{"id":106363,"date":"2025-07-31T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/106363\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T02:07:08","slug":"phillies-get-an-answer-to-closer-woes-in-jhoan-duran-twins-nab-2-upside-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/106363\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies get an answer to closer woes in Jhoan Duran; Twins nab 2 upside prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deal details: Philadelphia Phillies receive RHP Jhoan Duran for RHP Mick Abel and C Eduardo Tait<\/strong><\/p>\n

In hindsight, it should have been obvious the Philadelphia Phillies were our best hope for a good old-fashioned deadline trade, and they gave us one, sending two prospects to the Minnesota Twins for closer Jhoan Duran.<\/p>\n

Long before Paul Skenes was a glimmer in a scout\u2019s eye, Duran threw a pitch that he called a splinker \u2014 a split-fingered sinker that came in at 98-101 mph. Somehow, he throws the splinker for enough strikes to use it as his primary pitch, using it slightly more than his four-seamer this year. He throws four distinct pitches, unusual for a short-inning reliever, which is why he has no issues with lefties and has managed to stay effective for nearly four years in the majors.<\/p>\n

The Phillies\u2019 closer situation has been a revolving door this year, with Jos\u00e9 Alvarado suspended for a positive performance-enhancing drugs test<\/a> and free-agent signee Jordan Romano looking like he\u2019s toast, with Matt Strahm somewhat miscast in the ninth-inning role. Whoever pitches what inning, Duran gives the Phillies their best high-leverage relief option and their best right-handed relief option as well \u2014 and they have him for two years beyond this one.<\/p>\n

Eduardo Tait is the lesser-known of the two prospects in the return, but he has far more upside than the other prospect, right-hander Mick Abel.<\/p>\n

Tait is a catcher, and if he stays back there, he has a chance to be an All-Star because of the bat. He won\u2019t turn 19 for another month and hit .251\/.322\/.436 in Low A this year before a promotion earlier this month to High A, where he\u2019s struck out just once in 28 plate appearances so far.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s easy plus power here, dampened a bit by the Florida State League\u2019s big parks and humid air; his exit velocity has topped out at 113.8 mph already this year. I don\u2019t love how he finishes slightly open and sometimes pulls off the ball on the outer third, but he\u2019s made it work so far, and I wouldn\u2019t change it until and unless he struggles.<\/p>\n

Tait\u2019s a big kid already for 18, much heavier than his listed 175 pounds \u2014 he\u2019s not as tall as Salvador Perez, but it\u2019s a similar look. He\u2019s got a plus arm, but he doesn\u2019t receive that well or move around well behind the dish; I have heard wide variance in opinions from scouts and executives on whether he sticks back there.<\/p>\n

Abel was the Phillies\u2019 2020 first-round pick, the best high school pitcher in his class, boasting size, stuff and a good delivery he could repeat for future command \u2026 and that hasn\u2019t happened, at all. He\u2019s regularly up to 98, can really spin the ball, with the curve and slider at least 55s (on the 20-80 scouting scale), but he has 40 fastball command, and lefties demolished him in the majors.<\/p>\n

After two walk-free starts to begin his big-league career \u2014 one against the Pittsburgh Pirates \u2014 he walked nine in 14 innings, and over his entire big-league tenure to date, he\u2019s allowed a .621 slugging percentage to lefties. He\u2019s a project at this point, because he needs a better fourth pitch, but more because he needs to locate everything, and especially the fastball, a lot more effectively than he does. This is more or less what he\u2019s been since High A, at least, and I have always been perplexed by the high walk rates and poor command.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deal details: Philadelphia Phillies receive RHP Jhoan Duran for RHP Mick Abel and C Eduardo Tait In hindsight,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":106364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1287,1266,2083,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-106363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-minnesota-twins","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}