Report: Asdrubal Cabrera Traded to Phillies for Double-A Pitcher Franklyn Kilome
July 27, 2018
The New York Mets agreed to trade veteran second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera to the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.
The Phillies will send right-handed pitching prospect Franklyn Kilome, who is currently in Double-A, to the Mets. According to MLB.com, Kilome is the Phillies' 10th-ranked prospect.
Ken Rosenthal @Ken_RosenthalDouble A RHP Franklyn Kilomé, listed at 6-6, 175 pounds, is the #Phillies’ No. 10 prospect, per @MLBPipeline. In 19 starts at Reading this season, he is 4-6 with a 4.24. ERA. Per MLB Pipeline, “Pure stuff-wise, Kilomé is as good as just about any pitching prospect in system.”
Despite turning 32 in November, Cabrera is sporting the best power numbers of his MLB career. Through 98 games, he's slugging a personal-best .488, while his 18 home runs and 58 RBI have him on pace to challenge his career highs in those categories (25 and 92, respectively) as well.
As the 2018 season went on, it became a matter of when rather than if the Mets would trade Cabrera.
New York got off to an 11-1 start before the wheels completely fell off. At 43-57, the Mets are 14 games back of the Phillies in the National League East and 11.5 games off the final NL wild-card spot.
With the Mets out of the playoff race for all intents and purposes, it made little sense to keep a player who's hitting free agency this winter. Cabrera had far more value to New York as a trade asset rather than the everyday second baseman.
The Mets could have extended a one-year qualifying offer to Cabrera at the end of the year, thus netting themselves a draft pick if he turned around and signed elsewhere, but the qualifying offer was worth $17.4 million last year. That would have been a steep price to pay for one year of Cabrera's services if he had accepted it and returned to the Big Apple.
The allure of acquiring Cabrera for Philadelphia is obvious. If his offense regresses slightly in the second half of the year, he still averaged 16 home runs and 61 RBI with a .261/.321/.425 slash line over his previous five seasons, per Baseball Reference.
The Venezuelan has a solid baseline for a middle infielder.
While the Mets have used Cabrera exclusively at second in 2018, he can seamlessly shift between second base and shortstop, the latter of which was his primary position for much of his time in the majors.
The Phillies didn't have many options to upgrade their offense, particularly through the middle infield.
The asking price for Manny Machado was astronomical compared to what they had to surrender for Cabrera. Likewise, the Cincinnati Reds were in a position to demand more for Scooter Gennett since he's under team control for 2019. Brian Dozier is battling through a disappointing season, thus diminishing his value as a deadline target.
Cabrera addresses a clear need for Philadelphia, and he should make an impact over the stretch run.