Back in the good old days, when the summer was hot and the Phillies were on a five-week run in first place, Matt Klentak made a calculation.
"We're hopeful that we can stay out of the starting-pitcher trade market," the Phillies general manager said on July 20, 11 days before the nonwaiver trade deadline, "because if you can avoid it, that's definitely a market to avoid."
Klentak's logic was two-fold. First, he preferred not to make the prospect sacrifice for Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ, or certainly Chris Archer. But also, and equally important, he didn't want to rob Zach Eflin, Vince Velasquez or Nick Pivetta of meaningful starts in their ongoing development as major-league pitchers.