Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said he’s inclined to acquire an infielder from outside of the organization, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. The GM hinted he wouldn’t part with starting pitching depth to make a move.
Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports wonders if the Phillies might look to acquire Chris Getz or Yuniesky Betancourt of the Royals to shore up their infield (Twitter link). It's hard not to wonder if Alberto Callaspo could appeal to the Phillies despite the fact that he last played second base regularly in 2009. Elliot Johnson, Chris Nelson, Eric Young Jr., Emmanuel Burriss, Luis Valbuena and Donnie Murphy are out of options and could be available in trades later by the end of the month.
Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Michael Martinez and Placido Polanco are each dealing with injuries, which prompted Amaro's search for depth. Freddy Galvis and Ty Wigginton project to start at second and third until Utley and Howard return.
Devern Hansack
Come on Phillies, you know you want Betancourt.
venn177
That’s mean. A Yankee fan wouldn’t wish him on the Red Sox.
Phillies_Aces35
We’re already dealing with the stress of possibly having watched the last game of Chase Utley’s carrier…
… we do not need the stress of watching Yuniesky Betancourt on a semi-regular basis.
philliesfan136
I would hope they get Getz, Callaspo, Izturis, Nelson, or Young Jr.
Phillies_Aces35
Hoping the Phillies can swing a deal for Callaspo. 2nd choice might be a guy like Blake Dewitt… not sure what his value would be though.
101andcounting
I could definitely see DeWitt going to the Phillies, although I don’t know who we could use besides Jeff Baker to back up 2B and 3B. And Jeff Baker at the hot corner is a mistake.
bigpat
Yuni will get 300+ ab’s this year, at least. He always finds a way….
Ryan
This Phillies team is COOKED. How long before Rollins’ leg issue shows up again? It has been an issue since 2008, of course in 2011 it disappeared because it was a walk year for him, but I will be surprised if I do not see it again by May.
Muggi
…and yet they’re still the odds-on favorite (by a huge margin, too) to win the NL East. Amazing what pitching can do for you.
Phillies_Aces35
You’re overreacting. There’s no way this team doesn’t win 90-95 games this year at least baring an injury to a starting pitcher.
The Marlins are being overhyped. They may be younger but their ACE is guaranteed to miss a major chunk of the season at some point, their shortstop is just as injury prone as anybody in our line up, their manager’s a headcase and their thirdbaseman’s a malcontent.
Clayton Wilson
I constantly see people go on about their rotation. It’s a good rotation, but who knows how many innings Johnson will throw. Zambrano and Sanchez have dealt with numerous injuries as well. They have a solid starting 5, but if one or two of those guys go down they don’t have a viable option to stick there.
As for their defense, it’s not bad……but I’ve seen it described as the best in the NL. Morrison is an absolute butcher in LF. Bonifacio is fast, but takes horrible routes and rarely gets a good jump. Reyes is probably average at SS, I’d say the same for Ramirez, Infante, Buck, and Sanchez. Right now Morrison and Stanton are dealing with knee issues, which is never good to hear especially after already having knee surgery(Morrison).
So much has to go right for the Marlins to win the east. Same goes for the Braves and Nationals, but at least they’ve got some starting pitching depth.
Josh Mohr
Thanks for Wilson Valdez, appreciate it
Muggi
Yeah that one kinda bit them in the butt. He’s not much, but when you have nothing he looks pretty good!
nm344
Thanks for taking his million dollar salary, so we can pay half as much to a better player.
Ryan
You won’t be saying that by the time he bounces into his 20th double play of the year…
stl_cards16
Great way to judge a player. Albert Pujols led the league in GIDP last year, guess he is horrible.
FillyPhan
Big difference, At one point last year Valdez had 20 GIDP and 19 hits.
Phillies_Aces35
In 273 At Bats, Wilson Valdez grounded into 13 double plays.
In 579 AT Bats, Albert Pujols grounded into 29.
Albert also managed to drive in 99 runs compared to Wilson’s 30.
I’m kind of ashamed of myself for even comparing Wilson Valdez to Albert Pujols.
stl_cards16
“In 273 At Bats, Wilson Valdez grounded into 13 double plays.In 579 AT Bats, Albert Pujols grounded into 29.”
ummm are you trying to prove me wrong or something? That proves that they ground into double plays at about the same rate………
I know they’re not the same player and I’m not saying Valdez is any good. GIDP is a very poor way to evaluate a player though. As you showed Valdez and Pujols GIDP at about the same rate and they are no where near they same typle of player. So thanks for helping prove my point.
Clayton Wilson
One of these days I’ll figure out what makes Wilson Valdez so good……
Grant Harrigan
Please take Elliot Johnson off our hands. We’ll take some minor leaguer. Most likely he’ll have better upside
stephen pilacik
If Lendy Castillo does not make cubs team, then we should trade him back to the Cubs for Blake DeWitt, he can play second and third but not short.
I also think Burriss or Maybe Nelson would be a fit because they can play short and right now other Glavis we don’t have a backup for Rollins
radicalhenri
Why has no one brought up eduardo nunez? seems like a good match to me.
stephen pilacik
Why would the Yankees trade Nunez?? They need him for their team
radicalhenri
they do, but he was available early in the off season, and the phillies are desperate, the yanks could see how much they would give.
patburn
am I the only one who read, that Galvis and Ty project at 2nd and 3rd until Utley and Howard return? I forgot that Ryan Howard is the magician at 3rd.
mgsports
Tejada?
Pena for Blanton and they sign Oswalt back and also sign Derek Lee.
Clayton Wilson
Carlos Pena for Joe Blanton? If it is Carlos you’re talking about, why would they need to sign Lee?
Paul Ip
How about Nix for Izturis ?