Colorado Rockies: The top five remaining destinations for Trevor Story

The Philadelphia Phillies could look at Trevor Story

The Philadelphia Phillies, despite having the NL MVP Bryce Harper in their lineup, do not have a great offense. Outside of Harper, only first baseman Rhys Hoskins had an OPS+ better than 115 in 2021. In 2021, Story’s OPS+ was 103 but he was playing injured for some of the season. In the three previous seasons, his OPS+ was 123.

So let’s look at the checklist.

Winning: The Phillies have made moves to try to help them win (signing Zack Wheeler and Bryce Harper) but they haven’t made the playoffs in over a decade.

Geography: The Phillies rarely play the AL West so they rarely face the teams in Texas and Phildelphia is not close to Texas at all.

A “pretty close” roster: They are kind of close to playoff contention as they were 82-80 last season. But with the Mets making a bunch of moves, they are (in theory) better and the Braves won the World Series. So they aren’t as close as you’d think.

They have Didi Gregorius at shortstop currently but he’s not very good (-0.8 rWAR) but he’s owed $16 million next year so they have a financial reason to keep him there (unless they can trade him). The Phillies #2 prospect in Bryson Stott, though. He is MLB ready and he’s a shortstop so Story may not be a fit at short. At second, they have the veteran Jean Segura, who had an OPS+ of 111 there so the Phillies probably won’t want to move his bat.

If the NL gets the DH, Story could be a better fit but Segura is their best defender. Gregorius is their worst defender by DRS but, perhaps, the Phillies would look at using him in the outfield, at least one team considered that at the trade deadline last year.

The Phillies and Story have been linked before but it’s not a great fit. Perhaps if some things change (a trade, the DH, etc.) happens for the Phillies, he’s a fit but he’s not a great fit, as of now.