The Philadelphia Phillies followed up their series sweep on Sunday with a major loss.
After taking all three games from the Pittsburgh Pirates in their Rivalry Weekend series, the Phillies announced that reliever Jose Alvarado would serve an 80-game suspension and would be held out of a potential playoff run after testing positive for a banned substance.
Alvarado had been one of the team’s most reliable high-leverage bullpen arms in a great start to the season. Losing him was a major blow as the Phillies look to make good on longstanding World Series aspirations.
If the Phillies were already interested in adding a reliever by the trade deadline, this latest news would have made them outright desperate. And as the team assesses the availability of a trade, its franchise player spoke out about the challenge facing president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski now that all of the prospective sellers see some growing desperation.
“It’s tough when a guy goes out of the clubhouse in that way because … teams know that we need it,” Bryce Harper said, per Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Obviously, Dave does a good job getting value for value. But also, it’s a tough situation to be in because teams do know that we’re hurting and we need something.”
Any team that might be looking to trade away a true closer in exchange for future value will have plenty of suitors. A dependable reliever would help virtually every team looking to go deep in the playoffs. And now with that weakness growing in Philadelphia, those teams can hold out for a major trade haul.
However, the Phillies do have at least one factor in their favor. While its bullpen depth has been wanting, the team has a deep and effective starting rotation with top prospect Andrew Painter set to make his debut soon.
As a result, the Phillies could end up trading away a starter in exchange for another reliever in the next few weeks.
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