Amaro: Phillies explored trade for Justin Upton
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Amaro: Phillies explored trade for Justin Upton
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
The Phillies were in need of a right-handed power bat for the corner outfield, and early in the offseason they made an offer to free agent center fielder B.J. Upton, so it wasn't too much of a leap to think that Ruben Amaro Jr. at some point kicked around the idea of trading for Diamondbacks star Justin Upton, B.J.'s brother and, as of today, a member of the Atlanta Braves.
Turns out, the Phillies did look into Justin Upton, talking to Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers on more than one occasion about a potential trade.
Alas, Amaro said, "We just didn't really see a fit."
"We communicated a few times with K.T.," Amaro said. "Clearly, what he was looking for and what we were willing to give were a little different."
What the Phillies could not offer the Diamondbacks was a player like Martin Prado, a very good hitter at a premium position who can help Arizona compete this season. The Diamondbacks also acquired promising young pitcher Randall Delgado, a former Top 50 prospect according to Baseball America.
"You've got to trade talent for talent," Amaro said. "They got a very good player, and obviously they got a third baseman back to kind of cover for him."
The Phillies will be attempting to re-establish themselves as contenders in a vastly improved National League. The Diamondbacks have bolstered their payroll by about $20 million. The Braves have added the two Uptons, while the Nationals added center fielder Denard Span.
"We knew it was going to be a challenge regardless, because (the Braves) had a really good team," Amaro said. "They've done a good job of improving their club. We think we've improved ours as well. We can't worry too much about what goes on in our division, we have to worry about what the Phillies are doing. If our guys can play the way we think they can play, we'll be OK."
For the first time since 2008, the Phillies will enter a season as an underdog.
"That's good," Amaro said. "I guess I like to be an underdog. We were the favorites to win last year and we didn't do so well. Maybe the tides have turned."
Comments (26)
@macoop2 - No - we aren't kidding. Ruin Tomorrow Jr. has been terrible. He is in way over his head. Phillies can get better - but it won't be with that knucklehead as GM. We need a real talent evaluator. The only good moves Amaro has made have involved getting huge, big name pitchers by giving up more prospects than any other GM was willing to give. That is not good. When he spends money, he does it on the wrong guys. When he makes trades, he gives up waaaaaaaay too much and, lately, picks the wrong big name guys as his targets. He has bid against himself to over-pay for many guys who are now un-trade-able. And the kicker is that he has destroyed the farm system as well. Time to say goodbye to Rube-the-Boob.— Copper34- Philly sports is the Pits.— Ssteve115
- You guys all have to be kidding. Try to tell me that you didn't love it when we got Oswalt and Pence. Rube put us in the best position to win in the last couple of years. Name one "prospect" that we traded that has done anything. You all act like he's a terrible GM for getting proven players for prospects who will never do anything. I don't understand how you can think that Ruben is a bad GM. Last year injuries hurt us but when Howard and Utley came back we were good. This year we may not win the division but I think that we're a lock for a wild card. Stop flipping on ruben wen one season goes wrong due to injuries. We wouldn't have been nearly as good without him and as I said, none of the prospects that we gave up will ever be anything.— macoop2
- Halladay has to get back to 15-17 wins. Lee pitched well enough to win 16-18 games. Lee will have to win those 16-18. Utley has to come back to being one of NL best players. Howard has to get near the player of first few years. Michael Young figures to hit 280-310 perhaps more important he will have to provide decent defense at 3B. Kendrick will have to be the pitcher of last two months. Dom Brown will have to become the player he was predicted to be 2-3 years ago. Of course all of these things WONT HAPPEN. Still if the Phills are going to compete with Nats and Atlanta 4 or 5 of the 7 will have to happen. Even then it would be very tough. Phills look like 3rd place team right now. Still nothing guaranteed.— Don w
- Amaro was a tire kicker , not a buyer. To say he was talking to Kevin Towers , and was interested in Upton is like me saying I talked to the head of treasury about obtaining a bushel of greenbacks !
There was no way we could afford either Upton brother.
