillies: 6 recent trade deadline misses
By Tim Boyle
3. Philadelphia Phillies trade deadline miss: Jason Vargas.
It’s kind of amazing how many trade deadline deals the Phillies and Mets have made in recent seasons. As bad as Cabrera was, Jason Vargas was far worse.
This might be because Vargas already showed signs of weakness while in New York. During the 2018 season, he was 7-9 with a 5.77 ERA. He turned things around in 2019, going 6-5 with a 4.01 ERA through 94.1 innings. Those are the numbers he drove down to Philadelphia with when he joined up with the Phillies for another late-season collapse under Gabe Kapler.
Vargas made 11 starts for the Phillies and gave them a 1-4 record and 5.37 ERA. It felt much worse than that. They never really had much of a chance whenever he did start games. Vargas was not a strikeout pitcher nor was he one that could throw enough regular strikes. Batters took advantage of his age catching up with him. In a lot of ways, he was a Trojan Horse for the Mets to ensure the Phillies wouldn’t make the playoffs.
At the cost of Austin Bossart, another prospect with no major league experience, the Phillies can at least be glad they didn’t trade away anything special for Vargas. Otherwise, this could have felt the same way New Yorkers do about Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell for Juan Samuel.