According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, the Philadelphia Phillies are looking to add a bat to play a corner outfield position or first base. From the free agent side, the Phillies are interested in Michael Saunders and Brandon Moss. On the trade front, the Phillies could be interested in a hitter like Jay Bruce.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Phillies showed interest in obtaining Bruce. As reported by Matt Gelb for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Phillies were interested in obtaining Bruce from the Reds well before the 2016 trade deadline. With the Reds wanting to hold onto Bruce for a longer period of time to try to drive up his price, and the Phillies surprising start fizzling, any potential deal between the two teams fell apart.
With Sandy Alderson having twice traded with the Braves to acquire Kelly Johnson, the Mets have shown a willingness to deal intradivision. However, at this time it is hard to see a match between the two clubs. In previous rumors, the Mets have been said to want a major league reliever, such as Brad Brach, in exchange for Bruce.
At the moment, the Phillies do not have a strong collection of bullpen arms they can offer the Mets in exchange for Bruce outside of closer Jeanmar Gomez and setup man Hector Neris.
Furthermore, according to Rosenthal, the Phillies are not interested in moving more than a lower tier prospect in exchange for a player like Bruce. They’re looking to get a hitter at a similar price for what they gave up to get Clay Buchholz and Howie Kendrick earlier this offseason.
For his career, Bruce is a .248/.318/.467 hitter that averages 27 homers and 82 RBI per season. In 32 games played at Citizen’s Bank Park, Bruce has hit .303/.363/.566 with eight homers and 22 RBI.
