Philadelphia Phillies: 7 best trade deadline deals in franchise history
By Tim Boyle
The MLB trade deadline has become a much bigger deal in recent years. It was far milder before the internet age. For this reason, you won’t find too many great Philadelphia Phillies trades from the team’s earlier years.
Fortunately, the Phillies have made some more recent savvy trade deadline deals. Maybe “recent” isn’t the best way to put it. They’ve had far more misses than anything else in their current era.
But before these bleaker years, the team was routinely one of the most active clubs in July at adding to the roster. Some of the biggest players the franchise had made their way to Philadelphia via trade deadline deal. Other role players also found their way here in an unexpectedly important transaction.
7) Best Phillies trade deadline deal: Scott Eyre from the Cubs
Remember Scott Eyre? The man was made for Charlie Manuel to manage. He was brought over in the middle of the 2008 season in a trade with the Chicago Cubs that nobody figured would be as important as it was.
Eyre was 2-0 with a 7.15 ERA in 11.1 innings for the Cubs. He had made 19 appearances for them in only 11.1 innings of work.
The Phillies didn’t use him much differently. He would make 19 trips to the mound for them in 2008 and log only 14.1 innings. Results were much different. He was 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA. His 11.3 strikeouts per nine were amazingly high for a pitcher during that era, too. All the trade cost Philadelphia was Brian Schlitter whose name is probably better than his play on the field.
Eyre spent the 2009 season with the Phillies as well where he would continue to be a left-handed specialist. His overall numbers with the team included a 5-1 record and 1.62 ERA.