Trading for Jason Vargas might help secure a wild-card spot, but it won’t solve the Phillies’ most profound pitching problem | Analysis

Bryce Harper views the trade deadline as an either-or proposition.

“Red button, blue button,” the star right fielder said last weekend. “World Series or prospects.”

The Phillies seem to have found a third option. While general manager Matt Klentak and team president Andy MacPhail have made clear that they aren’t inclined to trade future assets at a time when the Phillies are more than one move away from winning a World Series, they rightly see value in improving the roster on the margins with acquisitions for Jay Bruce, Brad Miller, Drew Smyly, Mike Morin and now Jason Vargas and Blake Parker. With the trade deadline set for 4 p.m. Wednesday, there’s still time for another fringy move or two.

Swell. It might even be enough to nudge the Phillies ahead in the six-team wild-card traffic jam in the National League. For a franchise that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since 2011, that wouldn’t be a trivial accomplishment, regardless of how high the expectations were for them after owner John Middleton dropped nearly half a billion dollars to improve the roster last winter.

But let’s be clear: None of these moves fixes the Phillies’ most profound problem -- the inability to produce enough starting pitching in their farm system over the last 10 years to sustain a strong rotation. The continued development of prized prospect Spencer Howard or a blockbuster trade for a controllable, young arm would accomplish that, but pulling off the latter might cost the Phillies the former.

The non-contending New York Mets found it sensible to give up two of their top 10 prospects for right-hander Marcus Stroman, who has one more year of control. Maybe that price was too steep? Maybe not. But if Klentak is unable or unwilling to pull together a deal by Wednesday for a similarly controllable starter -- think Matthew Boyd, or Mike Minor, or Robbie Ray -- it will only push the problem down the road into the offseason.

In the meantime, think of Vargas as a red-pinstriped Band-Aid, the desperate need for which was reemphasized Tuesday when the Phillies moved struggling Zach Eflin to the bullpen.

“I think he gives us depth,” manager Gabe Kapler said of Vargas. “I think he gives us stability and a guy who has been extremely competitive over a really long period of time.”

Vargas is a 36-year-old, soft-tossing lefty who has kicked around the big leagues for 14 seasons. He won’t fill the seats Friday night when he makes his Phillies debut against the Chicago White Sox, but he cost the Phillies only a .195-hitting double-A catcher. He also has a 3.27 earned-run average in his last 16 starts and has pitched into the sixth inning in 10 of those starts, which qualifies him as an upgrade.

At a time when Jake Arrieta is compromised by a bone spur floating in his right elbow and the injury-depleted bullpen will be without Tommy Hunter for the rest of the season and might not get David Robertson or Pat Neshek back, either, there’s value in a league-average starter who gobbles innings.

But the Phillies are only in this situation because they counted on at least two of Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez, Jerad Eickhoff and Eflin to take another step forward this season. Instead, all four have regressed. Each has been removed from the rotation at some point this season. Pivetta even spent five weeks back in triple A.

The harshest indictment yet of the Phillies’ young pitchers is that they have been replaced by a reclamation project (Smyly) and the non-contending Mets’ fifth starter (Vargas).

But hey, those guys can’t be worse, right?

“It’s a rotation that we are confident will give us a chance,” Kapler said.

To snatch a wild-card berth, that is.

But if the Phillies stand pat Wednesday, the real issue will remain unaddressed.