The Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies have joined in on the trade action as they have sent outfielder Austin Hays to the Phillies in exchange for reliever Seranthony Dominguez and outfielder Cristian Pache. Baltimore will be designating RHP Levi Stoudt for assignment to clear up an open spot in the 40-man roster.
Significance for the Phillies
The Phillies will receive an impactful right-handed hitter in Austin Hays who looks like the perfect fit for their offense. Hays will most likely shift to left-field and platoon with Marsh and let defensive standout Johan Rojas continue to roam centerfield.
Marsh has struggled mightily against LHP this year and dominated RHP. Hays on the other hand, struggles against RHP and dominates LHP.
Marsh
- LHP – 7 wRC+
- RHP – 136 wRC+
Hays
- LHP – 154 wRC+
- RHP – 67 wRC+
The platoon of Hays and Marsh would become one of the most productive spots in an already lethal Phillies line up. We have seen platoons have success in recent history, with the 2021 Giants who won a franchise record 107 games that year by having multiple platoon spots in their line ups.
Hays will be under team control until 2025 and is making $6.3 million this year which will jump to around $8 million next season in his final year of arbitration.
Significance for the Orioles
The departure of Hays seemed inevitable as their logjam of outfielders meant at least one of them had to go. The Orioles will however, receive outfielder Cristian Pache, who is a much better back-up outfielder fit than Hays.
While Hays is an average to below average defensive outfielder (-1 OAA this year), Pache’s defense is stellar. He has 12 defensive runs saved and 16 OAA in just 1334 innings in his career so far, and while he is slashing .202/.288/.269 this year, his defense is what the Orioles value most from him. Pache is out of minor league options meaning the Orioles would have to designate him for assignment if they wish to demote him to the minor leagues.
A late game defensive replacement and speedy pinch runner is useful on any roster with World Series aspirations and Pache provides just that for Baltimore.
The other returning piece is reliever Seranthony Dominguez, a hard throwing right-handed reliever with plenty of upside despite his 4.75 ERA this season. His high ERA is a result of two blow-up relief appearances. A 4 ER in 2/3 IP performance in April and a 4 ER in 1.1 IP performance in July.
His 3.31 career ERA is more of the level that he will be performing at, and his 25.5 K% and 7.6 BB% from this season are both strong. With Craig Kimbrel struggling in recent outings, Dominguez will likely see himself in high leverage situations for the O’s.
General Expectations
While more moves will be made for both teams, they have each come out strong in the first trade of their respective deadlines. Each team grab a piece they feel they need in order to make a serious run in October, and the two might even face off in the fall classic this year.
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