The Phillies are moving toward the August 3 MLB trade deadline with buyer’s intentions, and the clearest area they need to attack is the outfield. More specifically, they need a right-handed bat out there, and the current options don’t exactly solve the problem for the long haul. Adolis Garcia is out for the season, and Derek Hill’s big week doesn’t change the bigger picture.
That’s why Taylor Ward has surfaced as a name to watch. MLB insider Robert Murray of Fansided.com connected the Philadelphia Phillies to the Baltimore Orioles outfielder, calling him “one of the best fits” for the club this summer.
“It’s been reported that the Phillies are in the market for an outfielder and pitching help,” Murray writes. “And one of the best fits for the Phillies, both Tom Verducci and I agreed on The Baseball Insiders, was Baltimore Orioles outfielder Taylor Ward.”
Ward checks the most important box for Philadelphia: he hits right-handed. The 32-year-old is making $12.18 million this season and is set to become a free agent after the year.
He isn’t the marquee name some Phillies fans might dream about, with Byron Buxton and Mike Trout looming as the kind of splashier possibilities. But Ward has still been productive, and that matters.
In 87 games this season, Ward has posted 1.5 bWAR with 82 hits, 53 runs scored and 18 doubles. He’s also hit five home runs and driven in 23 runs.
The plate discipline has been there too, with 66 walks against 85 strikeouts. Ward is batting .250 with a .378 on-base percentage, though his .351 slugging percentage sits well below his .428 career mark.
Even with that drop in power, his .728 OPS would rank among the better numbers on the Phillies roster and would be a clear upgrade over the team’s outfield production outside of Brandon Marsh.
So while Ward may not be the big right-handed cleanup swing the Phillies could envision, he still looks like a sensible target. If Baltimore decides to sell, he’s a name Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies should have firmly on the radar.
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Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tied Baltimore to the kind of frontline starter that can change a contenders October outlook, noting that the Orioles are at least looking at pitchers with enough track record to stabilize things quickly. For a team still close enough to make a move, the appeal is obvious: add one more arm with real staying power, and the deadline suddenly becomes about more than just depth. [Read more 🡒]