Former Phillies Friday: Could this ex-Phillie see a third stint with the club this season?

David Robertson is one reliever who could be on the Phillies’ radar this trade season. (Don Otto)

Third time’s the charm?

The Texas Rangers are in a weird spot. They just came off their first World Series championship in franchise history and are now stuck in mediocrity (or perhaps slightly below) at 46-50 to begin the second half. Sure, they’ve been banged up. But the AL West-leading Seattle Mariners have hardly looked spectacular this season and the Houston Astros were under .500 as late as June 29 — and the Rangers have failed to take advantage.

The next 10 days will carry plenty of weight for their front office regarding whether to buy at the deadline or do a mini-sell and try to mostly run it back next year. As of now, the guess here is they’d lean toward the latter.

That’s where David Robertson could come into play.

The 39-year-old is in the middle of one of the better seasons of his 16-year career. He’s got a 2.88 ERA through the first half, his 0.93 WHIP would be the third-best of his career and his 13.5 K/9 would tie for his best.

He’s on a one-year contract with a mutual option for 2025. He’s also a right-handed, seventh- or eighth-inning reliever that represents exactly the type of player the Phillies will target at the deadline, likely only behind a righty-hitting outfielder in terms of priority.

Robertson has had his chances in Philadelphia, and he’d be the first to tell you they didn’t go well. He threw 6 2/3 underwhelming innings in 2019 before Tommy John surgery — which came out of nowhere given his history of durability — cost him the remainder of his time in Philly on a two-year, $23 million contract. In August 2022, the Phillies traded for him from Chicago, and the results were mixed. (Game 1 of the World Series was a nice moment, but it was rather torturous.)

There’s reason to think this one might go differently. There aren’t too many troubling signs of aging with Robertson, counterintuitive as that may seem. He’s throwing his cutter, sinker and curveball as hard as he ever has, and his changeup is its hardest since 2010. Maybe that (and, correspondingly, his numbers) change as the season wears on — but the Phillies would pace him down the stretch because they’re 62-34 and he’d lead the bullpen in innings as of now.

The Phillies will probably inquire about Robertson because it would be malpractice not to. Maybe they’re thinking bigger. Mason Miller would move the World Series needle more than almost anyone on the market; Destiny Lugardo made the case for that move on Thursday. If they’re worried about José Alvarado’s recent struggles, which Tim Kelly analyzed on Wednesday

, perhaps they’d look for a lefty closer to Miller’s caliber, whoever that might be.

But if the Phillies aren’t prepared to pay the prospect price for a top-tier reliever, especially one who’s under cheap team control until the 2030 season like Miller is, they could very well pivot to a good-but-not-as-good arm making $11.5 million on a one-year deal instead.

Upon that 2022 trade, Robertson viewed his second Phillies stint as a shot at redemption, given how poorly the first one went. No. 2 wasn’t a disaster, but it probably wasn’t the glorious comeback he envisioned for himself.

Perhaps he gets one more chance to deliver it in 2024.