The Phillies have been one of the hottest teams thrown around the rumor mill each of the last few trade deadlines. It’s only logical, as they are a big market team with a high payroll and championship aspirations that is helmed by a head of baseball operations that has built a Hall of Fame legacy off of big splashes. Philadelphia went into this version of the trade deadline in need of relief pitching and outfield help. They acquired both from the Minnesota Twins in the form of Jhoan Duran and Harrison
Bader.
Duran has been a superstar since arriving in Philadelphia, performing as every bit of the lockdown closer he was advertised as. He’s appeared in six games since arriving from the Twins, and Duran has yet to allow a run while striking out four with no walks while converting all five of his save opportunities as of the start of play on Tuesday. Bader has had less of an impact, at least offensively, as he’s hit .189 with a .593 OPS in 13 games entering his start on Tuesday night. But Bader’s elite fielding has already shown itself in multiple ways, the most impressive of which was his home run robbery on August 10th in Texas.
But we’re not here to discuss what the Phillies actually did at the trade deadline. Instead, we’re going to focus on what they could have done, meaning the players they were linked to in one form or another but who ultimately did not end up in red pinstripes. We started this exercise around this time last season, so let’s do another round for 2025. All statistics are from the first full day of games after the deadline (8/1) unless noted otherwise until the start of play yesterday (8/19).
Luis Robert Jr.
Just like last year, Robert was one of the biggest names constantly connected to the Phillies. And just like last year, the White Sox decided against trading him despite a rumored battle between the Phillies and Mets for his services. Chicago’s handling of the situation this time around is even more questionable than last year, as they will have to exercise a $20M team option on Robert for 2026 or else they risk losing him for nothing in free agency.
Robert has appeared in 16 games since being stranded kept in Chicago, and he’s hit a modest .246 with a sub-par .676 OPS. He’s struck out 11 times but has hit two home runs. It’s not impressive production, but it is much better than his post-deadline production last year when he hit .218 with a .530 OPS in the month of August. Overall, Robert is still hitting just .224 with a .657 OPS this season with 13 home runs despite a month of July leading up to the deadline where he hit .354 with a .990 OPS. The White Sox will now have to determine if that level of production is worth $20M and then have to find a trade partner willing to take on that salary in the hopes a change of scenery is all Robert needs to recapture his past high level of play.
Steven Kwan
Kwan always felt like a pipe dream, but he was credibly linked to the Phillies on deadline day. Cleveland was and still is in no hurry to move on from the All-Star left fielder, as he’s only 27 years old and is under team control through 2027. For those reasons, it was widely reported that the Guardians refused to budge from their extremely high asking price for teams inquiring about Kwan, and therefore he ultimately stayed put in Cleveland.
The lefty-hitting Kwan has been rather pedestrian in August, hitting .246 with a .586 OPS. It’s been his worst month of the season so far, as his previous low was when he hit .244 with a .684 OPS in May. In fact, Kwan has been mediocre since the start of June, slashing .249/.311/.353 across 62 games. For comparison’s sake, over that same span Brandon Marsh is hitting .303/.345/.466 in 61 games. Kwan is still one to keep an eye on however, as his name figures to come up in trade talks once again this offseason.
Ryan Helsley
The Phillies were connected in some fashion to practically every reliever on the market, as it was widely known they were shopping for bullpen pieces. Helsley was one of the more prominent names, but he ended up going to the Mets in exchange for three prospects including their 8th and 13th ranked prospects according to MLB Pipeline.
It’s been a rough go of it so far for Helsley in New York. He’s been charged with 5 runs in just 8 appearances, good for a 7.11 ERA. He’s allowed nine hits and four walks in just 6.1 IP while striking out nine. Five of those nine hits have been for extra bases, and he’s already been saddled with three losses.
Eugenio Suárez
Suárez, then of the Diamondbacks, was a fan favorite pick and was indeed linked to the Phillies, but his fit on the team was always awkward at best. Not because of his bat, as his 38 home runs currently rank fifth in MLB, but because of his position. Suárez is a third baseman and therefore it would’ve required the Phillies to either send Alec Bohm (who was still on the IL at the time) in the trade for Suárez or to move Bryce Harper back to the outfield to allow Suárez to play third and Bohm to play first. Nevertheless, Suárez did find a new home, or rather went back to an old one, as he was traded from Arizona to Seattle where he previously played for the Mariners in 2022-2023. The cost Seattle paid to acquire the rental Suárez translated to their 9th, 16th, and 17th ranked prospect.
The now 34-year-old slugger hasn’t exactly taken to being back in the Pacific Northwest as of yet. Suárez has appeared in 17 games since being reacquired by the Mariners on July 31st and has hit a paltry .141 with a .454 OPS. He’s already struck out 25 times and has collected just three walks. Suárez was declared healthy after getting hit by a pitch in the hand while still with Arizona on July 28th, but it’s fair to wonder if he’s still feeling some effects from it.
Alex Call
Call’s name popped up in one rumor from Matt Gelb of the Athletic on deadline day, but nothing manifested further than that. The former National ended the deadline as a member of the Dodgers, as LA surrendered two unranked pitching prospects in the deal for the 30-year-old outfielder.
Call has appeared in 13 games for the Dodgers and has hit .174 with a .514 OPS. Against left-handed pitching, which he has hit .300 against this season with a .773 OPS, Call is 2-10 with 3 strikeouts in an extremely small sample size.
Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, and Brendan Donovan
This was a rather intriguing rumor, as all three Cardinals hitters were connected to the Phillies in the same report from Bob Nightengale on the morning of the trade deadline. It was the only time any of the three were connected to the Phillies and none of them ultimately ended up leaving St. Louis, but we’ll cover them here anyway for posterity.
Nootbaar and Burleson both made sense as the Phillies were casting their net wide for outfield options. Both are left-handed though, so the fit would have required some more shuffling and have made the lineup extremely lefty heavy with either coming to Philadelphia. The appeal was there though, as Nootbaar is only 27 and Burleson is only 26. Both have had varying degrees of success in the Majors, with Nootbaar being a consistent hitter with plus defense and Burleson being an above average hitter who may be better suited for a DH role rather than the outfield.
Donovan however is where this gets interesting. He is primarily a second baseman but has played some games in left field this season. If we’re taking this rumored interest from the Phillies at face value, was their plan to put Donovan in the outfield or were they looking to try and find an upgrade over Bryson Stott at 2B?
Nevertheless, Burleson and Nootbaar have both been hot to start the month of August. Burleson is hitting .295 with a .720 OPS while Nootbaar is hitting a similar .298 with a .717 OPS. Donovan meanwhile has struggled, hitting .206 with a .464 OPS and five strikeouts in nine games. Meanwhile, Stott is hitting .317 with an .859 OPS across 16 games in the month of August. It will be fascinating to see if the Phillies revisit the idea of Donovan as a potential Stott replacement this offseason, again assuming there was some validity to this rumor.
