Phils Were Close to a Starter, Had A Shot at Manny
The Phillies fell short in their quest for a lefthanded reliever and a righthanded bat, but they came closest to a No. 4-type starter.
Phils Were Close to a Starter, Had A Shot at Manny
Todd Zolecki
The Phillies had about an hour left before today's 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline and thought they were close to a deal.
Lefthanded reliever?
Righthanded bat?
Nope. They felt they came closest in a failed three-team trade that would have landed them a No. 4-type starter that apparently would have bumped one of their current starters from the rotation.
“We got agreement from one club and they were trying to get agreement on players from the other club,” Pat Gillick said.
Gillick said the Phillies had a good feeling they would be able to pull off that trade. He also said they had a good feeling at one point they would be able to acquire Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox. Ramirez instead went to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-team trade that involved the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“Yeah, we were talking about it,” Gillick said of Ramirez discussions. “We were involved. We couldn’t get where they wanted to be. And we couldn’t get where we wanted to be.”
Did the Pirates seek too much from the Phillies?
“We could please other clubs,” Gillick said. “It’s just that we’ve got to please our club a little bit. We think we know what the value of those players are. Not only the players on one side of the fence, but on our side of the fence. You have to really evaluate that and we just thought maybe that was a little too rich of an ask for us.”
True the Phils made the play-offs. much harder than hockey to make the post season. How many teams in hockey don't make the dance.?— pat h- We have 6 number 4 starters.. Why the hell would they went another number 4 stater. This makes no sence. But why would they.— Beef69
- Close counts in hand grenades too— Sully
- The title of this blog entry should have been : Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda!!!— Truth
- Gillick is just a front man for a management group that doesn't really want to win. If they wanted to win they would spend more money on finding good talent evaluators that know how to draft and develop a farm system. What the Phillies pay at the major league level isn't that bad (although we do have 21 million tied up with Eaton and Myers along with a few million owed to Jim Thome). Unless the Phillies spend money on the farm system they will never have enough prospects to make deals like the Brewers and Cubs did. I'm not confident about the future of this team. They have 2 or 3 years to win it all. After that, Howard will leave via a trade or free agency. That coupled with the aging of their other stars will put them down the bottom of the division. It appears the Marlins and the Nationals are doing the smart thing--building from within. In a few years we'll be looking up at them again. I'll bet the marlins win another championship before the phillies do. Sorry for all the pessimism but it's reality folks. Get used to it.— James TL
