Jul 13, 2025; San Diego, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Matt Strahm (25) reacts after the Phillies defeated the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
While most of the conversation about changing the Phillies mix for 2026 has been centered on position players and how to improve the lineup, there hasn't been as much fueling the hot stove on the pitching side.
Until now.
According to a report from Matt Gelb at The Athletic, the Phillies have been getting calls on all three of their lefty relievers.
Gelb's report touches on other things as well after he attended the GM's meetings in Las Vegas earlier this week. If you have a subscription, I recommend you read it.
#Phillies left-handed pitchers Jose Alvarado, Matt Strahm, and Tanner Banks are generating trade interest, per @MattGelb pic.twitter.com/mYNl2DxKlz
But the gist of the section on the bullpen is that with there being a thin free-agent market for lefty relievers (headlined by former Phillies Gregory Soto and Hoby Milner), the Phillies could move one of theirs in a trade and still feel good about having two lefties left in the pen.
The one that makes the most sense is Matt Strahm. I dove into the reasons why a little over a week ago.
At their end-of-season press conference, both President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson all but indicated Jose Alvarado would be back, with Thomson going so far as to say he's "bullish" on Alvarado. That would indicate they'd like to have him — and his triple-digit heat — in the bullpen next year. Tanner Banks had a very good season, and he's super cheap, so it wouldn't make much sense to move on from him.
But moving Strahm gives them options to do several things.
More than anything, the Phillies need to start adding back to their farm system.
While they have held on to their best prospects — like Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter and Aidan Miller — they have traded away a lot of prospects in the past four seasons as they chase a World Championship.
Between July 2022 and July 2025, the Phillies parted with several prospects and/or very younger Major Leaguers: Logan O'Hoppe, JoJo Romero, George Klassen, Samuel Aldegheri, Ben Brown, Starlyn Caba, Emaarion Brown, Mick Abel, Eduardo Tait, Hendry Mendez and Geremy Villoria.
While only five of them have appeared in the Big Leagues so far, it still represents a large chunk of the mid-range prospects that the team has lost in recent years, creating a gap between the top prospects and what's coming at the lower levels of the organization.
Doing that would also create some flexibility for the Phillies to take Strahm's $7.5 million and spend it elsewhere — perhaps on two more affordable bullpen arms — or create depth and more velocity in the bullpen, two things that were certainly missing in 2025.
The one concern here, though, and one the Phillies should not take lightly, is Strahm, who turned 34 this week, is a guy who's got a bit of an edge and plays with it. That's one of those immeasurable intangibles that teams need.
Happy 34th Birthday to Phillies reliever Matt Strahm!pic.twitter.com/38kqZBtFog
They're already going to move on from Nick Castellanos. They're probably not bringing back Walker Buehler. If Harrison Bader doesn't re-sign and they trade Strahm, that's a lot of edginess that will suddenly be sucked out of the clubhouse.
That's not always easy to replace.
But, the Phillies need to get creative this offseason if they want to keep their championship-contending window open, and it might require them to do some things they otherwise probably wouldn't do if they had their druthers.
Potentially trading Strahm qualifies in that regard.
