One of the goals the Philadelphia Phillies had coming into the MLB offseason was to upgrade the backend of their starting rotation.
The team had arguably the best quartet in baseball with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez. But, their No. 5 spot didn’t offer much production as Taijuan Walker struggled.
To fill that hole in their rotation, the Phillies made a trade with the Miami Marlins to acquire Jesus Luzardo, along with minor catcher Paul McIntosh in exchange for star shortstop prospect Starlyn Caba and outfielder Emaarion Boyd, the No. 4 and No. 23 ranked players in the Philadelphia system.
With the talented lefty joining the mix, the Phillies now have an incredibly deep group of starting pitchers. Top prospect Andrew Painter is expected to join the mix at some point in the summer as well.
That leaves the team with a lot of flexibility moving forward.
With so much pitching depth, Matt Gelb of The Athletic has shared some potential plans for the team.
“With Luzardo in the mix, the Phillies could trade from their rotation surplus this winter by flipping [Ranger] Suárez for a hitter, but indications are they will lean into run prevention.”
Part of the reason Philadelphia could be inclined to hold onto Ranger Suarez, unless an offer blows them away, is to have options in case of injury.
A team can never have too many starting pitchers, and some of their options haven’t proven capable of performing across an entire 162-game season consistently.
To combat that, innings limits can be put into place. But, the only way for such a strategy to work is if manager Rob Thomson has the arms to eat up the innings.
By retaining Suarez and eventually getting Painter into the fold, he would have the necessary options to execute such a strategy.
