Phillies Rightfully Receive Strong Overall Grade for Trade Deadline Deals

The Philadelphia Phillies have been a very interesting team with some ups and downs this year, but with August here, they are a contender in the National League.

Despite a terrible start to the season, the Phillies have been able to put themselves in a strong position to contend. Philadelphia has been one of the best teams in the league for the last several years, but has ultimately fallen short of their goals.

Coming into the trade deadline, the Phillies had numerous needs, but were able to make some good moves. Even though their farm system isn’t regarded as the best, Philadelphia was able to make some substantial moves to improve.

With the dust settling from the deadline, grades have been coming in for some of the moves the team was able to make,

Jim Bowden of The Athletic (subscription required) recently gave the Phillies a strong grade of a B+ for their efforts at the trade deadline.

Fair Grade for Philadelphia

Aug 6, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Luis Arraez (4) celebrates his RBI double during the first inning against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This grade for the Phillies certainly feels like a good one, and the team undoubtedly improved. Of the main moves they made, arguably the most significant was adding Luis Arraez.

The All-Star slugger completely changes the dynamic of the offense for Philadelphia, giving them one of the best contact hitters in the game. While adding a right-handed hitter was thought to be the goal, Arraez’s splits against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers are strong.

Another pressing need to address was their bullpen. The Phillies were able to do that with the additions of Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian. With the unit struggling quite a bit, adding two new arms made a lot of sense.

Raley comes over from the New York Mets having a really strong campaign and will give the Phillies a strong left-handed pitcher. Furthermore, Kilian was part of the Arraez trade and can help replace the production lost with Brad Keller being out for the year.

The one spot that the team didn’t address was their starting rotation. The backend of the unit has struggled quite a bit this year, but the team will be hoping that Andrew Painter and Aaron Nola can perform better in the second half.

Overall, while it might not have been a perfect summer for the team, it was a very strong one, and the team is certainly better. However, with the NL being loaded, it will be interesting to see if they did enough to dethrone the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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