The Phillies and White Sox agreed to a minor trade on Tuesday with Philadelphia shipping out struggling center field prospect Adam Haseley in exchange for minor league right-hander McKinley Moore. The deal helps clear up a very murky center field situation for the Phillies and brings in a 23-year-old arm who projects as a high-strikeout reliever with control issues.
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With all the fanfare surrounding the additions of Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, it’s easy to forget that the Phillies still have a gaping hole in center field. The position looked set to be manned by a Matt Vierling/Odúbel Herrera platoon, but Herrera went down recently with right oblique strain and will miss at least the first month of the season. All indications point to Vierling receiving regular playing time in center to start the year, but it remains to be seen who will back him up. Former number one overall pick Mickey Moniak is a candidate, as well as one-time can’t-miss prospect Scott Kingery. Many believed that Adam Haseley would receive a look with Herrera out, but today’s news dashed those hopes.
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The eighth overall selection in the 2017 draft, Adam Haseley was highly touted coming out of the University of Virginia as a rock solid fielder with great speed and a contact-oriented approach at the plate. Haseley made good progress through the minors, making his big league debut in 2019. However, he has consequently stalled out in the majors, struggling just to find playing time in a very thin Philadelphia outfield up to this point. Overall, Haseley slashed .264/.322/.373 across 355 major league plate appearances with five long balls and four stolen bases. He appeared in 67 contests his rookie season, and then 40 during the shortened 2020 campaign, but injuries and personal issues limited him to only nine games last year. Due to undisclosed personal reasons, he elected to sit out the month of April last year, taking some time away from the game. Given the bizarre up and down nature of Haseley’s career to this point, it looks like a simple change of scenery could be the driving force behind this trade for Phillies shotcaller David Dombrowski. Entering only his age-26 season, Haseley still has plenty of time to turn things around in Chicago and live up to the hype that accompanied him only a few years ago.
It looks to be a rather meager return for the Phillies, as 23-year-old McKinley Moore is the only piece they’ll acquire. A 14th round pick out of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2019, Moore hasn’t made the fastest progression through the White Sox’s farm system so far. Topping out at High-A Winston-Salem last year, Moore has compiled 63 innings of 4.43 ERA/1.56 WHIP work over two minor league seasons so far. The burly right-hander has shown a penchant for inducing swings and misses, earning a 13.0 K/9, but also issuing 5.4 free passes per nine innings. All in all, Moore seems destined for middle relief work in the majors, if he progresses that far, making this quite a paltry haul for a once-heralded prospect.
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