The Phillies’ lack of big moves this offseason likely indicate that 2013 will be a transition year, writes Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Soon after trading Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino in July, General Manager Ruben Amaro explained that the moves would allow flexibility to sign at least one major free agent, and possibly even more. Amaro wound up making his first foray into the open market on Saturday with the signings of Mike Adams and John Lannan. Here’s more from around baseball..
- Some have wondered about the condition of Travis d’Arnaud’s knee, but a club source says that the Mets have looked over his medicals and they are fine, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets. D’Arnaud is believed to be a part of the heavily rumored R.A. Dickey trade along with Noah Syndergaard.
- The Angels are continuing their search for starting pitching and are considering filling the void with mid-level free agent pitchers rather than make trades, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
- Rays manager Joe Maddon will miss James Shields for a number of reasons, but his chief problem will be making up all the innings that Shields provided, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Shields gave the club 30 to 40 more innings than any other starter and averaged 220 over the past six seasons.
