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Kendrick signs with Rockies

Kyle Kendrick, one of the last links to the Phillies' 2008 team, takes a pay cut to go to Colorado as a free agent.

AND THEN there were four.

The remaining core of the 2008 world champion Phillies is down to Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz.

Six weeks after shortstop Jimmy Rollins was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, free-agent righthander Kyle Kendrick reportedly agreed to a 1-year deal with the Colorado Rockies. According to Yahoo Sports, Kendrick will earn $5.5 million in 2015 with the chance to make an additional $500,000 if he pitches at least 190 innings.

It's a pay cut for the 30-year-old Kendrick: He earned $7.675 million with the Phillies last season.

Kendrick had the misfortune of entering free agency for the first time after his second consecutive off-kilter season in the Phillies' rotation. Kendrick, who broke into the big leagues with the 2007 NL East champion Phillies, went 10-13 with a 4.61 ERA in 32 starts last season.

The numbers were startlingly similar to his 2013 season: Kendrick was 10-13 with a 4.70 ERA in 2013, his first full season back in the Phillies' rotation since 2010.

Although his final two seasons were marred with inconsistency, Kendrick was a success story upon arriving with the Phillies and helping a much-maligned pitching staff survive an injury-plagued 2007 season, when the team began what turned out to be the greatest run in franchise history.

Summoned from Double A Reading to replace Freddy Garcia in the rotation in mid-June, the then-22-year-old Kendrick saw the Phillies win each of his first four major league starts. He went 10-4 with a 3.87 ERA in 20 starts as a rookie in 2007, helping the Phillies earn their first postseason berth since 1993 and finishing fifth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting.

In 2008, Kendrick made 30 starts for the eventual world champions. But he had a 5.49 ERA in 31 games and was left off the postseason roster. Kendrick spent the majority of the 2009 season at Triple A Lehigh Valley.

Kendrick returned to the big leagues for good in 2010, but was often used as a swingman, pitching both out of the bullpen and as a starter, until the team traded away Joe Blanton in August 2012. After regaining that role in the rotation, Kendrick went 27-30 with a 4.43 ERA in his final 74 starts with the Phillies.

Although the Phillies were seeking rotation help this winter, particularly looking for low-risk, high-reward, bounce-back candidates, Kendrick was never on their radar. At the outset of free agency, it became clear a change of scenery was probably best for both parties.

The Phillies signed veteran Aaron Harang to a 1-year, $5 million deal a month ago and then took a chance on former Dodgers righthander Chad Billingsley, agreeing to a 1-year, $1.5 million deal last week. Billingsley has pitched in only two major league games in the last two seasons; he has undergone two elbow surgeries since April 2013.

Kendrick, meanwhile, will look to get his career back on track at the pitcher-unfriendly confines of Coors Field. Although he had one of his better starts of 2014 in Denver, limiting the Rockies to three runs on six hits on 82 pitches in seven innings, Kendrick has gone 1-1 with a 5.26 ERA in seven career games (six starts) at Coors Field.

Coincidentally, the only postseason performance of Kendrick's career came against Colorado. He started Game 2 of the 2007 NL Division Series at Citizens Bank Park and was pulled in the fourth inning with two out, the bases loaded and the Phillies winning, 3-2. Kyle Lohse promptly gave up a grand slam, and the Phillies lost, 10-5, en route to being swept out of their first postseason appearance in 14 years.

Kendrick, a seventh-round pick in the 2003 draft, went 74-68 with a 4.42 ERA in 226 games (185 starts) in parts of eight seasons with the Phillies.