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Inside the Phillies: Phils' Amaro should be in no hurry to make deal

CLEARWATER, Fla. - To hear Ruben Amaro Jr. tell it, the Bank of Montgomery at One Citizens Bank Way is closed.

Ruben Amaro Jr. has said repeatedly the Phillies have no financial flexibility. (David M Warren/Staff Photographer)
Ruben Amaro Jr. has said repeatedly the Phillies have no financial flexibility. (David M Warren/Staff Photographer)Read more

CLEARWATER, Fla. - To hear Ruben Amaro Jr. tell it, the Bank of Montgomery at One Citizens Bank Way is closed.

"Maxed out," were the exact words he used when asked by Jim Duquette of MLB Network radio if there was financial room to make a big trade before the start of the season. "I have no money to play with."

Without prodding, the general manager also shot down rumors about the Phillies acquiring Texas' Michael Young or any other infielder.

"That's all true," Amaro said when asked about his recent interview with Duquette.

That's fine for right now. Amaro should not be in any hurry.

Even if Chase Utley cannot get out of his lawn chair to field a ground ball before the Fourth of July, the Phillies general manager should take his time, see what he has on his own roster, and wait until the trade deadline to see if he needs to make a significant move.

Amaro is holding four aces, so there's no reason for him to rush into a rash trade decision. Patience is the best way to play his current hand. That has been this team's modus operandi for the last four seasons, and it has worked incredibly well.

Since 2007, the Phillies have made four significant deadline trades for starting pitchers - Kyle Lohse in 2007, Joe Blanton in 2008, Cliff Lee in 2009, and Roy Oswalt in 2010 - and each one had a major impact on that particular season. The team's combined regular-season record in starts by those four pitchers the year they were acquired was 36-14. Add in the postseason starts, and the record is 43-14.

There is also a domino effect when moves like that are made because the rest of the players grow more confident that the front office is doing everything it can to win. The Phillies' record after those deals is a combined 160-98.

The roughly $9.5 million paid to those players in the year they joined the Phillies has to be considered a bargain.

At the trade deadline, there is a more defined picture of what opposing teams are willing to do. The fact the Phillies got not only Oswalt but also $11 million from Houston for J.A. Happ and two minor-league players ranks atop the crimes of this century and one that would not have been possible at this time last season.

Lee and Ben Francisco for three minor-leaguers also belongs in the Best of Ruben column, especially if Francisco becomes a major contributor this season.

It's also impossible to say exactly what the Phillies need most right now. If they're exhausting every avenue in an effort to get Utley back on the field, what's the sense of getting a second baseman who is not going to play any more or any better than Wilson Valdez? The four reserve candidates (Josh Barfield, Delwyn Young, Michael Martinez, and Pete Orr) who have performed so well in this camp deserve an opportunity to prove they can help this team the way Valdez did a year ago.

Right now, the Phillies do not need anything, so it's easy for Amaro to say the Bank of Montgomery is closed. You'd like to think that things will be different after the all-star break, but Amaro insists that's not the case.

"All our moves at the trade deadline were done in December," the general manager said. "We did them already."

He was obviously referring to the free-agent signing that brought Lee back to Philadelphia. That's the move that has generated so much excitement about this 2011 season. It's the one that made the Phillies the favorites to win the World Series.

Three months from now, the team's needs should be more in focus. We'll know if Utley is going to make it back from his knee injury. We'll know how the platoon in right field is working out and whether the Phillies need a more potent righthanded bat in the middle of their lineup. We'll know if the bullpen needs reinforcements.

Help will be out there, and some of it will be on the pricey side.

"You're too far ahead of me," Amaro said. "As things stand right now, we don't have any flexibility at all. Whether that changes or not, I don't think it will. We'll go with what we got, and hopefully what we got is good enough."

That's almost never the case. The teams that win it all always address their needs at the trade deadline, and it would be a travesty if finances prevented the Phillies from doing so in 2011, when the World Series is theirs to lose.