MLB Trade Grades: Phillies bolster rotation depth with Tigers Michael Lorenzen

Publish date: 2024-05-27

The Athletic has MLB trade grades for all transactions at the deadline.

Tigers get: INF Hao-Yu Lee

Tim Britton: Even if you don’t buy Lorenzen as an honest-to-goodness All-Star, he’s shown over the last two years he can be no worse than serviceable in your rotation. Over 36 starts since moving to the rotation as a whole, he owns an ERA a bit better than the league average — and that represents help for the Phillies, who have relied on Cristopher Sánchez as their fifth starter of late. It’s not that dissimilar to Philadelphia’s deal last deadline for Noah Syndergaard.

Lorenzen also provides some versatility should Philly get to October with his prior experience out of the pen and, oh just for the heck of it, as a pinch-runner or emergency outfielder. The Phillies could still use one more bat, preferably in the outfield.

Not much has gone right for the Tigers in this extended rebuild, and the prior front office proved especially poor at maximizing possible returns at the trade deadline. Lee could provide some offense on the middle infield down the line, and turning a one-year, $8.5 million bet on Lorenzen into the 20-year-old is a positive.

Phillies: B
Tigers: A-

Grant Brisbee: In baseball, it’s not enough to have a smattering of “Holy crap! That guy!” superstars. There also needs to be an absence of “Oh crap! Not that guy!” voids on the roster. Acquire a mix of 26 players around this philosophy and you should be golden. Michael Lorenzen might be the best modern example of the player who resides in the space between those two extremes. Check out his FIPs over his career:

2016: 3.67
2017: 4.01
2018: 4.16
2019: 3.66
2020: 3.87
2021: 4.17
2022: 4.31
2023: 3.88

That’s eight seasons with an FIP between 3.66 and 4.31, which is as hilarious as it is impressive. A team with Lorenzen on their roster is a team that has one less pitcher to worry about, even if he’s the pitching equivalent of a plain bowl of Corn Flakes. Sure, you’d like a few slices of banana in there, but at least he’s not Grape Nuts, which are what get knocked off by Satan’s bidet.

That written, the Phillies already had a rotation of starters who reside in that soft middle right now, including pitchers who should be much closer to aces. Not sure if the move is to get Ranger Suárez back to the hybrid role he dominated in three years ago, or a six-man rotation, or to get Cristopher Sánchez into relief … Lorenzen fit a lot of teams, but I’m not convinced that the Phillies were one of them, unless they know something we don’t. Still, he’s a solid player. Teams should fill their rosters with those.

As for the Tigers, they got infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee, who slaps the ball around and takes walks. Here’s what Keith Law wrote about him a couple months ago: “(His) profile can work if the contact he makes is high enough quality. Otherwise, he’s Nick Madrigal.”

Yep, that’s about what you should be getting back for Michael Lorenzen: a prospect whose scouting report includes the word “if,” paired with a rosy scenario and a scare comp.

Phillies: B-
Tigers: B+

Britt Ghiroli: This is an important trade deadline for Detroit, where the previous front office was a part of some laughably lopsided trades not in their favor. So with a pair of starters to deal, Lorenzen, a rental, was a no-brainer who garnered a lot of interest. The Phillies weren’t seen as a frontrunner — or any kind of runner — for his services but that’s the madness of the trade deadline. Still, rotation depth for a 20-year-old contact guy who is Philadelphia’s No. 5 prospect isn’t bad. The Tigers got Lorenzen with a midseason trade in mind if they didn’t perform and, thus, expectations for a return surely weren’t high. Young players are lottery tickets but this is a decent one for Detroit.

For the Phillies, it’s rotational depth which is never a bad thing, but also not their greatest need.

Phillies: B-
Tigers: B+