Heading into the Trade Deadline, the Philadelphia Phillies seemingly had several things they needed to get done. They needed a right-handed bat, bullpen help, and starting pitching.
Arguably, the bullpen help came. The Phillies would also add Luis Arraez to reshape their defense, but he hits left-handed. As far as starting pitching and extra bullpen help go, Phillies President Dave Dombrowski reportedly ran out of time.
For many Phillies fans, this was frustrating. Particularly, the lack of starting pitching help, as the back-end of the rotation, led by Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter, has been a massive disappointment this season. Despite that, following the Trade Deadline, Dombrowski made it clear he’s comfortable with them getting to the playoffs. In particular, because of Painter’s recent start and minor league production.
In his most recent MLB start, Painter pitched 6.0 innings and gave up 2 earned runs to the Baltimore Orioles, who would be sellers at the Trade Deadline. He also had a 4.56 ERA in five minor league starts this season. That came after he was sent down following an abysmal start to his rookie season. As such, he currently has a 6.72 ERA in 71.0 innings at the MLB level.
Meanwhile, Aaron Nola has a 5.55 ERA and a 1.442 WHIP. He’s been a bit better of late, but still has a major home run problem. He’s given up a league-leading 28 on the season.
Philadelphia Phillies President Dave Dombrowski on Aaron Nola in a Playoff Game
One strength of the Phillies is the top of their rotation. In a three-game series, it’s hard to find a team with better starting pitching than Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez, and Jesus Luzardo. But, not every playoff series is a three-game series, and injuries do happen.
So, there is a very real concern that either Aaron Nola or Andrew Painter could have to start a playoff game. Despite that, Dave Dombrowski seems confident in them, particularly Nola, as he explained in an eyebrow-raising response after the Trade Deadline.
“Well, we hope we get there. Aaron Nola’s been a good pitcher in the big leagues…and actually, I was just telling…a lot of people are more analytically oriented than the others,” Dombrowski said. “But I would tell you, if you looked at the analytics, he’s ranked like 75th in MLB of all starting pitchers. So, I mean, when you do that, you go by 30 and divide it. But he has not pitched up to his normal capabilities. He pitched well last time off. But between him and Painter, we’ll figure that out when we get there.”
Every MLB team has internal metrics that they use to judge players with. However, Baseball Savant has Aaron Nola in the first-percentile for Pitching Run Value. That’s about as bad as is possible. Those analytics show his fastball, as well as how often opponents are hitting the ball hard off of him, to be major concerns.
In 2025, Nola started one playoff game, pitching 2.0 scoreless innings. He has a career 3.88 playoff ERA.
Phillies Plan to Reshuffle Their Defensive Alignment
In the end, the Phillies made one major trade. That was for second baseman Luis Arraez.
Of course, trading for a new everyday second baseman, while not trading away a single starter, posed a major question. Where is everyone going to play? After all, it’s not practical to move Kyle Schwarber from DH to the outfield even relatively commonly.
So, the Phillies reshuffled the entire defensive alignment. First, Bryce Harper is heading back to the outfield. In a way, that helps fix the outfield, which has been a weakness all season. Then, third baseman Alec Bohm is headed to first, second baseman Bryson Stott is headed to third, and Arraez can slot in to second.
It’s a pretty big gamble to change that many positions in the middle of the season, but clearly Dombrowski thinks it’s the best path forward for the Phillies.
Phillies Dave Dombrowski Raised Eyebrows Commenting on Pitching, Trade Deadline