Trading Ranger Suarez is Not As Simple As People Think

Ranger Suarez has been a trooper for the Phillies. He went from an effective bullpen arm to, at times, one of the best left-handed pitchers in the league. But with the Phillies pitching staff stacked for the foreseeable future, and Ranger playing on the last year of his deal, the writing is on the wall. Whether it be this offseason or at the trade deadline, his future is not with the Phillies.

On paper, flipping Ranger Suarez, who is a luxury with how good the Phillies' staff is, for bullpen help or a centerfielder, makes sense. Take an area where you have assets to spare, and use it to fix a major hole on the team. If a deal is on the table, the Phillies have to take it, even though saying goodbye to Ranger would be hard.

It is not so simple. People tend to forget that deals take two sides. And the Ranger Suarez situation has some caveats that make finding the ideal partner difficult.

One, he is on an expiring deal. That makes him desirable for teams in win-now mode, but takes any rebuilding team off the table. The Phillies would need to find a trade partner, who like them, is trying to win this year. That alone limits your trade partners to at best half the league, more likely only a third of the league.

Deals between contending teams are not impossible, but they are nowhere near as common as trades between rebuilding teams and contenders. We saw the Phillies and O's do it last year. Swapping Austin Hays and Seranthony Dominguez. Swapping a pitcher who has a times looked like a Cy Young candidate, for a closer or starting center fielder, is far more complicated than that.

The Phillies are not looking for prospects. Whoever they get needs to help them win now. So, whatever team trades for Ranger Suarez, needs to give up a good major league player. Something most teams buying at the deadline are not exactly interested in doing.

Say you want to swap Ranger Suarez for bullpen arms. You need to find a contending team that needs a starting pitcher, but has relief arms to spare. If The Orioles were playing better, they would be the perfect fit. But things have gotten so bad for them that they might end up being sellers.

Who is left after that? Most teams could use an extra starter, but how many are willing to give up high-level MLB players for that starter? The Giants have bullpen arms to spare, but starting pitcher is not a dire enough need for them to sacrifice bullpen depth. The same goes for the Twins. The Dodgers starting pitching has disappointed, but not enough to force them into sacrificing bullpen depth.

The options are very limited. And come trade deadline time, they might find out there is no trade partner that fits the very specific needs of this deal.

Trading Ranger makes sense on paper. I just don't see who the ideal trade partners are. They should go fishing to see if they get a bite. Maybe a team with bullpen arms to spare is desperate enough to bite. But it is not so simple as the Phillies have starting pitching to spare, and need a closer, so trade Ranger Suarez for a high-end bullpen arm.

Mick Abel is the far more movable asset. His service time window has not opened, so any team that trades for him has him for 6 seasons. He is having a career year, making his value higher than it has ever been. And you can move him to any team selling at the deadline. It does not need to be a contender.

He is someone you can send to the Orioles. The O's get a promising young pitcher to pair with their promising young lineup, and the Phillies could get back someone like Felix Bautista for the bullpen, or Cedric Mullins to play every day in centerfield. Can't make that deal work? Pick any of the other teams that will be sellers at the deadline.

But it is not anywhere near that simple for a Ranger Suarez trade to materialize. It needs to be another contender, with a desperate need for starting pitching, and a surplus of relievers or outfielders to send back to the Phillies. Come trade deadline time, there might be zero teams that fit that criteria.

The Phillies might be better off keeping Ranger Suarez and using him out of the bullpen in October. That we know can work. He got the save that sent them to the World Series. Ranger is not willing to move to the bullpen now because he wants to sell himself as a starter in free agency. But come October, when there is no spot for him in the rotation, he could be their best option out of the pen.