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Philadelphia Phillies: Three trade targets ahead of the MLB trade deadline

By Nick Stevens

PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 28: A detail view of the Liberty Bell at Citizens Bank Park on August 28, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. The day honoring Jackie Robinson, traditionally held on April 15, was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Phillies defeated the Braves 7-4. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 28: A detail view of the Liberty Bell at Citizens Bank Park on August 28, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. The day honoring Jackie Robinson, traditionally held on April 15, was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Phillies defeated the Braves 7-4. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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Greg Holland
(Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

A cheap bullpen option for the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Philadelphia Phillies won’t be looking to add much to their current payroll at the deadline, and luckily for Philadelphia, there are plenty of cheap, quality arms on the market.

Kansas City Royals reliever Greg Holland is one of those options. The 34-year-old reliever is signed only through the end of the year, but he’s a cheap rental with plenty of experience in high-leverage situations and he’s rebounded well from his rough 2019 season with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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With Trevor Rosenthal going to San Diego, the Greg Holland appears to be the next guy out of the door in Kansas City.

In 17 appearances, Holland is 2-0 with one save, a 3.18 ERA and 1.18 WHIP through 17 innings of work. His strikeout rate is down to 19.7% from 27% last season, but his walk rate has been slashed significantly from what he allowed over the last four seasons.

Holland is currently walking 8.5% of hitters, but that is down from his 15.1% and 15.8% walk rates in each of the last two seasons. He hasn’t walked fewer than 10% of hitters in a season since 2014 when he was an All-Star and finished within the top ten of AL Cy Young voting.

It doesn’t appear as if the Philadelphia Phillies will want to get into a possible bidding war for Dylan Bundy, Lance Lynn is sure to come with a very high price tag, and adding on the contract of Alex Cobb (even if the Orioles eat some of it, which isn’t very likely) isn’t in the cards, but don’t be surprised to see Philadelphia go after a low-cost back-end starter to at least get them through the regular season.

Martin Perez had a rough outing in his last go-around against the Washington Nationals, but if the Red Sox want to continue selling pieces, maybe the Phillies and Red Sox link up again. Perez has a $6 million option for next season, so a strong end to 2020 could mean another year of cheap control for a team that deals for Perez.

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With less than 30 hours to go before the trade deadline, the Philadelphia Phillies need to make at least one more move to put themselves into contention.

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