Philadelphia Phillies Among 'Most Aggressive' Teams Pursuing Trade For Star Pitcher

The Philadelphia Phillies seem to have their sights set on landing another elite starting pitcher this offseason.

Sep 7, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (45) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park / Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

Outfield and bullpen will be the targets of Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski during the early portion of the offseason.

Those are clear areas of need.

Outside of Nick Castellanos, who can be streaky himself, the Phillies had a hard time getting consistent offensive production from their outfield with Brandon Marsh struggling to be dependable as an everyday player and Johan Rojas still being miles behind where he needs to be at the plate.

The bullpen is set to lose one of Jeff Hoffman or Carlos Estevez, and there is a chance both players are playing for different teams in 2025 based on the amount of money they might command in free agency from reliever-needy teams.

With these two groups being the most obvious blocks on the roster that need to be upgraded, it doesn't seem like Philadelphia would be looking into trades or free agent options at other positions.

Well, according to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY, that might not be the case.

"No already-employed player was sought after more at these GM meetings than Chicago White Sox starter Garrett Crochet, who struck out 209 batters in 146 innings and earned only $800,000 last season. The White Sox have openly told teams he's available and are expected to trade him by the end of the winter meetings, with the Philadelphia Phillies and Dodgers the most aggressive," he reports.

That is pretty shocking.

There were some rumors the Phillies were looking into acquiring Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox ahead of this past trade deadline, but nothing really materialized as they settled for bringing in reliever Tanner Banks instead.

But to revisit this type of deal when starting pitching is the least of their concerns is surprising.

Perhaps Philadelphia is looking to put together a blockbuster trade that would net them Crochet and star slugger Luis Robert Jr. to play center field, allowing Rojas and Marsh to platoon.

That would make much more sense than just shipping out assets to bring in another starter.

Dombrowski has been known to be aggressive during his time running teams around Major League Baseball, especially when he is in a World Series window, so it wouldn't be surprising if he did pull off something like this.

Nightengale is suggesting there is major interest from the Phillies to get it done, so this will certainly be something to monitor throughout the offseason.