The Phillies nearly acquired Josh Naylor in 2016. It might have drastically changed their future.

Few hitters in baseball are off to better starts this season than Cleveland Guardians first baseman/DH Josh Naylor. Once upon a time, the Philadelphia Phillies nearly acquired him as a prospect. Had then done so, it might have drastically altered the future of the team.

The 26-year-old is slashing .321/.387/.605 with six home runs, 20 RBIs and a .992 OPS. Back at the 2016 MLB trade deadline, the Phillies had a deal in place that would have allowed them to acquire Naylor, but a series of bizarre events prevented the deal from being completed.

RHP Colin Rea was traded from the Padres to the Miami Marlins on July 29, 2016. Rea was dealt along with RHPs Andrew Cashner and Tayron Guerrero for Naylor and RHPs Jared Cosart, Carter Capps and Luis Castillo.

But when Rea suffered an elbow injury in his first start, things hit the fan, leaving the Marlins enraged at San Diego general manager A.J. Preller. The Padres made right, accepting an injured Rea back less than week after acquiring him for Castillo, who has gone on to become one of the better pitchers in baseball. Ken Rosenthal detailed the happenings between the two sides in an article for FOX Sports at the time.

“The Marlins, according to major-league sources, wanted to undo their entire seven-player trade with the Padres after Rea suffered a major elbow injury in his first start after arriving from San Diego.

The commissioner’s office offered the Marlins the opportunity to rescind the deal.

The Marlins, however, were under the impression that the commissioner’s office preferred them to seek a remedy from the Padres, sources said. That, ultimately, was the path the Marlins chose, sending Rea back to the Padres for pitching prospect Luis Castillo, who also was in the original deal.”

If the Fish had been able to undo their entire deal, it would have required them sending both Rea and Cashner, two additions to their starting rotation, to the Padres. That would have left them scrambling for starting pitching depth behind the late-José Fernández. According to Rosenthal, their plan if the original trade was undone was to deal Naylor to the Phillies for RHP Jeremy Hellickson.

When the Naylor trade didn’t go through, the Phillies held onto Hellickson. He actually had a very strong 2016 season for the Phillies, posting a 3.71 ERA and 3.98 FIP over 189 innings. The next offseason, he accepted the qualifying offer to return to the Phillies.

Ultimately, Hellickson wasn’t able to replicate his 2016 season, as he posted a 4.73 ERA and 5.51 FIP over 112 1/3 innings for the Phillies in 2017 before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles. In return for Hellickson, the Phillies acquired outfielder Hyun-soo Kim and minor league lefty Garrett Cleavinger.

Kim played in 40 games for the Phillies in 2017 before returning to South Korea, where he still plays in the KBO. Cleavinger was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December of 2020 as part of a three-team trade that allowed the Phillies to acquire reliever José Alvarado from the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the first trade Dave Dombrowski made as the president of baseball operations for the Phillies.

J.T. Realmuto could have been traded for another future Phillie in 2014

Frankly, it’s insane to think about the tentacles of the Naylor-to-the-Phillies trade not going through.

Would Naylor — who came up around the same time as Rhys Hoskins — have lasted long enough in the Phillies organization to become the player he is in Cleveland now? Perhaps not. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to think about given how he’s performing currently for the Guardians.

Hellickson would have joined a Marlins team that still had Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and J.T. Realmuto. Miami ended up finishing 79-83 in 2016, with the final days of their season rocked by the tragic passing of the aforementioned Fernández in a boating accident on Sept. 25, 2016. Hellickson’s addition as a rental in 2016 likely wouldn’t have changed the eventual trades that saw the Marlins send away Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna and Realmuto, but there’s an interesting butterfly effect debate that makes you wonder whether one player being different for the Marlins in 2016 could have changed the course of their entire franchise.

Obviously, the Phillies had a vested interest in Realmuto, who they would later acquire from the Marlins in February of 2019. And while they didn’t end up getting Naylor for Hellickson, acquiring Cleavinger for the pitcher a year later ultimately netted them Alvarado, who has gone on to become a core piece for the team currently. So many things might have been different if the Phillies and Marlins were able to complete the Hellickson deal in advance of the 2016 trade deadline.

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