The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Braves pulled off a massive trade last week, giving the Braves a boatload of prospects and the Diamondbacks a young starter. One of the key players in the deal was outfielder Ender Inciarte. The Phillies once had him firmly in their control as a Rule 5 pick…and they let him go away.
Inciarte was the Phillies' Rule 5 draft pick in the 2013 season. Inciarte spent all of Spring Training with the Phillies and then made the Phillies Opening Day Roster in 2013. In Spring Training Inciarte batted a respectable .273, not bad considering he had never played above Class A. Inciarte also had three stolen bases and a double. But that was not enough for the Phillies to hang on to Inciarte. The reason to offer to give the young talented outfielder back to the Diamondbacks? Ezequiel Carrera.
The Phillies announced their 2013 Opening Day Roster on March 30. Commenter Al on our Opening Day Roster post wrote (sic):
why do the phils want this inciarte guy? Hes 5'7 160. Has no pop and cant work the count. what do they see in him that they gave stutes roster spot to him?
The Phillies must have agreed with him as the team designated Inciarte for assignment just a few days later to make room for Carrera. The Diamondbacks happily accepted him back.
But, the Phillies outfield was pretty bad. Carrera went 1 for 13 and the Phillies then designated Carrera for assignment. The move gave the Phillies room to have Delmon Young in right field. So, Inciarte was returned for Carrera, and ultimately Young. But, this gets even worse. There was another left-handed outfielder on the roster all the way until August: Laynce Nix.
In recent years the Phillies made moves like keeping Rule 5 pick David Herndon over Jason Grilli and Rule 5 pick Michael Martinez over too many people to count. The 2013 Phillies saw the likes of Roger Bernadina, Carrera, Nix, John Mayberry, Steve Susdorf, Casper Wells, and Young.
Inciarte, meanwhile was a 5.26 WAR player in 2015. That was enough to be the 27th best player in that category in 2015. That was around the likes of Starling Marte (5.29) and Chris Davis (5.24) and Miguel Cabrera (5.23). With 30 teams, that means Inciarte would have been the top player on a team, if they were evenly distributed. (Meanwhile, the Phillie with the best WAR was Odubel Herrera, who was a 3.8 WAR player.
So, Inciarte is now the starting center fielder and leadoff hitter for the Atlanta Braves. Provided another team cannot pry Inciarte away from them (the Chicago Cubs are trying), the Phillies will have to watch him up close for a long time. They'll only be able to dream about what life would be like if Inciarte took priority over Ezequiel Carrera or Laynce Nix. Ouch.
