Exactly two minutes before the 2022 trade deadline hit, Phillies bench coach Mike Calitri came strolling out to center field, and a 24-year-old Mickey Moniak knew his time in Philadelphia was done.
He was the league’s No. 1 pick in 2016. But his star dulled across six years, yanked up and down and across the farm. At 5:58 p.m. ET that August, Calitri slung an arm around Moniak and walked him to the dugout. Whispering pleasantries. Whispering thanks.
And as his cleats moved across the outfield grass in Atlanta to his next stop, Moniak was convinced he was getting traded to the Colorado Rockies.