The King, Howard Eskin, dropped some interesting Phillies nuggets on today's 94WIP Morning Show with Joe DeCamara.
First, Eskin—who is confident the Phillies are going to add a pitcher in the coming weeks—says the Phillies have spoke to the Cleveland Guardians regarding 25-year-old All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase.
"They're going to get another pitcher," Eskin said on Thursday. "I think they are going to get a starter and they are going to get a reliever. They have spoke to Cleveland regarding Emmanuel Clase.
"Here's the issue, one of the players that Cleveland wants is Crawford and in their system, he is one of the best projected players in the system. They're not giving up, I think his first name is Justin, Justin Crawford...Crawford is the key in that whole thing and they have spoken to Cleveland about Place."
Clase has made back-to-back All-Star teams and recorded 44 and 42 saves the last two seasons, respectively, throwing exactly 72.2 innings in 2022 and 2023.
MLB Network's Jon Morosi reported this week that Cleveland is drawing interest from multiple teams on Clase, but a deal "appears unlikely in the near term."
Crawford, a 20-year-old outfielder, is the Phillies' fourth best rated prospect and baseball's No. 77 overall prospect, per MLB pipeline.
On Wednesday's 94WIP Morning Show, Phillies president Dave Dombrowski admitted the organization would love to re-sign starter Zack Wheeler. Eskin is reporting that Wheeler is seeking 40-plus million dollars per season.
As a result, Eskin believes the Phillies will go after left-handed reliever Jordan Montgomery, who shares an agent with Bryce Harper in Scott Boras.
"Wheeler, I'm told, wants over 40 million dollars per year in a new contract," Eskin said. "So do you project that you may not have him and you better get a pitcher in there that you could have for the future. That's kind of an interesting dynamic, I think, with their thoughts—they could use another pitcher. Taijuan Walker stinks. I don't care what the analytics say, he stinks, especially in the second half.
"I'm not counting [Jordan] Montgomery out either because of what could happen next year with Wheeler's asking price of over 40 million dollars a year. So that's part of the dynamics of what's going on here, but they're going to get a pitcher whether it's a starter or a reliever, or both."
Montgomery, 31, went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in 11 starts with the Rangers last season after being traded from St. Louis to Texas the MLB trade deadline.
Baseball Reference projects the left-hander to go 9-9 with a 3.66 ERA in 172.0 innings in 2024.