MIAMI — The Phillies acquired a starting pitcher ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, after all.
They dealt for Tigers right-hander Michael Lorenzen, who is having a career year. The 31-year-old has allowed no runs or one run in nine of 18 starts this season and has a 3.04 ERA since May 1. He has a 3.58 ERA overall for Detroit.
It’s a one-for-one trade with the Phillies sending infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee to the Tigers.
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Lee is a 20-year-old second baseman who was ranked by MLB.com as the Phillies’ fifth-best prospect. He is a thickly built 5-foot-9, 190-pound right-handed hitter who’s hit .283 with a .372 on-base percentage in 285 plate appearances this season with High A Jersey Shore.
Lorenzen is a free agent after the year and is still due about $1.5 million the rest of this season. He spent 2016-21 as a reliever and may end up in some sort of relief role with the Phillies because he’s only eight innings away from his career-high, which was set eight years ago.
"He's having a good year, he was an All-Star," manager Rob Thomson said. "The stuff is good, he's durable, he's going five, six, seven innings almost every start. The slider's really good. He's a guy."
Starting pitching help was no longer the huge need for the Phillies that it was the first two months of the regular season. Cristopher Sanchez was called up from Triple A on June 17 and has the lowest WHIP (0.84) in all of baseball over that span, to go with a 2.30 ERA in eight starts.
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But adding another arm improves the entire pitching staff, along with protecting the Phillies in case of injury.
The Phillies will go to a six-man rotation for the next two weeks. Lorenzen will likely make his debut Thursday afternoon in Miami, with Aaron Nola moving back a day to start the first game at home against the Royals Friday.
The Phils will use the six-man rotation until at least August 14, their next off day. They're off again on August 17, so if they continued using it, some of their starters might have too much time off.
One option would be piggybacking Lorenzen and Sanchez, since they're both so close to their innings maxes.
To make room for Lorenzen on the 40-man roster, the Phillies designated utilityman Josh Harrison for assignment. He had barely played, hitting .204 and starting just 26 games.