The Marlins’ Trade Felt Custom-Made to Troll Phillies Fans
The Philadelphia Phillies had a fine trade deadline. We all have faith in Dave Dombrowski, and even though we wanted to see more of a splash, this is absolutely a team that can contend for the World Series. We can say we wanted more, but we also can’t really be too mad about what our team did.
We can however, be furious about what the Miami Marlins put us through. Their trade with the Cleveland Guardians felt like it was specifically designed to make Phillies fans as upset as possible.
Today the #Marlins acquired 1B Josh Bell (-$11.1M median trade value) from the #Guardians in exchange for IFs Jean Segura (-$7.1M) and Kahlil Watson ($7.8M).
— Baseball Trade Values (@BaseballValues) August 1, 2023
The deal is rejected by our model.
Usually we’d be celebrating that the Marlins seemed to make a bad trade, but somehow it stings more that they went ahead and played with our emotions anyway. The two big pieces of the deal that will be noteworthy to Phillies fans are Jean Segura and Josh Bell.
Segura was long a fan favorite in Philadelphia, and it was absolutely a heartbreaker to see him go. He’s obviously just a shell of his former self, and he was immediately released by the Guardians after making the trade.
Seeing Segura cast aside like this stings, and it gave us especially painful flashbacks considering it happened while he was at the ballpark, even hanging out with some of his former teammates before tonight’s game.
Jean Segura saying goodbye to Kyle Schwarber and the Phillies, and of course the Marlins, before tonight’s game. He is reportedly being traded to Cleveland pic.twitter.com/rwg38ZUN4R
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) August 1, 2023
The other piece that will annoy Phillies fans is having to see Josh Bell in the NL East.
Bell just always seems to dominate the Phillies, whether he’s playing well or not. You probably don’t want me to mention it, but of course there was that stretch last season when he homered in three straight against us. The stats back up that he has our number to, as his career .451 slugging percentage conveniently balloons to .551 against Philadelphia.
His 13 home runs against the Phillies are the second-most he has against any single opponent. The difference between us and the Cubs, who he’s hit 14 against, is that he’s played 25 fewer games against Philly.
He’s having one of the worst seasons of his career, but with our luck he’ll start playing like an All-Star now that he’s back in the NL East.
Of course, one thing that can help ease the pain this trade brings on is money. And DraftKings Sportsbook will hook you up. If you sign up through the exclusive Section 215 link below, they’ll award you a $150 bonus just for placing your first $5 bet. It’s guaranteed and automatic – you don’t even need to win your bet to get paid out the full bonus. It might not bring a prime Jean Segura back to Philly, but it’s not a bad consolation.