When the trade deadline approaches, the Philadelphia Phillies may wish to make a significant move.
They may be forced to trade Gage Wood in order to accomplish this.
In order to acquire an MLB-ready contributor, a contending team like the Phillies typically has to give away one or two promising prospects.
And Wood is essentially the only player left on the Phillies’ top prospect list due to injuries and inefficiency.
Would they be interested in exchanging Wood? Hardly.
However, there are situations when that is the only way to make the transfer.
“The Phillies don’t want to trade Wood, their No. 2 prospect, and in a perfect world, he may be in a spot to impact the big league bullpen as soon as later this season,” MLB.com’s Paul Casella wrote as part of a new article on Thursday. “However, if the Phils get to a point where they decide they need to make a substantial splash at the Deadline, they’d almost certainly have to include Wood in any trade package. Top prospect Aidan Miller will be sidelined until right around the Deadline with his back injury, and none of the Phillies’ other top-five prospects are making much noise in the Minors. The club doesn’t have a ton of flexibility to make a big move … unless Wood is involved.”
The Phillies may ultimately determine that they must improve their outfield in one way or another.
Wood might be able to cover for them if they suffer pitching attrition because of injuries. Repurposing assets to a different position would be more of his value in a trade.
The trade deadline is still a long way off, and a lot might happen in the interim. However, Wood may decide to relocate just because he is implicated in such early rumors.
