The Phillies came out of the trade deadline with an exciting offensive player in Luis Arraez and a couple of big-league relievers in Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian.
Glaringly missing, however, was the addition of a back-end starting pitcher, one that would provide vital depth because the Phils are paper-thin in the rotation.
With no new blood in the starting five, it’s imperative that the staff stay healthy for the remainder of the season. It is also crucial that the team get innings and effectiveness from No. 4 starter Aaron Nola and No. 5 man Andrew Painter because there’s not much behind them in the organization.
As the deadline passed early Monday night, Nola found himself firmly under the microscope in a start against the Washington Nationals.
The right-hander was bitten early by a familiar bugaboo, the home run. He gave up two of them in the first two innings and the Phillies’ offense did little to respond with just three hits in the first six innings.
Then …
Washington’s pitching imploded in the bottom of the seventh. A hit batsman and two walks set the stage for Derek Hill, who had been acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox in June. With the Phillies down by three runs, Hill launched a go-ahead grand slam against lefty Tom Cosgrove that helped propel the Phillies to a 6-3 win.
Hill helped preserve the lead with a terrific, on-the-run, tumbling catch in left-center in the top of the eighth and Bryce Harper padded the lead with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
“Thank God for Derek Hill,” manager Don Mattingly said afterward. “Huge hit. Then a huge play in left-center. It was one of those games we weren’t getting anything going and we finally broke through. It was a good win for us.”
Hill had just 18 career homers with six teams before arriving in Philadelphia. He has five in 32 games with the Phils. Before his grand slam Monday night, he hit ninth-inning homers in back-to-back comeback wins in Washington in June. He also robbed a home run with a spectacular catch against the Mets in New York on the same trip.
Big hits. Big plays.
Hill was treated to a curtain call by the crowd of 41,115 after his grand slam.
“It’s incredible to be able to come through for the team and contribute,” he said. “From the time that I broke into the league, I’ve always said this is the craziest place to play and it would be one hell of a ride if I was able to get over here and play in front of ‘em. God made it happen and it’s been pretty incredible.”
Orion Kerkering and Johan Duran combined for the final six outs as the Phillies won their third game in a row.
Nola went six innings and technically had a quality start, but his ERA is 5.55. He has allowed 28 homers, tied for most in the majors.
While Arreaz, the National League’s leading hitter this season at .324 and a three-time batting champ, will help the offense when he arrives Tuesday night, there is legitimate concern whether the Phils have enough starting pitching to maintain their tenuous grasp on a wild-card playoff spot over the final two months of the season.
Even the man responsible for putting together the roster has concerns about the lack of depth behind the top three of Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo
“Well, a little,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said just after the deadline. “After you get past the trade deadline, I worry about our depth everywhere if you have injuries.”
At least 15 starting pitchers were traded prior to the deadline. Dombrowski said he pursued starting pitching. In some cases, the prices were too high. In others, the Phils just didn’t match with what rival teams were looking for.
Painter came back to the majors Friday night and pitched six innings of two-run ball at Baltimore. In the end, Dombrowski and the team’s pitching brain trust decided to stick with the 23-year-old right-hander in the No. 5 spot.
“The choice became: do you end up getting a guy that’s a fifth starter that you don’t think is as good as your guy that you have there now and (sending to the minors) the guy you think gives you a better chance to win to help your depth,” Dombrowski said.
“We feel that if we can make it to the postseason, our starting rotation is in really solid shape. Other people are looking to add to their top three. In our situation here, that really wasn’t a necessity. So, if we were going to add somebody, they would have had to be significantly better, in our opinion, than Andrew than just acquiring just another arm.”
Luzardo pitches against Washington on Tuesday night. He let a 6-0 lead get away in his last start at Miami. He has a 5.53 ERA in 10 starts at home as opposed to a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts on the road.
Arraez will be in the lineup at second base Tuesday night and Harper will play right field as Bryson Stott moves from second to third and Alec Bohm from third to first.
There were a lot of moving parts at this trade deadline, but the starting rotation wasn’t one of them. The Phils will go with what they have. Time will tell if it’s enough.
But so far, that Derek Hill trade looks pretty good.
