The Phillies have acquired infielder Jean Segura, right-handed pitcher Juan Nicasio and left-handed pitcher James Pazos from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for infielders J.P. Crawford and Carlos Santana, the club announced tonight.
A two-time All-Star (2013 & 2018), Segura, 28, slashed .304/.341/.415 with 91 runs, 29 doubles, and 20 stolen bases over 632 plate appearances for the Mariners in 2018. Winner of the American League Final Vote last year, Segura hit a three-run, pinch-hit, go-ahead home run off Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader in the eighth inning of the All-Star Game at Nationals Park.
Last season marked Segura's third straight season with a batting average of .300 or better and his sixth consecutive year with at least 20 steals. He is one of only four players in the majors to hit .300 or better in each of the last three years, joining Jose Altuvé of the Houston Astros, Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves and Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. He ranked sixth in the American League in hits (178) and seventh in batting average last season, while also leading the majors in three-hit games (20). Defensively, Segura has appeared in 763 career games at shortstop and 142 games at second base.
In 2018, Segura took 1,080 swings, and missed on only 136 of them, posting a 12.6% whiff rate, the fourth-best mark among all qualified hitters in the majors. Conversely, of those 1,080 swings, 527 of them were put in play, resulting in the ninth-best contact rate in the majors (48.8%).
Since the start of the 2016 season, Segura has accrued 13.0 bWAR, which ranks fourth-best among all major league shortstops with at least 200 games at the position over that span, trailing only Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians (19.3), Andrelton Simmons (17.4) of the Los Angeles Angels and Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros (14.0), per Baseball Reference's variation of the metric.
Originally signed by the Angels as an amateur free agent in 2007, Segura has appeared in 901 career games for the Angels (2012), Milwaukee Brewers (2012-15), Arizona Diamondbacks (2016) and Seattle (2017-18) and has combined to hit .287 with 154 doubles, 36 triples, 64 home runs, 316 RBI and 171 stolen bases over his seven-year career.
Nicasio, 32, made 46 relief appearances for the Mariners last season and tallied 53 strikeouts to only five walks in 42.0 innings pitched, as he posted the best strikeout-to-walk ratio among all American League relievers (10.60 SO/BB). He previously appeared in two games for the Phillies during the 2017 season after being claimed on waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sep. 6, 2017. Among all relievers with at least 100.0 innings pitched over the last two years, Nicasio's 2.98 FIP is 17th-best in the majors.
Pazos, 27, posted a 2.88 ERA over 60 relief appearances, 13th-best among all left-handed relievers in the majors last season. Over the last two seasons, Pazos has faced 175 left-handed hitters and struck out 48 of them (27.4%).
Crawford, selected by the Phillies in the first round (16th overall) of the June 2013 draft, appeared in 72 games for the Phillies over the last two seasons and slashed .214/.333/.358 over 225 plate appearances. Santana, signed by Philadelphia as a free agent in December of 2017, played in 161 games in his only year with the Phillies and ranked second in walks (110) among all National League players.