Amaro: Phils will consider dealing off big league roster
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Amaro: Phils will consider dealing off big league roster
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Ruben Amaro Jr. had a few interesting things to say earlier this evening as he addressed the Phillies' search for pitching and infield depth.
First, he said that he would consider dealing a player off of his big league roster if he felt it would upgrade the overall competitiveness of the club.
"Obviously I don't want to weaken my club," Amaro said, "but if I have to weaken one area to strengthen another, I might do that."
Second, he said that Domonic Brown has played his way into consideration for a promotion at some point this season, although he stressed that the top prospect's 12 games at Triple-A are still too few to render a judgment on his readiness for the big leagues.
"The players dictate their progress, and he's dictating it," Amaro said.
Those two statements are related, of course. The Phillies two most tradeable quantities, at least when it comes to the starting line-up, are outfielders. Right fielder Jayson Werth will be a free agent after the season, and thus far the two sides have not come close to reaching an agreement on a contract extension. Center fielder Shane Victorino, meanwhile, is signed to a three-year, $22 million contract that runs through the 2012 season. Veteran left fielder Raul Ibanez likely would not attract much attention, given his contract (the Phillies owe him $11.5 million next season) and the decline in power numbers he has experienced this season.
Brown plays right field, but Werth can play center field as well, which is why moving Victorino would still leave the Phillies with some flexibility.
Amaro declined to address any specific names, either on his own roster or that of another major league team.
But the Phillies are looking for a pitcher to bolster their rotation and an infielder to fill the void left by Chase Utley at second base. If he had to choose one, Amaro said he would choose a pitcher. The Phillies are also open to adding a bullpen arm, but their top priority is a starter.
Of course, they had a starter back in December. His name was Cliff Lee, and they traded him to Seattle citing the need to replenish the farm system. Amaro said he does not regret the move.
"If we had Cliff Lee, we wouldn't have Roy Halladay," Amaro said.
But if they can trade for a pitcher now, why couldn't they have kept both Lee and Halladay?
"Time and circumstance dictates some of the things you can and cannot do," Amaro said. "We just felt like we were in a position to be able to hold one guy and not to hold the other guy. We had to put ourselves in a position not to leave our club and our organization with the cupboard bare. By moving all of this talent from our organization, it just made it very difficult to continue to be able to do business long term. "
The contradictions are so obvious I am not sure how to even address them. WE had the top starter in the American League, but we traded them for three iffy prospects. So now we should trade our top Prospect Dom Brown or worse Victorino, how gives plays a gold glove CF and give the Phils much needed speed on the base paths. IF they would have just kept Lee, signed Halladay, we would have been able to keep all our prospects and our power hitters for the WHOLE season. Even a 5th grader knew trading LEE was stupid, but the Phils front office gave us some B.S about needing to restocking our farm system. Somebody needs to take the keys to the Franchise away from Amaro before he ruins everything. The Phils were sitting pretty coming into this season before Lee trade and horrible Howard extension. They would have gotten 2 picks first round picks for Lee and 2 first round picks for Werth and plus we would have had the Best one, two, three punch in baseball with Lee, Halladay, and Hamels. HOw are all of our needs not taken care of in that scenario? Fans happy and farm system would have replenished itself. We already traded 4 pretty good guys for Lee, why not just hold onto him? Now to get another top pitcher we are going to trade another top player or prospect. It just makes no sense. Pitching wins championships and they had one of the best in the AL!!- Over_Exposed stated it well... how does the three prospects for Lee make the organization better. 2 first round picks from a college may be closer to the big leagues than the three they got from Seattle. That trade is Amaro's legacy as GM...— Real_Phils_Fan
- oh rube what happened???? a week ago there were zero moves going to be made so you could protect your otherwise rotten roster you fieled..now we are trading starters? oh rube, can you be any more unqualified to run a team?...you ruined this team with the lee deal, then you further killed it with your terrible off season additions, giving joe adam eaton blanton as much money as lee would of made...you will go down as the worst baseball exec in baseball history at this rate..you are a child in a mans league— tooltime
- It's obvious that Amaro is looking to trade Werth. Hope he moves Victorino and has the room to sign Werth. 1 1/2 seasons of Werth in center until 2012 when Ibanez is gone and hope Gose or another prospect is ready for center by then, with Brown and Werth at the corners.— Chuck Earley Sr
Kudos to Murphy for pressing Amaro on the Cliff Lee point, and eliciting the double-talk that Amaro yielded in response to Murphy's question. Amaro's non-reasoning makes it obvious that the CBP Emperor has no clothes. But of course most of us fans became pretty clear on that point the day Lee was traded.- Murphy needs to badger Amaro about Lee. So does Barkain and Hoffman and all the other Philly media. This trading of Cliff Lee and the signing of Ryan Howard to a bloated contract was the phillies undoing this year. Be a man Amaro admit you were wrong and get us back Cliff Lee.— Bob65S
- Amaro, Jr. is not Pat Gillick even though he thinks of himself as a reincarnation of the former GM.— phillytransplant
Comment removed.
