Jeremy Hellickson was scratched from his scheduled start for the Phillies on Friday due to a combination of a wet mound and active trade talks. Those trade talks are no longer active.
That's because Hellickson has been shipped from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Baltimore Orioles. Both teams announced the trade late Friday evening.
The Orioles acquired Hellickson and cash considerations while the Phillies received outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, lefty Garrett Cleavinger and international amateur signing bonus pool money.
This time a year ago, Hellickson seemed like a given to be traded. Yet the Phillies ultimately opted to keep him, and later extended him the qualifying offer. He accepted, and the results haven't been as pleasant this go around the sun. Indeed, Hellickson entered Friday with seasonal numbers comprising a 4.73 ERA and 2.17 strikeout-to-walk ratio -- marks punctuated by what would be career-worst home-run and strikeout rates.
Hellickson will be a free agent at season's end. For now, though, he's probably more interested in helping the Orioles. The question is what he'll help the Orioles do -- they're currently seven games back in the American League East, and six games back in the wild card race. In fact, adding Hellickson doesn't neccesarily preclude the O's from being deadline sellers:
#Orioles still trying to trade Britton and Brach even as they attempt to finalize Hellickson. Need help in rotation to get through season.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 29, 2017
Curious. Quite curios indeed.
The Phillies, for their part, receive some extra international bonus money as well as a pair of players who have seen their stocks drop. Cleavinger was ranked no. 27 in a weak O's system by MLB.com thanks to his fastball, yet has struggled at Double-A.
Kim, meanwhile, has failed to build on last season's success. He's hitting .232/.305/.288 in 142 plate appearances. Expect him to get some run in left field since the Phillies traded Howie Kendrick to the Nationals earlier in the night.
