Phillies Trade 19-Year-Old Prospect To Astros, Completing Hunter Pence Deal

When the Philadelphia Phillies traded for Houston Astros right fielder Hunter Pence, the Phillies agreed to give up four minor leaguers ... one of whom wasn’t decided upon at the time. Reportedly, the clubs agreed on a list of players, with the Astros making a final choice on the 15th of August.

Well, Alyson Footer reports that the choice has been made: South Atlantic League outfielder Domingo Santana.

As for the PTBNL, Jayson Stark reports that the Astros will select from a list of players in the low minors. It won’t be a top prospect, so it won’t change the balance of this trade from wherever you think it currently is.

Now then:

The Hunter Pence sweepstakes might be over. From Ken Rosenthal:

The names that have been rumored to go to Houston have been Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Singleton. Cosart is a 21-year-old right-handed pitching prospect, and Singleton is a 19-year-old first baseman doing well in A-ball. There were rumors of a third prospect as well, but now Rosenthal thinks that the deal might have been sweetened a bit:

There’s a sense out there that if #phillies sub domonic brown for singleton and include cosart they might land pence

But the fears were allayed just a few hours later, with Buster Olney reporting thusly:

Several reports on Friday suggest that the Phillies will do whatever’s necessary to bring Pence into the fold, and one particularly eye-opening report comes from ESPN’s Jayson Stark. I won’t spoil the surprise:

Stop right there. It’s one thing for the Phillies to (reportedly) offer prospects Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Singleton. It’s quite another to offer Brown. A number of tweets from normally reputable people on Friday have supported the idea that the Phillies may be willing to lose Brown to gain Pence.

And more, from Jayson Stark:

I’m not going to say the Phillies are desperate, because they aren’t; they do, after all, own baseball’s best record. But from the sounds of things, they’re going to exhaust every last possibility on Pence. The Astros reportedly turned down an offer that included the Phillies’ best hitting prospect and their best pitching prospect, but one figures they can’t possibly be looking for much more than that.

This is serious. First a team has to have internal discussions before checking in on a player. Then they start scouting the player thoroughly before he becomes a target. After he’s a target, the team can have serious interest in him. Serious interest can lead to a team making a push for the player, and if everything goes right, things can come to a head. This is how babies trades are made, and it’s beautiful.