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Dombrowski: Phillies ‘comfortable’ with roster following Estévez, Hays trades

Dave Dombrowski is the president of baseball operations for the Phillies. (Cheryl Pursell)

As Phillies starter Tyler Phillips took the mound for the third inning, word got out that the Phillies made a splash, trading for Angels closer Carlos Estévez in exchange for starting pitching prospects George Klassen and Sam Aldegheri.

The trade became official shortly before Bryce Harper hit the first of three Phillies home runs in the fourth inning of an 8-0 win against the Cleveland Guardians.

Estévez, 31, will slot into a back end role in a Phillies bullpen that’s already stacked with high leverage options. He was an arm the Phillies targeted in free agency in 2022-23.

It’s a sellers market and the Phillies paid a hefty price to acquire Estévez. Klassen and Aldegheri are two of the better breakout arms in the Phillies system this year. Baseball America has them ranked as the No. 5 and No. 7 Phillies prospects.

“It’s going to hurt, at some point, to make a trade when you are trying to win,” Dombrowski said. “We are trying to win. We think he’s the guy that can be a real significant piece of that. It’s not guys we wanted to give up, but we also knew that we were going to have to give something up because it’s definitely a sellers market. We just knew that. It’s the price of acquisition at this time.”

Estévez struggled from mid-April to early May, but hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 21. Overall, Estévez has a 2.38 ERA and 20 saves in 34 games.

“His stuff has been very good,” Dombrowski said. “He struggled a little bit in the second half of last year, but he’s been pretty consistent this year overall. The changeup has been a new pitch he’s used more lately, but the other thing that he’s really done differently this year, he’s only walked five guys all year, so his walk ratio is way down. So it’s nice to have a guy in the back end of the bullpen like that who can throw strikes on a consistent basis.”

It will be up to Rob Thomson to decide if Estévez is the guy to close out games in the ninth. Thomson is comfortable with playing the matchups, though the Phillies have had a preferred option in each of the last two seasons in the ninth, with Zach Eflin being the guy at the end of 2022 and Craig Kimbrel for long stretches in 2023.

“He’s gonna get a lot of the ninth inning, but I haven’t even talked to him,” Thomson said postgame.

“He has a lot of the characteristics that you look for in somebody to do it,” Dombrowski said.

As for what’s next, the heavy lifting might be done. The Austin Hays deal filled a need in the outfield and Estévez now gives the Phillies five trusted arms for a playoff series. Trading away Seranthony Domínguez does give them more flexibility to add another reliever.

“We feel very comfortable with where we are,” Dombrowski said about the bullpen. “We feel like now we have three people that can pitch in the back end from the right-hand side with Estévez, Kerkering and Hoffman. And then from the left-hand side, we feel comfortable with Alvarado, Strahm and Soto.

“There’s a long way until Tuesday night at six o’clock, but if we did this, we feel very comfortable with where we are right now.”

The Phillies, at least for now, do not feel like they need to grab another starter with Ranger Suárez going on the 15-day injured list with back soreness.

“We’re in a spot where Ranger, we do not feel is a significant injury,” Dombrowski said. “So we feel that, hopefully, in the 15-day timespan, he should be back. Walker made tremendous strides today. It’s the best he threw by far, velocity and split-finger wise. Turnbull’s making progress. I don’t know if Turnbull will ever be in a position to be stretched out to start. He may be a bullpen arm later on. We haven’t made that decision. But all of a sudden, all those guys are at least making some positive strides. … I think we can hold the fort for the time period until those guys come back.”

Estévez will report to the team Monday ahead of the Yankees series.

“The makeup is tremendous,” Thomson said. “I can’t wait until he gets here.”