You all make this team out to be the second coming of early 90's teams. We don't have lee get over it. We won A WS without Lee,it can be done again.Did we win a WS with Lee? I guess I missed that Ws. This team can and will win. Getting to the playoffs is all that matters. The season is long it's full of ups and downs. Go Phils.If they start a win streak and when they start one which will happen you'll all be on the bandwagon again. You all oppress me.— a2000xl- So let me get this straight you traded C.Lee for 3 average prospects. Now that we need a SP you are going to trade our better prospects and or one of our big league starters. HMMM that dosent make any sense to me at all actually it sounds plain stupid. So lets trade Lee for average prospects then trade better prospects for a lesser SP. DUMB. Amaro also says if we had LEE we wouldent have Halladay. Well he did trade for Halladay first so we did have the both of them its not like we traded Lee for Halladay. He could of traded Blanton but he didnt. And now we need to trade our better prospects for a SP most likly not as good as LEE. It just sounds really stupid to me. I wish Amaro would have the guts to come out and admit he made a mistake i would respect him more.— Joey0210
- The Lee thing was about MONEY, blame the owners, not Amaro. What part do some of you not understand?— Chuck Earley Sr
- Amaro please dont trade D.Brown he is a superstar in the making. His stats are better than J.Hayward's and at a higher level. D.Brown should already be playing for this team and could be the spark they need. I think he would be playing for any other team in the league. But like the Phillies they have to wait untill a guy turns 25 to get him up here. He should be starting on our team right now. If Amaro trades him it would be a monumental mistake even bigger than trading away LEE.— Joey0210
- Anyone comparing Joe Blanton with Adam Eaton either does not have a very good memory or they are just plain stupid. Are you kidding me?! Blanton was rock solid when they brought him over from the A's in '08 (4-0) and geez....let's see....he hit a homer and won game 4 of the WORLD SERIES! The guy goes out and tries his hardest - can you honestly say that about Adam (I'll steal your $24m) Eaton? By your logic, if the Phils had not replaced Eaton with Blanton in '08, they still would have won the World Series.....and if you truly believe that, you are an idiot and should never post on Philly.com again. Philly fans have always been known as tough on athletes that don't give 100% - that doesn't apply to Blanton so next time you want to be cute and nickname him Joe Adam Eaton Blanton...GET A CLUE!!— jimyd0315
- Yes, Cliff Lee was about money. Pay him for a year and he walks away. This team is better on paper than the '08 team (Polanco over Feliz; Ibanez over Burrell; Halladay over Hamels; Hamels over etc). They're just not producing, but I am confident they will. I'd love to trade free agent Werth, but where does that leave us? With yet another LH bat (Brown) in the line up. This line up has to get more balanced between LH & RH... and Brown won't do it.— workhorse
- Chase's buddy from UCLA is available and is only 30 and has power and can play 3rd base better then Greg Dobbs---Garrett Atkins.— Romus
