The Phillies have one of the better top-of-rotation groups in baseball with Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesus Luzardo, plus Aaron Nola rounding out the front four. The problem is everything after that. Andrew Painter got a look in the 5 spot and the team went 2-12 in his starts. Alan Rangel took over after that and got rocked for 13 runs across 20 1/3 innings, walking 12 and giving up 22 hits, with the Phillies losing all 5 of his starts. Both have since been optioned back to Triple-A, which tells you everything about how that experiment went.
MLB Trade Rumors flagged the latest chatter on Philadelphia's search for rotation help.
That's the backdrop for the report making the rounds: the Phillies are reportedly out shopping for a starter, and it's not just idle speculation. Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia has described the front office as actively searching for a fifth starter on the trade market, while Matt Gelb of The Athletic has indicated the front office has more recently considered going bigger and adding a playoff-caliber arm instead of just a stopgap. That's a notable shift in tone for a team that entered the summer thinking its rotation was mostly set.
In the meantime, Philadelphia is patching the hole with bodies rather than solutions. Luzardo is sliding into extra turns where needed, and names like Tucker Davidson and Brian Keller could get emergency starts while the front office works the phones. It's not a long-term fix, it's triage, and everyone in the building knows it.
The market isn't short on names. Reports have connected the Phillies to Reds righty Brady Singer, who's turned his season around with a 2.98 ERA over his last 7 starts after a rough start. San Francisco's Robbie Ray, having arguably his best year since his Cy Young season, has also come up, along with Arizona's Mike Soroka, who was strong before a glute injury sidelined him in June. None of those are aces, and that's kind of the point. Philadelphia doesn't need a Tarik Skubal or Joe Ryan type at the top of the market. It needs a stable back-end arm who won't blow up the bullpen every 5th day.
The tricky part is timing. With 21 of the league's 30 teams either in a playoff spot or within 3 1/2 games of a Wild Card spot, sellers are scarce and the deadline could turn into more of a creative scramble than a traditional buyer's market. No deal is believed to be close, and even if Philadelphia lands someone before Aug. 3, that pitcher likely wouldn't be ready to start within 24 hours of a trade. So expect at least 1 or 2 more shaky turns in that 5 spot before help actually arrives.
Philadelphia's window to win with this core is now, and a rotation that's actually 4 deep instead of 3 deep with a bonfire behind it could be the difference between a quiet October and a real run. The front office clearly gets that. The next 10 days will show how far they're willing to go to fix it.