Deal details: Philadelphia Phillies receive RHP Jhoan Duran for RHP Mick Abel and C Eduardo Tait
In hindsight, it should have been obvious the Philadelphia Phillies were our best hope for a good old-fashioned deadline trade, and they gave us one, sending two prospects to the Minnesota Twins for closer Jhoan Duran.
Long before Paul Skenes was a glimmer in a scout’s eye, Duran threw a pitch that he called a splinker — a split-fingered sinker that came in at 98-101 mph. Somehow, he throws the splinker for enough strikes to use it as his primary pitch, using it slightly more than his four-seamer this year. He throws four distinct pitches, unusual for a short-inning reliever, which is why he has no issues with lefties and has managed to stay effective for nearly four years in the majors.
The Phillies’ closer situation has been a revolving door this year, with José Alvarado suspended for a positive performance-enhancing drugs test and free-agent signee Jordan Romano looking like he’s toast, with Matt Strahm somewhat miscast in the ninth-inning role. Whoever pitches what inning, Duran gives the Phillies their best high-leverage relief option and their best right-handed relief option as well — and they have him for two years beyond this one.
Eduardo Tait is the lesser-known of the two prospects in the return, but he has far more upside than the other prospect, right-hander Mick Abel.
Tait is a catcher, and if he stays back there, he has a chance to be an All-Star because of the bat. He won’t turn 19 for another month and hit .251/.322/.436 in Low A this year before a promotion earlier this month to High A, where he’s struck out just once in 28 plate appearances so far.
There’s easy plus power here, dampened a bit by the Florida State League’s big parks and humid air; his exit velocity has topped out at 113.8 mph already this year. I don’t love how he finishes slightly open and sometimes pulls off the ball on the outer third, but he’s made it work so far, and I wouldn’t change it until and unless he struggles.
Tait’s a big kid already for 18, much heavier than his listed 175 pounds — he’s not as tall as Salvador Perez, but it’s a similar look. He’s got a plus arm, but he doesn’t receive that well or move around well behind the dish; I have heard wide variance in opinions from scouts and executives on whether he sticks back there.
Abel was the Phillies’ 2020 first-round pick, the best high school pitcher in his class, boasting size, stuff and a good delivery he could repeat for future command … and that hasn’t happened, at all. He’s regularly up to 98, can really spin the ball, with the curve and slider at least 55s (on the 20-80 scouting scale), but he has 40 fastball command, and lefties demolished him in the majors.
After two walk-free starts to begin his big-league career — one against the Pittsburgh Pirates — he walked nine in 14 innings, and over his entire big-league tenure to date, he’s allowed a .621 slugging percentage to lefties. He’s a project at this point, because he needs a better fourth pitch, but more because he needs to locate everything, and especially the fastball, a lot more effectively than he does. This is more or less what he’s been since High A, at least, and I have always been perplexed by the high walk rates and poor command.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
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