Any GM who spends as much time to sign an injured player with flaws in his fielding, and mental attitude, tips you off, he's bargain basement shoppping.......That's one step better than dumpster diving.— phineas - Amaro was a tire kicker , not a buyer. To say he was talking to Kevin Towers , and was interested in Upton is like me saying I talked to the head of treasury about obtaining a bushel of greenbacks !There was no way we could afford either Upton brother. Any GM who spends as much time to sign an injured player with flaws in his fielding, and mental attitude, tips you off, he's bargain basement shoppping.......That's one step better than dumpster diving. (HTML deleted)— phineas
- I have to pretty much agree with warbiscuit, and I've felt this way for a few years starting with $24 mil/3yrs for Blanton. He seems shortsighted at best. With the bucks and prospect chips he had at his disposal he can only be described a as total failure as a gm. We might've had Beltre and/or Gio and perhaps some others with a thoughtful, short term-long term approach. Hell, even with the situation he played himself into going into last winter instead of Nix, Winngington, and Blanton he could've gone after Aramis Ramirez to play 3rd for a couple of years with a creative 3-4 year contract. Imagine if he gave US the year he gave the Brewers (in our park, quite likely. That alone might've puts into the playoffs, despite all else. Amaro appears clueless, leaving us to hope we can compete this year (unlikely) and make our next run with an over 30 Hamels, Biddle, another prospect as #3, and...as our rotation; an infield of galvis, hernandez, asche or frankel, and some 1bman; ruf(unless he's at 1st), revere, and some prospect in the of. Of course they'll be some money freed up so maybe we can buy a star or two. Not a very promising proposition. The best move the ownership of this team can make is to turn it over to a new mangement team. The'll have to eventually anyway; do it asap!— joe goldberg
- from crashburnalley: "Failure ..Four years ago, the Phillies had a ... Minor League system with high-upside talent, ...formidable offenses ...starting rotation, and enough payroll space to purchase a small tropical island. Now, ....bereft of young talent... offense ... withered away,... Amaro’s tenure ...an utter failure, and it isn’t as if this failure came out of nowhere. The disaster that was the Ryan Howard contract extension could have been seen from outer space; relying on a left fielder and third baseman (Raul Ibanez and Placido Polanco, respectively) in their mid- and late- 30′s to stay healthy and productive was a fool’s errand; and trading the farm for an incremental-at-best improvement in World Series-winning odds was deplorable from the beginning.... comments Amaro made yesterday ...(paraphrasing): “I don’t care about walks; I care about production.” ... illogical ...Phillies are known as one of the least forward-thinking organizations in baseball, still relying heavily on the observations of scouts and little on those utilizing statistics....gone nowhere fast by relying on antiquated theories and tools...... some point in the near future, the Phillies will fire Amaro, ending a disappointing era of Phillies baseball. They must use this opportunity to join the 21st century of baseball ..."— warbiscuit
- to all the naive Philly fans who can never get beyond "rah rah we're great.." and think that it's disloyal to root for a team and objectively critique them, get your heads out of the sand, and if you don't like my style (although I've been accurate), go read other well-written objective critiques on places like crashburnalley and SBNation,,, yes I was ahead of the curve, but frankly I take no satisfaction in being "right" --Id prefer that the Phillies simply get to the next stage in their history, get a competent g.m. and somehow become relevant once again ... continuing to defend the indefensible -- when anyone can look at this roster and see it sucks -- is not only foolish but pointless— warbiscuit
- never seem more stupidity come out of anyone's mouth:
"You've got to trade talent for talent," Amaro said... ('and uh I gave away all our trade chips for a couple of good months of Oswalt and a couple of good months from Pence --oh well, my bad...')
"We knew it was going to be a challenge regardless, because (the Braves) had a really good team," Amaro said.('I've decimated this team that it isn't in the same category as the top dozen teams in baseball, sorry") --"... We think we've improved ours as well. (hey, we got some guys who lost their jobs as d.h.'s to be regular fielders -isn't that a hoot?'). "We can't worry too much about what goes on in our division" ("i got no idea what to do")...
"That's good," Amaro said. "I guess I like to be an underdog. ("It's easier having a mediocre going-nowhere team so there's no pressure on me trying to figure out how to get the pieces to win in the post-season.") We were the favorites to win last year and we didn't do so well (hey remember the brillaint impovements I made last year getting Thome, Wigginton and Qualls -- and a lot of you morons thought we should still be favored -- what a surprise that didnt work out."
"Maybe the tides have turned." (ok, you got me, I don't have a clue about putting together a baseball team but hey wasn't it fun getting my name in the papers every July 31.."
— warbiscuit - With a healthy Howard, a healthy Utley, and a healthy Halladay, the Phillies HAVE to finish bettter than last season's 81-81. Young is an upgrade over Polanco. How can this not be a better team than 2012? I'm trying to take the subjective out and add the objective.— drhoffman
- another fan who finally gets it ---much of what I thought (but I wised-up awhile ago)..from SBNation: "Done With Ruben Amaro Jr: A Special Comment ... For years, I believed people who hired him...couldn't be morons. ...couldn't have hired an idiot, or someone so grossly unqualified for the job that it's laughable. Someone so mired in the ways of the past and fooled by the illusion of experience that almost every move seems designed to take the team backwards, not forwards. ... ....Back in 2009, the signing of Raul Ibanez puzzled me. ... trading for Halladay in 2009 ... But of course, he sent away Cliff Lee. Which just seemed... stupid. ... Howard contract... only way this made sense is if Howard's contract was a steal or at least somewhat of a discount... knew would most likely cripple the team financially going forward... Pence was a hard pill to swallow. ...COULD WORK! And then it didn't. SHOCKER. Things went horribly wrong ...But the players were gone and the money was spent. ...you've traded away your farm system and you have no money to buy actual good players, that leaves you with, well...guys from the abandoned, lonely, pathetic bargain bin in the corner of the sale section of the surplus and salvage store. .... no plan. The Phillies were bad. I could do nothing but hope that the offseason would bring a smart signing or an intelligent trade, anything to restore my faith that THE PEOPLE RUNNING THE TEAM I LOVED HAD FUNCTIONAL BRAINS.
