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Murphy: Pitching some names to the Phillies

DEVON TRAVIS. Trea Turner. Anthony Rizzo. Those probably aren't the names that would first catch the eye of a Phillies fan looking over this year's postseason rosters. The 10 teams left standing after Sunday offered no shortage of opportunities to relive our past. Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, Carlos

DEVON TRAVIS. Trea Turner. Anthony Rizzo.

Those probably aren't the names that would first catch the eye of a Phillies fan looking over this year's postseason rosters. The 10 teams left standing after Sunday offered no shortage of opportunities to relive our past. Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Jayson Werth, Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ - heck, throw in Hunter Pence, Ben Revere and even Jake Diekman. But as the Phillies enter the offseason looking to build upon the modest progress they made this season, it's those three names at the top that we should consider.

Conventional wisdom suggests that championship teams are built by drafting well, spending big, or swapping old for young. That's not a heartening thought for those who yearn for an October that involves the Phillies.

No matter how many times you look at the list of players projected to hit free agency next month, you'll struggle to find a combination of players that can help make a playoff push without hindering the long-term mission of the rebuild. Old for young? That was the stuff of the last three years. At this point, there aren't any old guys left to trade. As for the draft, the Phillies will get a chance to add another blue-chip amateur to the fold in June when they will pick at No. 8 overall. But whoever they take, it won't do much to help them in 2017, and probably not 2018 or 2019, either.

For a lineup in desperate need of talent - the Phillies scored just 610 runs this season, 39 fewer than the next closest team - immediate help might seem hard to find. Yet general manager Matt Klentak showed last offseason with his trade of young closer Ken Giles that he is willing to think outside of the box, and that's a mentality that he'd be wise to maintain for his second go-around.

That could mean soliciting a package of players for someone like Odubel Herrera or Hector Neris. Or it could mean dangling someone that makes you scratch your head even harder. Someone like Vince Velasquez. Or Nick Williams. Or Andrew Knapp. Or Cesar Hernandez.

Take Rizzo, for example. The Cubs' 27-year-old first baseman is the kind of middle-of-the-order talent that the Phillies simply do not have right now. Over the last three seasons, he has averaged 32 home runs while posting a .913 OPS. But when the Cubs acquired him after the 2011 season, he was a blue-chip prospect coming off a disappointing major league debut in which he hit just .141 with a .523 OPS and 46 strikeouts in 128 at-bats for the Padres.

The price: a fellow prospect, 25-year-old righthander Andrew Cashner, who'd spent a season in the Cubs bullpen and then battled injuries the following year. Cashner has shown flashes of dominance since the trade, but he hasn't come close to equalling the value that an MVP-caliber middle-of-the-order hitter provides.

Now, consider Turner. In 2014, the Nationals had an outfield prospect named Steven Souza who was coming off a season in which he hit 18 home runs with a 1.022 OPS at Triple A. The Rays and the Padres were looking for a third team to help facilitate a deal that would send another young outfielder, Wil Myers, to San Diego. The Nationals sent Souza to the Rays and walked away from the swap meet with Turner, a first-round draft pick that year who this season has split time between second base and centerfield while hitting .342/.370/.567 with 13 home runs and 33 steals in 39 attempts since a midseason call-up.

Oh, they also landed Joe Ross, who missed most of the last two months of this season, but had a 3.43 ERA and excellent rate stats (8.0 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9) in 19 starts before he landed on the disabled list. At 23-year-old, he projects as a fixture in the Nationals rotation.

Finally, there's Travis. In November of 2014, the Blue Jays acquired the then-23-year-old second baseman for 24-year-old outfielder Anthony Gose, a former Phillies prospect who landed in Toronto after initially heading to Houston in the Roy Oswalt trade.

This year, Travis hit .300/.332/.454 with 11 home runs in 432 plate appearances and has an .811 OPS and 19 home runs in 671 plate appearances since his call-up last season.

Pencil any one of those players into the lineup you project for the Phillies over the next few years and think how it changes things.

That's not to suggest that Klentak will have an opportunity to add such a player. Even if he does, it's important to note that none of the three in question had proven a thing against big-league pitching at the time of their acquisition. In each of those deals, there was a team that is now dealing with having been on the other side. Success still comes down to an organization's ability to evaluate talent, regardless of age or market.

The point is that the Phillies have assets. Velazquez profiles favorably to Cashner circa 2011. Herrera might be the best option out there for a team looking to add a young but tested big-league centerfielder this offseason. The type of talent the Phillies need to reach the next stage of their rebuild isn't in stock at your neighborhood grocery. Acquiring it requires creativity and risk. Klentak has shown a willingness to employ calculated amounts of both. It might be a quiet offseason for the Phillies GM. But don't count anything out.

@ByDavidMurphy

Blog: philly.com/Philliesblog