Philadelphia Phillies Ship Out Flamethrowing Reliever for Orioles Star Prospect

The Philadelphia Phillies added a very promising minor league arm by shipping out one of their relievers to get back one of the Baltimore Orioles' top prospects.

Jun 1, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Gregory Soto (30) pitches in the eighth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia won 6-1 / John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies were expected to be active heading into the trade deadline, but when they made multiple moves to address their needs early on, there was some thought they might be idle before the 6 p.m. EST cutoff point.

Instead, they decided to make a move for another reliever, adding Tanner Banks from the Chicago White Sox that saw them ship out one of their prospects.

Ensuring this bullpen was best suited for postseason play was a major goal of the Phillies front office, something they accomplished by adding star closer Carlos Estevez and now the versatile Banks.

However, Philadelphia wasn't done there.

In a surprising move, they decided to send flamethrowing reliever Gregory Soto to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for their star pitching prospect Seth Johnson per Jeff Passan of ESPN.

This could be viewed as a head-scratcher since the Phillies are a contender chasing a World Series championship and decided to ship out a reliever who has posted a 4.42 ERA across his 112 appearances with the team.

But after they acquired multiple high-leverage arms, Soto became expendable.

Getting back someone with the ceiling of Johnson, who is ranked No. 8 overall in the Orioles loaded farm system, is a play towards the future.

The 25-year-old is currently in Double-A where he has recorded a 2.63 ERA across his 18 starts in his first full season back since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022.

Philadelphia clearly felt they had done enough to improve their bullpen ahead of this deadline where they could trade away the inconsistent Soto and get back someone with massive potential like Johnson.