One of the major dominoes of the trade deadline has fallen. Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that the Philadelphia Phillies have acquired Twins closer Jhoan Duran.
Duran, 27, has pitched a 2.01 ERA in 49.1 innings for Minnesota this season, recording 16 saves. He should slot into the closer role that Jordan Romano has been unable to fill. Philadelphia’s bullpen has been a sore spot all year, and now they’ve taken a major step to address that.
The Minnesota brass love to extract a high price when selling their big trade chips, and the young closer was one of them. But Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski ponied up. Single-A catcher Eduardo Tait is heading to Minnesota. The 18-year-old is the fourth-ranked Philadelphia prospect according to MLB.com. Right-handed starter Mick Abel is the other prospect headed back, a 23-year-old former first-round pick. He made his MLB debut this season, well ahead of schedule. Abel is their sixth-ranked prospect.
It’s a high price for a reliever, but one that should prove worth it for Philadelphia. Duran is young, elite, and has two more years of team control via arbitration after this season. For a team looking to keep the window open in the coming years, it fits a major need for at least the next two seasons. Great deal by Dombrowski.
