The Chase Utley rumors have been fairly plentiful since he returned from the disabled list last weekend. The longtime Phillies second baseman was put on revocable trade waivers almost immediately, and he cleared earlier this week, making him eligible to be traded to any team.
The Giants are said to be in talks for Utley and even discussing specific prospect names that would head back from San Francisco, and he’s also been connected to the Cubs, Dodgers and Yankees, each of which has had various second base issues. The Giants are currently without Joe Panik, who won’t even begin baseball activities until next week. The Cubs have moved Addison Russell to shortstop and seem likely to keep him there, but they have both Starlin Castro and Chris Coghlan to handle second base (though neither’s played there at all in recent seasons). The Dodgers recently lost Howie Kendrick to the disabled list and have filled his roster spot with the promising but inexperienced Jose Peraza for now. And the Yankees have struggled at second base all season, with Stephen Drew receiving the bulk of playing time at the position.
Utley, once one of the most consistently potent bats in the National League, has faded significantly in 2015, though injuries have played a part to some extent. He’s appeared in five games since returning last Friday and hit in all five, and he’ll have the rest of the month to convince interested teams that he’s healthy (though a trade may not take that long to come to fruition). Utley’s $15MM vesting option is a non-factor now, as he should fall comfortably shy of the 500 plate appearances required to trigger that hefty payday even if he were to jump into an everyday role. Instead, the option will be valued between $5-11MM and come with a $2MM buyout. He has about $4.43MM in remaining salary plus a $2MM buyout on that option, so the Phillies will have to kick in some money in order to facilitate a deal, but they’ve been previously willing to do so.
All of that said, let’s open this one up for public debate (App users, you can cast your votes here)…
I voted the Yankees, despite my not believing it will happen. The reason i did is that i believe that is the best destination for him. The short RF porch is perfect for his waning power. Plus, he can’t possibly be any worse than Drew. Also, San Fran and LA don’t exactly fit his dimensional needs as a hitter. The Cubs, well they are still building up towards truly contending.
I agree best destination but better than Drew? Drew does have 15 HRs probably because of that left field porch. Utley’s track record suggests he’ll be better than Drew but how far has he fallen? Can he stay healthy? I don’t think the Giants/Cubs need him but he’d be a good back up to Panik/Castro and a solid Post season presence.
My quess is the Phillies will wait to the off season unless overwhelmed Utley small sample may devalue his potential?
Wouldn’t the Phillies have to pick up his option in order to trade him in the off season? Don’t see that happening.
I believe the option has weird clause that it becomes a team option with a sliding scale between 5-10M based on 2015 availability.
Even a diminished Utley at 5M has value
Not only do the Dodgers have Peraza, they also have Enrique Hernandez (.800+ OPS, basically the Andrew Freidman Dodgers’ version of Ben Zobrist) and Corey Seager which would move Turner to 2B.
Not to mention the Phillies value Utley differently than other teams. They aren’t going to give him away for free.
Blue Jays!
I get the feeling that Travis may be out for an extended period (it already has been extended to mid-September). Shoulder injuries are fickle, and I’d rather not go through a September playoff push with Goins/Pennington at 2B. Get Utley and let Travis spend some extra time healing and be 100% healthy for next year.
I doubt it. The turf in Toronto would kill Utley’s knees. I don’t think he would approve to go there.
I upvoted your post and agree with the sentiment, but at this stage 20 games on that turf would be worth another ring before hanging up the cleats
His value must be minimal in trade or one of the richer suitors listed would have simply claimed him on waivers and forced the issue by telling the phillies it’s salary relief or nothing – we’ll give you no one for him.
Now the phillies have a bit more leverage and can claim to be negotiating with multiple teams to try to get more, plus there’s no specific deadline like there is in a waiver situation.
So if he doesn’t get dealt, it would be because the Phillies overplayed their hand.
(what else is new?)
Or they don’t want to trade a corner of the franchise away for ‘salary relief.’
We’re all sorta forgetting the fact that Utley basically has all the power, and one of the biggest suitor (Giants) once threw at his head with Bochy in the dugout and Posey behind the play. It could be something or it might not be anything, but I think its worth noting.
I have the same feeling about Utley that I did with Papelbon. Don’t trade him just to trade him. Trade him if the value you’re getting back is what you’re giving up. Other wise Utley being in the club house and part-timing while taking away ABs from Howard and Galvis is worth more than 4.5M in salary relief and a fringe prospect.
Is that you, Ruben? I guess he’s staying put…
Considering Utley gets final say on any move, and the team literally has no need of 2015 salary relief – especially nothing so piddly as $4MM – nor $2MM of 2016 salary relief… Yeah, you need to get blown away to move him.
Now, at this point a single A- prospect is “blown away,” but anything less than that? What’s the point?