Phillies second baseman Chase Utley has cleared waivers, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports on Twitter. That means that he can now be freely traded, subject only to Utley’s full no-trade clause.
While multiple clubs have shown interest in the veteran, it comes as no surprise that he went unclaimed on revocable waivers. Though Utley’s 2016 option is no longer likely to vest, he is still owed just over $4.5MM for the rest of the season.
Philadelphia has already moved many of its veteran players, but several still remain. In addition to Utley, the Phils still employ first baseman Ryan Howard, catcher Carlos Ruiz, righty Aaron Harang, and outfielder Jeff Francoeur. All have seen their names arise in trade rumors at some point in recent months.
Despite his struggles this year, Utley remains an interesting player for contenders to consider. The highly-respected veteran has been hitting well since returning from a lengthy DL stint, and the removal of the complication of the vesting option makes him a much more marketable asset. While his current slash line still stands at a meager .190/.262/.294, he’s produced at a solidly above-average clip (or better) for each of the past ten seasons.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that several teams are dealing with injuries or performance issues at the second base position. The Giants, Cubs, Angels, Dodgers, and Yankees have all been connected to the 36-year-old in some regard, and he’s shown a willingness to consider waiving his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal. While Philadelphia will obviously need to pay down some of his salary to make something happen, most of the roadblocks appear to have been cleared at this point.
Jays?
Probably an overreaction to the Travis injury. Putting Goins are 2B would probably do more for you than Utley would.
Plus I doubt in a million years that Utley would waive his NTC to play on turf again.
Utley would be salary relief
as would Ruiz, Howard and Harang.
None of them are having even a decent year.
I don’t think the Phillies would trade Frenchy just because they love him, he loves Philly and they wouldn’t get much for him.
You think they’d trade Utley before Francouer because they “love him”? Utley is the face of the franchise and the player they love above all else.
Seriously. The assertion that the team likes Francoeur more than Utley is just… Bizarre.
Frenchy is as good as gone imo. He’s a bench player for a playoff team. Pinch hitter. They will have a logjam at OF shortly if they don’t deal him. Might as well sell high. Brown is sticking around imo, he will get an excessive amount of opportunities to prove his worth, you have herrera, and you have Athleer, Williams, And Quinn coming in relative short order. You have a FA signing period, as well as the international FA, which they are expected to be major players. Then you have more lower level players coming…. Rudolph and others. So, imo, he is gone, even if they get squat for him .
Cubs. They have Chris Coghlan playing 2B for them. The Cubs could give the Phils some Rule 5 lottery ticket types: Mike Olt, Carlos Pimentel.
Utley and cash for Mike Olt. The Phillies loved that kid. Maybe they can get something out of him. Not like 3B and LF are locked down for the future, both are very open positions.
While I agree, LF is a wide open position. You have heard of a fella by the name of Maikel Franco at 3B right now haven’t you? Pretty sure he’ll have that position locked down for the next 5-10 years
Ummm 3rd is certainly locked down. Maikel Franco is the future and is having a fantastic rookie campaign. He’s a terrific fielder along with a promising bat.
“terrific fielder”
k
I think Franco is pretty locked in at third. LF is wide open for a power bat though.
Franco has been awful at 3B this year. Hes a long term 1B once they rid themselves of Howard.
I’d leave him at 3B at least until the end of next year to see if he can improve. He is still really young and might improve with more experience.
Please tell me you’re not using advanced defensive metrics on a sample size of 646 innings.
So you’re telling me that Hanley Ramirez could pan out in LF because its only been a handful of innings?
I’d hardly call Franco awful defensively. He’s made 10 errors this year for .948 fielding percentage. Not great, not bad either. Respectable for a 22yo rookie. His range is pretty damn good, and his arm.is exceptional for the position. As he gets older and more experience, he should, by all estimations improve even more defensively. Long term there’s no doubt he stays at the hot corner
Nah, his range is pretty bad, actually, but what he can get to is usually vacuumed up, and he has a heck of an arm (he’s working on patenting that bare-handed snag-and-throw on bunts/weak grounders). Around half of his errors are throwing errors, where he sails a ball over Howard’s head after hurrying the throw.
They have nothing to lose by keeping Franco at 3B a while longer – it’s so much easier to land a veteran power bat at 1B when the time comes than to find a 3B that can hit like Franco and field better.
So regardless of the bickering over whether Franco should stay at 3B or move to 1B, it simply makes no sense to make the move until the Phillies are presented with a decision influenced by how they fill the “non-Franco” corner.
Mike Olt….. hmmm that name sounds familiar…… where have I heard that name before….. hmmmm. I’d do it for Utley, his value is at an all time low, its ashame he saw the light this year, and not last year, pobably could have got something worth monitoring in the minors.
Traded to the Giants in 3 . . . 2 . . . .1 . . .
well if howie injury serious the dodgers might be a choice. they do have his buddy rollin
Giants or Dodgers figure to be the finalists and among the few teams I think Utley would agree to go to.
No Mike Olt…while others gushed over him, I always compared him to Mark Reynolds.
Would be nice to be able to get a high-strikeout reliever for Utley (like Hunter Strickland or Yimi Garcia) but that may be aiming too high. Would hate to think the Utley era ends with the arrival of a suspect A ball player.
At best Phils get a mid level minor leaguer and a couple million cash. No way they get a Strickland or a Garcia.
I think they’d rather eat the whole contract for 2015 and the buyout and get a better player
It’s doubtful any team would give up a major league player regardless of $$. Utley has been injured and struggled this year.
I would love to see Utley in New York.. I know he is having a down year but he is one of those iconic players that I like.. Even though his slash line is worse than Drew’s (not by much) I would still prefer him.. I was really hoping the Yankees would swing a deal for him last year.. Utley and Jeter on the same field together would have been a dream come true.. Even if it happened a few years too late.. Cano was the superior player but something about Utley has always made me like him and made me wish to see him play 2nd in New York.. I wonder how Philly fans (especially Mac) are gonna take to him leaving.. Personally, I think Philly should pick up his option next year and if he doesn’t have anything left and decides to hang up his spikes, give him a Jeteresque sendoff.. He deserves whatever he chooses for the twilight of his career and Amaro should definitely not be making that decision for him..
To be fair, unless his contract gets renewed, it won’t be Amaro making that decision.
Eventhough Utley is 37 y.o. he is in incredible physical shape on the surface. Utley thinks he has a few more years left and imo the Phillies believe that too. Dont discount the ankle injury for his bad year. Since he has returned from the D.L. he has been on everything and he hasnt lost a step , hes as fast as ever.
SF GM hinted that the Phillies asking price for Utley is high, no doubt imo that the Phillies pick up Utleys option next year if he is not traded.
Start dealing …. Frenchy should be traded asap, before his value drops. Bring up one of the kids, Athleer is close enough. Dump Haarang, for anything, I’ll take a low A ball player with a .00001% chance of making the MLB someday. Same for williams. Again, Bring up the kiddies. Don’t dip your toes in Phillies, just jump in.