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The Phillies are acquiring veteran right-handed reliever David Phelps from the Brewers in exchange for multiple players to be named later, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal first reported on Monday. Rosenthal’s colleague Matt Gelb reports that the Brewers will get multiple low-level pitching prospects from outside the Phillies’ 60-man player pool — maybe two, maybe three — as part of the deal:
Phillies getting David Phelps from Brewers, sources tell me and @MattGelb.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 31, 2020
Phillies will trade multiple low-level pitchers to Milwaukee, all PTBNL. Could be two or three, according to sources.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) August 31, 2020
Phelps is a Girardi favorite. He has a $4.5 MM club option for 2021. https://t.co/7c3MQyNFac
Phelps should provide some much-needed help to a Phillies bullpen that has a cumulative 7.01 ERA, 1.89 WHIP, and .329 opponent batting average. While injuries have held him back at times in recent years, he’s always been consistent when healthy, and he’s been dominant in 2020. Over 12 appearances, he has a 2.77 ERA with a 0.69 WHIP, 20 strikeouts, and just two walks in 13 innings.
This is the third time in four years that Phelps has been traded leading up to the deadline. He went from the Marlins to the Mariners in 2017, missed the entire 2018 season due to injury, was dealt from the Blue Jays to the Cubs in 2019, and now heads from Milwaukee to Philadelphia on deadline day in 2020.