Qualls asks for trade after being designated for assignment
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Qualls asks for trade after being designated for assignment
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
Phillies reliever Chad Qualls asked to be traded Thursday after the team informed him that he was being desginated for assignment.
Qualls, 33, signed a one-year, $1.15 million deal with the Phillies at the end of January and was being counted upon as a late-inning reliever. He leaves the team with a 1-1 record and 4.60 ERA after surrendering three runs on three hits in Wednesday night's 11-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
"I felt like I had been throwing the ball well all June," Qualls said. "I had only given up runs in two outings this June. No excuses for (Wednesday). I felt like I was throwing the ball better, but the organization felt like they wanted to make a move and that's fine."
Qualls, in fact, had allowed runs in just two of his 15 appearances this month. He still, however, had a 4.26 ERA in June and seven of his 15 outings were less than one inning because he has atrocious numbers against left-handed hitters. Lefties are hitting .377 with a .441 on-base percentage against him. Qualls had a 6.10 ERA in May after going 1-0 with a 3.24 ERA in the first month of the season.
Pitching coach Rich Dubee walked with Qualls into manager Charlie Manuel's office, where general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was also in attendance.
"I asked Ruben to trade me and that's basically what he's trying to do," Qualls said. "I think they have eight to 10 days to try to do that, so right now he just kind of said that I'm in baseball limbo. They wanted a little bit more consistency. Hopefully, the move is better for the team."
Amaro said he will try to trade Qualls, but to this point there has been no interest. The team can also designate the pitcher for assignment or release him in the next 10 days. Qualls can decline an assignment to the minor leagues, but he would forfeited his remaining salary for this season. A release seems like the most likely scenario at this point.
"We just thought it was the right thing to do," Amaro said. "There have been some inconsistincies with him and it's something we discussed a little bit over the last several weeks. His stuff is good. I just don't know if he has been effective as his stuff has shown."
Qualls' spot on the roster was filled by lefthander Jeremy Horst, who was called up from triple-A Lehigh Valley. Horst, a 26-year-old lefthander, was acquired in the offseason trade that sent infielder Wilson Valdez to the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched in 12 games with the Reds last season and posted a 2.93 ERA. He was 2-1 with a 2.11 ERA in 26 appearances with Lehigh Valley this season. He had walked 18 batters and struck out 32 in 38 1/3 innings.
"He's been pretty consistent," Amaro said. "He's been OK as far as the guys who are down there. He's thrown the ball pretty well."
Horst will be the sixth pitcher who opened the season at Lehigh Valley to spend time on the Phillies' roster this season, but Amaro admitted that the bullpen remains a major concern.
"I think it's an area we have to address," he said. "Right now, we have to give these guys an opportunity to try to grow. How much they can grow throughout the course of the season, I don't know. We have some talent there, but it's tough to put some of the kids in this position, because we're in a position to win and we want to win on a consistent basis. It's not an easy thing to do. It's a good challenge for them and in some ways it will help them develop a little bit. At the same time, it's an area that we lack consistency. It's something we'd like to address."
Earlier in the day, the Phillies had called up righthander Brian Sanches from Lehigh Valley to fill the roster spot created when lefthander Joe Savery was optioned to the Iron Pigs Wednesday night.
Jamie Moyer is on the Blue Jays Spoon.— Matt- Who in their right mind would trade for this chucklehead? Our Astros connection was fired, so no one will take him off of our hands. Anyon ewho is happy that they only gave up runs in 2 outting during a month needs to rethink being a pitcher. Eevry pitcher should be p.o.'d when they give up even 1 run ( especially as a reliever, when the team most likely has you in the game to keep a lead, or keep the game close, at least )— C-Note
- Qualls is not the problem....yes he was terrible in May....but look at Kendrick, Savery, Sanches and Valdes.....are you freakin kidding me....wtf have they done????
