The saying is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and for the Philadelphia Phillies, they’ve had a lot of success when making deals with their division rival Miami Marlins.
They acquired J.T. Realmuto back in 2019 for a package that consisted of prospect Sixto Sanchez, Jorge Alfaro and Will Stewart, a clear win for the Phillies.
What comes out of the Jesus Luzardo trade from earlier this offseason will be seen, but if he can be a key part of the rotation for the next two years, then it’s hard to imagine Philadelphia wouldn’t look back fondly on that deal, either.
With those two recent swaps on the books, Jacob Mountz of FanSided thinks the Phillies should go back to the well this winter and bring in another star player from the Marlins; Jesus Sanchez.
“Baseball Savant ranks his bat speed, hard hit percentage and average exit velocity all in the elite 90th percentile. He also barrels the ball 12.2 percent of the time ranking him in the 80th percentile. This makes him a prime breakout candidate. And in Philly, Sánchez’s chances of a breakout only get better,” he wrote.
This would be an intriguing addition even after signing Max Kepler to a one-year deal to become the starting left fielder.
For a while, Philadelphia has been connected to Luis Robert Jr. of the Chicago White Sox to be that power-hitting outfielder who has multiple seasons of club control remaining, but Sanchez would also provide that same thing and likely cost less.
While he’s not as great of a hitter or defender with a career OPS+ of 98 and defensive bWAR of -0.2, the Phillies are just looking for serviceable outfielders who can provide consistency at the plate based on what they have gotten from that unit the past few years.
Like Mountz pointed out, this could be a buy-low spot on Sanchez.
His advanced metrics suggest he could be poised for a breakout, and if Philadelphia adds him to the mix and that does happen, that unit might become a strength of the team considering now Nick Castellanos has performed following his early struggles and Brandon Marsh continuing to ascend.
