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The Philadelphia Phillies made one of the few trades this offseason recently when they landed reliever Gregory Soto from the Detroit Tigers.
They had to trade away two MLB players who were going to make the roster once again in Nick Maton and Matt Vierling, but the front office believes the talented Soto is worth the depth they paid.
MLB writer Matt Gelb agrees. He acknowledges the price Philadelphia paid, but thinks the gamble is worth it.
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Gelb said:
"They decided that another high leverage arm in the bullpen was more valuable than some roster depth... They sacrificed the depth in Matt Vierling and Nick Maton - two guys who played for them in the playoffs last year, played down the stretch for them."
He continued:
"Soto is like an impact guy. I think he's a guy who could pitch the seventh, eighth, ninth inning for you. They now have the two hardest-throwing left-handed relievers in the entire sport... pairing Gregory Soto with Jose Alvarado."
The Phillies were beaten in the World Series in 2022 by the Houston Astros, a team that features a ton of high-leverage elite bullpen arms that they can use in a variety of ways.
The Phillies didn't win it all, but this move seems to imply that may have learned from their mistakes and are retooling for a successful World Series bid next season.
With Trea Turner, Gregory Soto, how good can the Philadelphia Phillies be?
The Philadelphia Phillies were a back-end Wild Card team who barely got into the playoffs before making an unbelievable run to the World Series. They've taken that roster and only made it better.
They signed Trea Turner and traded for Gregory Soto and have made a well-rounded roster. How will that translate next season?
Unfortunately, the Zips Fangraphs projections don't believe they've improved very much. In fact, they only expect the Phillies to win about 85 games this season.
These projections are always very conservative, as they predict the best team in baseball will be the Atlanta Braves with only 93 wins.
The Phillies will likely be better than this season. Is it enough to win it all?
