Pirates Should Make Trade With Phillies After Latest Report

After the Philadelphia Phillies decided to send Andrew Painter to Triple-A, there's certainly reason to believe that the Pittsburgh Pirates could be impacted by that. The Pirates have been one of the more average teams in baseball this season, though there's still an expectation that the front office will do what's needed at the deadline to add players of need. There's also a side of the story suggesting the Pirates could move on from certain players if it makes sense, with Mitch Keller coming to mind.

Keller has been rather below average this year, and a change of scenery might do a whole lot of good for him. Many teams around the league should at least be interested in his services, depending on his price tag.For the Pirates, there's even reason to believe that a team like the Philadelphia Phillies could make sense for him.

According to The Athletic, the Phillies have started looking for starting pitching, and if the Pirates are smart here, they might be able to get them to overpay for a starter of Keller's caliber.“The Phillies, according to multiple league sources, have engaged teams in recent weeks about the availability of certain starting pitchers — think swingman types who could be a fifth starter or pitch as long relievers in the bullpen. It’s June, and no team is looking to shed viable starting pitching at this time of year, so any outside acquisition right now would be difficult.

“It’s not a straightforward problem. The Phillies would not want to commit quality prospect capital toward acquiring a starting pitcher who would not slot into a hypothetical postseason rotation. They were banking on Painter being competent enough as a fifth starter.

Bringing in a swingman-type pitcher would allow the Phillies to shield their rookie from further damage while also securing some rotation insurance in case of injury,” Charlotte Varnes and Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported.While the Pirates and the Phillies are considered rivals, they're not big enough rivals to neve