The problem is tying up money in the off season on Nix-Thome-Orr-Kendrick-Rollins-Wiggington....there's about 22 million sitting there. Should have signed:
Cuddyer for 10.5
Gio Gonazalez for 3.35 ( would have traded prospects)
Podsednick makes the roster instead of NIX for 1.1
Horst makes roster .8
D Brown makes the roster .8
Pierre makes roster 1.1
Which would leave you with 6 million remaining of the 22 million to fill in the gaps on the bench....I honestly didn't understand their off season approach at all....they were too optimistic about Howard for sure....that's an 18 month type injury just like a knee....shame on Ruben!!!
— bbrady25 - when Amaro acquires awful players their poor performance is not a surprise or unexpected, it's the most expected outcome... the following is a brief synopsis of some of the players who Rube acquired BEFORE he acquired or re-signed them: D.Baez 2006 5.40 era, 2007 6.44 era, 2009 4.02 era, Amaro then gives him 2-year contract... Qualls 2010 7.32 era (not a typo), 2011 lefties bat .320 against him, Citizens Bank era 33.75, Amaro then gives him a contract (as I said pre-season Qualls could only be used as the 11th pitcher to sometimes get a righty out but that Chollie woud likley misuse him and he'd be a disaster)... Kendrick 4.49 lifetime era, Amaro gives him a new 2 yr 7.6 mil contract.... Schneider 2009 .218 avg, 2010 .240, 2011 .176, Amaro then gives him a new contract....— warbiscuit
- Amaro's choices were limited by what was available in the market at the time. You can't acquire race horses when the only thing available in the market is donkeys. So you have to fill your holes with donkeys and hope for the best. And he was limited by his payroll too, with most of the money committed to a few players. He had little money available so he was forced to sign bargain bin players.
Fans are quick to criticize and slow to understand.— Grapost - Most of these dim bulbs feel it's their duty to point out everybody else's mistakes. It gets even funnier when they suggest what THEY would have done.
- Will u look at their line up today.....are u freakin kidding me....that's the problem not Qualls— bbrady25
- Amaro has consistently sought "big names" at inflated cost while thinking he could fill the rest of the roster with cheap players who have little or no value whatsoever.. he does this not only with regard to the roster but with regard to his coaches (letting Lopes go over a few hundred thousand dollars) and minor league budget (his assistant resigning because Amaro refused to give him a bigger budget for minor league talent)... he is like the irresponsible teenager who spends all his money on the latest gadget and then has no money to afford a nutritious well-balanced lunch— warbiscuit
- Matt, oops I missed that, thanks. When did he get picked up? Is he on the major league roster or AAA?— Spoon47
- 2 words that categorically prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Ruben Amaro is an imbecile with absolutely zero ability to assess talent or run a baseball team: "Kyle Kendrick"... there is no other basbell person in the history of the game who would have given such a baffling $7.6 mil/2 yr contract to such a clearly useless player— warbiscuit
- Another solid outing by Kendrick & another day filled with moronic Toolbiscuit comments — DogBiscuitthedope
- Plugging in Paps for Madson is a slight upgrade. A healthy Stutes and an effective Bastardo made the pen pretty good last year, and without that the dominoes started to fall with the rest of the bullpen.— hillbillybirdsfan
- Amaro gave away Grili and Vogelsong for free but insisted on keeping Herndon and signed Qualls and Kendrick (for top dollar) ... Amaro traded away a dozen prospects but insisted that Brown was "untouchable" ... the "underperforming" players acquired or re-signed by Amaro (Qualls, Baez, Kendrick, Bowker, Schneider, Bruntlett, Willis, etc ) all performed exactly as their history would have predicted that they would perform— warbiscuit
- What could you get in trade? A Case of Tastycakes? Maybe some Coca-Cola? Maybe a large Pizza Pie?— fmMD
- Chad Qualls is Danys Baez in disguise. "He" both throw 95+ and give up a lot of runs and hits. Rube tried to sneak him past us again. Hard to believe that he designated him. The guys they called up do not offer much hope but I will still see every game.You never know.— johnny eagle