The combination of Delmon Young and Michael Young were the straws that broke the camel's back. ... As starters? In positions they haven't been regularly playing? Is anyone paying attention? Anywhere? Does anyone know what they're doing? IS THIS IS A RUDDERLESS SHIP!? THE MAST IS ON FIRE ...."— warbiscuit - no use crying over spilled milk. most gm's would have signed howard and that's your big complaint. relax. we'll see how it works out. seems easy to predict the worst.
- after wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and losing best prospects for 1 year of Pence and 2 good months from Oswalt, seems like the well has run dry, and there's no money or talent left to field a good team or to acquire good players... gee now who woulda thunk it? like any ponzi scheme, you run outa cash or anything of value...— warbiscuit
- Can you name one prospect that we traded that has done anything? If you can I would like to know. — macoop2
- Justin is head and shoulders better than any position player in Phils organization, and even Chris Johnson might be better all-around player than anyone on Phils... CLueless Rube has made such a mockery of being a g.m. --wasting hundreds of millions of dollars over 4 years and losing all the Phils prospects and young talent --and then adds insult to injury this winter acquiring 3 players to be starters who have poor on base pcteg (Revere, Young and Young ) and 2 of whom can't even field their positions.. never seen a more inept joke of a g.m. and a travesty that so many ignoramuses come here evry day and write the most bizarre excuses for the most blatant malpractice exercised in the governance of a professinal sports team— warbiscuit
- Phillip Phan: Depends on timing. If Amaro was willing (pre-Revere) to offer Worley, Asche and Joseph/Valle, who knows? But seeing that Arizona got Prado, that probably was the holdup. We don't have a proven, young power hitter to offer. Prado is proven; Brown and Ruf are not.
— eman - Is it me or are the same post-ers saying they really, really, REALLY want to see Ruf and Brown get starting outfield shots also bemoaning the fact that Atlanta has the Upton twins and we don't?
"I hate that we got Delmon Young. Now Ruf may start the year at AAA." Same guy: "Why didn't we sign Victorino and get both Uptons? Ruin Tomorrow is clueless." Uh, hello.
— eman - My view here was this: If we had traded for Upton I'd have been fine moving Brown. At the same age Upton is a clear upgrade. In that scenario Brown, of course, goes on to be an all-star somewhere else since that's the way it works if you're a Phillies fan ...
Is Upton the absolute ideal outfielder to trade for? No way. The upgrade over Brown and the fact that his contract ends when he's 27, even if it is too high, was appealing to me though.
In an alternate universe I could also see this scenario had they gotten Upton: Trade Mayberry or Nix, LF goes to Brown or Ruf as the main starter. Assuming Brown can win that job, Ruf may be fine off the bench as a PH and sub'ing at 1B once in a while. It's that 1B role I don't see happening with Charlie.
Ruf's a problem to plan around because we really have no idea yet whether he can carry what he did last year into a major league career and his fielding is almost a complete unknown. My basic view is we'd be fine carrying one bench player who offers potential RH power but is a huge question mark or liability in the field. That may be Ruf. That is the current Delmon Young. The problem with having two of those is you really only want one on the bench and you'd like to be able to choose the best one without having contracts factor in. For a guy under contract in the NL I prefer someone who can play defense. It's why I had a problem with Thome last year even though I like Jim Thome. Thome and Wigginton were those two guys last year. Another thing I personally like is two or more bench players with options. It offers flexibility. That was Ruf and Galvis before they signed Delmon Young. Now it's probably just one of those two.— s - What would have been a serious exchange of players? The Phillies would have had to give up Biddle. He is the only legitimate prospect and that would not have been enough. No one else would have generated much interest.— Phillip Phan
- The Phils will looking at another 81-81 season at best and will be "sellers" by the allstar game.— farley
- Better with Bourn/Chipper/prado or Upton x2, I say the Chipper package easy. More power now but not clearly better, just hyped.
— WFChamps - ruben's putting the load on his 20 million dollar pitchers. here's hoping everyone's healthy.— high water
- Rube is a p.ssy— Jay Grace 69
- The Nationals added Denard Span, not Fowler.— SI52
- span not fowler— en37
1
Popular Posts
About this blog
High Cheese is your place for the best Phillies coverage from the Daily News.
David Murphy
Daily News Staff Writer
Ryan Lawrence
Daily News Staff Writer
Search this blog:
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners:
Powered By:
