Philadelphia Phillies
To put it simply, the Phillies just don’t have the prospect capital to do it. Currently, their highest ranking prospect is right-handed pitching prospect Mick Able. But Able ranks as just the 64th best prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline and 54th by FanGraphs. It’s also not like they have a bunch of other top 50 prospects.
Bryson Stott ranks 94th on MLB Pipeline’s list and isn’t considered a top 100 prospect by FanGraphs. That’s their second-highest ranking prospect by both sites. It’s also not like the Pittsburgh Pirates will be intrigued by anything like Mickey Moniak, Alec Bohm, or Hans Crouse. The Phillies won’t acquire Reynolds because they can’t. In the very unlikely scenario the Pirates do end up trading Reynolds, it wouldn’t be to the Phillies of all teams.
Miami Marlins
Ask yourself this: would the Pittsburgh Pirates trade a prospect package consisting of Quinn Priester, and at least one of Roansy Contreras, Liover Peguero, Travis Swaggerty, or Oneil Cruz, along with someone like Canaan Smith-Njigba, or Mason Martin, to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Walker Buehler? The answer is no, they would not.
The Marlins are a lot like the Pirates. They’re a small budget team that has to build from within. Even when ownership does shell out some money, we’re still only talking about payrolls in the $90-$110 million range. Not really Yankee/Red Sox money. But both teams have very strong farm systems and hope on the horizon.
The Marlins were a team that called in about Reynolds’ availability during last year’s trade deadline. The Pirates wanted their three top prospects. Depending on what source you use, those three could be different, but the general consensus is three top 30-40 prospects, at the very least. By FanGraphs’ measure, that would be Max Meyer (#19), Sixto Sanchez (#36), and Edward Cabrera (#40). MLB Pipeline’s top 3 Marlins prospects are Kahlil Watson (#27), Edward Cabrera (#29), and Max Meyer (#30). Would a team that has to build from within to win trade multiple of those guys?