Phillies projected to pull off deal for pair of Cardinals mainstays

Objects in the mirror are definitely closer than they appear for the Philadelphia Phillies.

While manager Rob Thomson's squad won the National League East for the first time since 2011, Philadelphia was on the outside looking in during the last postseason as the division rival New York Mets sprinted past the Phillies in advancing to the NL Championship Series.

With the Mets poised to spend freely in a stacked free-agent market, Philadelphia knows it must make some shrewd moves this winter to keep pace as the team has stepped backward in its past three Major League Baseball playoff appearances.

To that end, Newsweek's Zach Pressnell projects the Phillies to solve its closer dilemma and provide some depth to the team's starting rotation in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Pressnell proposes Philadelphia to send two of its top 10 prospects to St. Louis for closer Ryan Helsley, starter Miles Mikolas, and cash.

In return, the Cardinals would receive pitcher Mick Abel and infielder Devin Saltiban, who rank sixth and ninth, respectively, in the Phillies' farm system.

Helsley led all of MLB with 49 saves for a sub-standard Cardinals team last season. According to multiple reports, he is expected to be on the trade block as St. Louis seeks to rebuild in 2025. 

The six-year MLB veteran has so far spent his entire career with the Cardinals. He emerged at the back end of the St. Louis bullpen in 2022, logging 19 saves that season, but just 14 saves in 2023.

Few saw Helsley dominating the way he did in 2024. Not only did he log nearly 50 saves for an 83-win team, he posted a 2.04 ERA with 79 strikeouts in 66-1/3 innings in doing so. 

Dealing away Mikolas would amount to a salary dump for St. Louis. The two-time All-Star used to be one of the Cardinals' top starters, but he has fallen off a cliff since signing a three-year, $55.75 million contract before the 2023 season.

A nine-year MLB veteran, Mikolas posted a 3.29 ERA in 33 games with St. Louis in 2022. However, his ERA soared to 4.78 in 2023 and further inflated to a bloated 5.35 in 2024. 

Pressnell predicts that St. Louis would eat a chunk of the $17.6 million owed to Mikolas next season to push the deal through.

While Mikolas could benefit from a change of scenery to fill a back-end role in Philadelphia's rotation, the obvious prize here is Helsley. 

Philadelphia has patched together saves from a variety of sources during the team's recent playoff runs. Helsley would prospectively end all that, providing a proven fireman to close out victories.

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