We are less than two weeks from the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3 and the Phillies, who are comfortably holding a Wild Card spot, are expected to make moves to bolster a roster that has glaring needs.
According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Phillies had scouts in attendance for the Giants-Royals game in Kansas City Monday night presumably to get eyes on left fielder Heliot Ramos.
The Giants have been awful this season, sitting in fourth place in the NL West with a 42-58 record with a -62 run differential and 20.5 games out of first. They are also 9.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot, making San Francisco one of the more definitive sellers come deadline time.
Ramos is viewed as a match for several teams looking to add a right-handed hitter to their lineup although it’s not certain if the Giants are looking to move the 26-year-old.
This season, the left fielder is hitting .276 with a .310 on-base percentage and .779 OPS with nine home runs and 30 RBIs in 62 games. He missed over a month earlier in the season with a right quad strain.
With Brandon Marsh (.814) being the team’s only outfielder with an OPS over .800 with at least 100 at-bats, the Phillies are in need of a boost in the outfield.
Looking at Ramos’ stats to this point, they aren’t eye-popping, but the draw for Ramos is the raw power he possesses.
Last season he hit 21 home runs and drove in 69 runs. In 2024, when he was named an All-Star, he set career-highs in homers (22) and RBIs (72). He owns a career .744 OPS in his five-years in the bigs.
The Phillies are tied for the second-lowest team on-base percentage at .304 and the outfielder’s on-base percentage would be the fourth-highest on the Phillies among qualified hitters. His contact clip of .276 would rank second, although it’s a smaller sample size and not the highest bar, it still could be an improvement in a lineup that is struggling to consistently score runs.
There is some swing and miss in his game, posting a career 25% strikeout rate in 374 games while whiffing 135 times or more in his two seasons where he played over 100 games.
Defensively, Ramos has flexibility. Marsh is the stalwart in left field, but since making his debut in 2022, Ramos has logged nearly 520 innings in centerfield and 180 in right field. In his All-Star campaign two seasons ago, he was primarily the Giants centerfielder.
From a contract standpoint, Ramos' value spikes because he has several years of team control. With three more years of arbitration eligibility, the former first round pick in 2017 won’t be a free agent until 2030 making him an even more attractive trade candidate for contenders.
The Phillies also need help in the bullpen and a fifth starter in the rotation. Adding a right-handed bat like Ramos in the outfield might not be a perfect fit, but it would be a sensible move for Dave Dombrowski so long as the outfielder is made available.