Rise and Phight: 8/2/2023

What kind of grade do you give the Phillies for this deadline?

Yes, they probably should have gotten a right handed outfielder, someone in the Adam Duvall range. Yes, another reliever could have helped a bullpen that has had some shakiness to it lately. But consider:

• They’re going to be able to use a six-man rotation at a time when other teams are going to have ride some of their starters harder than the Phillies
• As much as Rob Thomson relies on the bench to give them production, going from Josh Harrison to Rodolfo Castro is an upgrade
• If you read between the lines with what Dave Dombrowski said, this team really does believe in Johan Rojas and they were able to keep him at the deadline despite some widespread interest in acquiring him

Those may not be the glamorous ways to build a roster, but the 26-man roster right now looks better than it did on Monday. Can you say that about all of the other wild card contenders right now?

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Grades! Grades for trades! Here is one for the Michael Lorenzen trade, and here is one for the Rodolfo Castro trade.
• Of course, these moves meant someone had to go and that was going to be Josh Harrison.
• Good writing here from a Detroit perspective about the Lorenzen trade, including quotes from Lorenzen himself.

MLB news:

• Ah yes, what you’ve been waiting for: the winners and losers of the trade deadline, from a certain point of view.
• What’s that, you want more grades on the trade deadline? Well here you go!