5 trade targets from the Philadelphia Phillies for the Colorado Rockies

The Philadelphia Phillies and Colorado Rockies are two teams with fanbases that are not thrilled with their teams right now. The Phillies have the second-longest playoff drought in MLB entering 2022 and the longest drought in the National League as they last made the playoffs in 2011.

The Phillies have made some moves that have panned out, like hiring Joe Girardi as their manager, trading for catcher J.T. Realmuto, signing starter Zach Wheeler, and signing Bryce Harper to a 13-year deal (the last few years will be bad but he won the 2021 NL MVP award) but they have had some other bad moves and shoddy pitching. The bad moves include resigning Didi Gregorius for 2021 and 2022 and signing outfielder Odubel Herrera to a five-year extension.

But, by and large, their issue has been pitching. Both the Phillies and Rockies have had one of the worst bullpens in each of the last four seasons. The best bullpen from the two teams since 2018 is the 2019 Phillies bullpen, which was 16th in ERA at 4.38 and a FIP that was 23rd in MLB at 4.84.

In 2020, the Rockies were 29th in MLB in bullpen ERA of 6.77 and the Phillies were the only team worse at 7.06. In 2021, the Phillies were 25th in bullpen ERA at 4.60 and the Rockies were 27th at 4.91.

The Rockies were far from a perfect team in 2020 or 2021 but the Phillies lack of quality bullpen arms cost them a playoff spot in 2020 and, in 2021, their 34 blown saves were tied for the all-time MLB lead … with the 2004 Colorado Rockies. You can have multiple blown saves in a game and still win the game but the Phillies were still 15-13 in games with a blown save. They were 6.5 games back of the eventual World Series champion Atlanta Braves in the NL East. You do the math.

However, considering both teams pitching issues and the Phillies being a better overall team than the Rockies, there are five trade targets the Colorado Rockies should examine further with the Philadelphia Phillies, including four pitchers.