The Phillies were active right at the deadline, making a move to acquire an arm and, it seems, send one away.
The Baltimore Orioles were fascinated by the Phillies bullpen last year and just had to get another piece (albeit not one of the most reliable ones).
The Baltimore Orioles are acquiring left-handed reliever Gregory Soto from the Philadelphia Phillies for right-handed pitching prospect Seth Johnson, sources tell me and @kileymcd.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 30, 2024
Soto was acquired originally from the Tigers for Nick Maton and current major league center fielder Matt Vierling.
He has “stuff” but no control. That’s what lead to his two seasons resulting in an unsightly ERA of 4.42 for a player that was supposedly meant to swap into a high-leverage role (something he never did well in Philadelphia).
Soto did have some success as the closer for a very bad Tigers team and was awarded pity All-Star selections (ie someone from the team had to go to the game), but his numbers there across four seasons were only marginally better than in Philadelphia.
The Orioles will pair Soto up with Seranthony Dominguez and Craig Kimbrell, apparently seeing how Philadelphia fans didn’t want to see at least two of those guys in the game come playoffs and deciding they wanted that for themselves.
The Phillies get prospect Seth Johnson in return, a pitcher in AA who has a ceiling as a mid-rotation guy in the majors.
He has an impressive 2.63 ERA as he has been ramping up his innings after coming back from an injury at the end of the 2023 season.
Johnson was rated by MLB.com as the Orioles’ eight-best prospect.
The Phillies will also get Moises Chace, a High-A pitcher, in the deal. He is in his fourth minor-league season and is having his best season with a 3.46 ERA while being used all over (17 appearances, nine starts, a save).
Chace is not a prospect ranked on most top prospect lists, but he’s received a lot of praise for improvements he’s made this year and the Phillies obviously liked something they see from the player, who figures to profile as a reliever, to request him in the deal.
Looking at the two moves together, the Phillies basically acquired a pitcher with more seasons of cost-control to replace Soto and then swapped infield prospect William Bergola (High-A) for pitching prospect Seth Johnson (AA).
