Philadelphia Phillies Trade Away Longtime Minor Leaguer to Los Angeles Angels

The Philadelphia Phillies made a deal with the Los Angeles Angels, trading away one of their longtime minor leaguers after he was once seen as a rising star.

Mar 9, 2021; Dunedin, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Scott Kingery (4) strikes out during the third inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at TD Ballpark / Kim Klement-Imagn Images

What moves the Philadelphia Phillies make this offseason will go a long way in determining if they are going to reach their ceiling of winning a World Series title or not.

There are clear needs on this roster despite being filled with high-profile names, so how Dave Dombrowski and his front office approach things throughout the winter will signal how things might operate for years to come.

With that in mind, the Phillies just made their first major roster move of the offseason.

In an announcement made by the team's social media page, Philadelphia has traded away Scott Kingery to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for cash considerations.

The Phillies have traded INF/OF Scott Kingery to LAA in exchange for cash considerations.

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) November 1, 2024

The infielder is most known for being handed a six-year, $24 million contract extension in March 2018 before he had even played a Major League game.

A second round pick in the 2015 draft, Kingery climbed up their pipeline quickly by performing well at the majority of his minor league stops. He was named the Paul Owens Award winner in 2017 that is given to the top position player in the Phillies' farm system.

Philadelphia immediately used the newly-extended rising star infielder during the 2018 season, playing him in 147 games. Unfortunately, his production wasn't there with a .226/.267/.338 slash line, eight homers, 33 extra-bast hits and 35 RBI that put his OPS+ at 61.

Kingery improved the next year, though, signaling he might be the future of this franchise.

However, in 2020, that's when things went south for him after he contracted COVID-19 and had to quarantine away from his teammates. When he came back, the illness and other injuries he sustained played a role in him putting together a poor season.

After that, the once rising star infielder only played in 16 games with the Phillies, including none over the past two years.

Philadelphia trading him away signals an end to a very strange saga, and something that seemed to be heading in this direction for a long time.