PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies general manager Matt Klentak could kick back and relax Monday evening on the team's flight to California.
He traded Joaquin Benoit and cash to the Pirates for Class A Advanced right-hander Seth McGarry before Monday's non-waiver Trade Deadline. It completed a busy week. The Phillies traded Pat Neshek to the Rockies on Wednesday. They traded Howie Kendrick and cash to the Nationals and Jeremy Hellickson and cash to the Orioles on Friday.
The Phillies received outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, six prospects and a bunch of international amateur signing bonus pool space in return for four free-agents-to-be. Two of the six prospects rank among the Phillies' top 30 and only one (shortstop Jose Gomez) must be protected from December's Rule 5 Draft.
McGarry, 23, is the latest prospect acquired. He posted a 1.34 ERA in 40 1/3 innings with Class A Advanced Bradenton. He has a 73.2 percent ground-ball rate, which Klentak cited.
"We're excited about the return in all four of these trades," Klentak said. "I think we added some pretty good arms and a good infielder. Any chance we get to add depth in the pitching department into our system we're going to look to do that.
"Which of the players take a step forward and ultimately become impact big leaguers remains to be seen. But this is part of something that successful organizations do. They continue to replenish their system and they look for opportunities to add talent, and that's what we've done here over the last week."
Klentak said the Phillies never came close to moving any of their younger, controllable talent. That group includes first baseman Tommy Joseph, whom the Phillies looked to deal to get a look at Triple-A first baseman Rhys Hoskins. Hoskins is the No. 72 prospect in baseball, according to MLBPipeline.com.
It remains to be seen how the Phillies handle Joseph and Hoskins the rest of the season. Hoskins has earned a promotion at some point.
"Tommy's having a pretty good year," Klentak said. "We're not going to rush anything while we're getting pretty good production out of first base. Rhys is having an outstanding year himself. There will likely come a time where we'll make a decision on that, but for right now we're getting productivity at first base -- both in the big leagues and at Triple-A -- and that's just fine."
There were reports this month that the Phillies had interest in everybody from Sonny Gray to Dee Gordon, but many of those reports didn't match up with the Phillies' goals or needs. There were reports the Phillies were open to trading third baseman Maikel Franco. Of course, the real news would have been if the Phils told teams they would not trade Franco under any circumstance.
The Phillies could trade outfielder Daniel Nava before the Aug. 31 waiver Trade Deadline, but otherwise they figure to be quiet the rest of the season. The real action could come in the offseason, depending on how they evaluate their players.
The Phillies could try to trade Joseph again. But do the Phillies move Cesar Hernandez to open up a spot for Triple-A second baseman Scott Kingery? Do they move shortstop Freddy Galvis to create space for Triple-A shortstop J.P. Crawford? Cameron Rupp and Andrew Knapp have been the Phillies' catchers this season, but Triple-A catcher Jorge Alfaro is out of options next year and must be on the 25-man roster on Opening Day 2018. Do the Phillies trade one of them? If so, which one?
The Phillies could also decide to trade some of their prospects to fill other needs.
"It could be," said Klentak, when asked if the offseason could be busy with trades. "I think we'll enter the offseason with an open mind to see what's out there in terms of acquisitions and what the trade market leads to. I think a lot of our offseason will be dictated by how we play in the final two months and how our young players will continue to progress."