Tanner Scott Trade Would Cement Phillies as World Series Favorites Amid MLB Rumors

Tanner Scott has spent 2024 as one of the best relievers in MLB and with the trade deadline rapidly approaching, and his Miami Marlins having what is essentially a lost season, it is no surprise that teams would be checking in on his availability.

The Philadelphia Phillies are one such team, as reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightingale.

A trade for Scott would firmly establish the Phillies as a World Series favorite while strengthening one of the team’s few weak spots.

The Phillies are 8.5 games up on the Atlanta Braves in the National League East and 4.5 games in the NL as a whole. They have been one of the best teams in baseball all season long but are not without holes.

The bullpen needs help, with relievers Jose Alvarado, Sernathony Dominguez, Jose Ruiz, and Nick Nelson all accumulating ERAs of 4.0 or higher. They have been liabilities at times, their records helped by the team’s electric offense in some cases.

Pitching struggles took down the 105-win Baltimore Orioles, 104-win Atlanta Braves, and 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers all saw their playoff runs end prematurely a season ago as they were let down by pitching and outscored by teams with worse records but hotter bats.

The last thing the Phillies want is to be mentioned alongside those great teams who won plenty in the regular season but faltered when it mattered most, thanks to sub-par pitching.

Looking into Scott and taking the steps necessary to acquire him is a step in the right direction by a Philadelphia front office that has consistently made the moves necessary to return a World Series title to the City of Brotherly Love for the first time since 2008.

The team knows what Scott can do.

In four innings pitched against Philly in 2024, Scott has not allowed a single hit while tallying four strikeouts. It is a performance he has replicated multiple times this season, against some of the best offenses in MLB. Despite the underwhelming nature of this year’s Marlins squad, Scott has been elite in the reliever role.

He kicked off the second-half of the season with a 1.27 ERA, 46 strikeouts in 42.2 innings, 16 saves, and a 1.01 WHIP. He has allowed just six earned runs and two home runs while keeping his opponents’ batting average to 1.28. He has allowed just 18 hits this season.

Adding him to a bullpen that includes Orion Kerkering and All-Stars Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm, would provide the necessary depth for the team to make a deep run in the postseason and return to the World Series for the second time in three years.

The team needs to do something to compete with the bats of the Dodgers, Brewers, Padres, Diamondbacks, and Mets because come October, when wins matter most, the ability to outscore even the best offenses comes down to which bullpen can hold.

With Alvarado, Dominguez, and Ruiz not playing up to championship level, bringing Scott on board and letting him sit batters down should preserve leads and help achieve wins en route to a first world title for star Bryce Harper and Co.