This year’s trade deadline wasn’t all about the here an now. In a market where controllable pitchers Chris Archer and Kevin Gausman joined National League teams, the Phillies had some opportunities to solve some of their looming dilemmas for the future. They decided the price was not right, and that’s better than making a mistake with exponential consequences. But the dilemmas remain and will need to be addressed before we can seriously consider them a World Series contender.
Because of space constraints, let’s limit our focus to two of them: