Phillies reportedly don’t want to trade top prospect, but history says they should

phillies/news/phillies-dont-want-trade-top-prospect-history-they-should/0e3d11586cc2e52abec869b3?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=appeared_on">Phillies reportedly don’t want to trade top prospect, but history says they should originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Some teams in Major League Baseball have proven that they’re willing to move on from their top prospects more than others. Think of teams like the San Diego Padres that have been willing to move on from guys, even when it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. 

At the same time, there have been other teams that have proven they’re not willing to move on from their top prospects, including the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies have unfortunately not done that in recent years and, as a result, are now stuck with a few prospects who not only haven’t proven they can play in Major League Baseball, but have also dealt with their fair share of injuries and other factors. 

One guy who has played well, but I’m still a bit skeptical of because he hasn’t really done anything at the highest level, is Gage Wood. Wood has definitely been great in the minor leagues, but until some of these players come up to Philadelphia and prove they can be as good as everybody wants them to be, I’m going to proceed with caution for the time being.

However, it doesn’t sound like the Phillies will take that approach again, as MLB.com reports there’s now a sense that Philadelphia doesn’t want to trade him at the deadline.

“The Phillies don’t want to trade Wood, their No. 2 prospect, and in a perfect world, he may be in a spot to impact the big league bullpen as soon as later this season. However, if the Phils get to a point where they decide they need to make a substantial splash at the Deadline, they’d almost certainly have to include Wood in any trade package. 

“Top prospect Aidan Miller will be sidelined until right around the Deadline with his back injury, and none of the Phillies’ other top-five prospects are making much noise in the Minors. The club doesn’t have a ton of flexibility to make a big move … unless Wood is involved,” Paul Casella wrote.

I understand that Dave Dombrowski is always looking for a perfect-world type of scenario, but this is Major League Baseball at the end of the day, and there typically isn’t a perfect world out there. 

Unfortunately, if the Phillies want to make a meaningful upgrade, that’s going to require Wood to be available or another top prospect.

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