Phillies acquire Revere for Worley and May
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Phillies acquire Revere for Worley and May
Bob Brookover
NASHVILLE -- The Phillies acquired a center fielder Thursday and while the cost was not high in terms of dollars, it was substantial in terms of the players they surrendered for Minnesota's Ben Revere.
The Twins received righthanders Vance Worley and Trevor May from the Phillies. Worley finished third in the National League rookie of the year voting in 2011 and May was considered the team's best pitching prospect at the start of last season.
In Revere, the Phillies receive a former first-round draft pick who can play all three outfield positions. He did not commit an error in 282 chances last season. The 24-year-old Revere's game is all about speed because he has almost zero power. The left-handed hitter has not hit a home run in 1,064 career at-bats over three big-league seasons. He had five home runs in 1,755 minor-league plate appearances.
"I think we were dealing from a position of strength because of the young arms we have been developing in our system," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said as he prepared to board a flight back to Philadelphia. "We gave up a lot for this player, but we acquired a player who is under our control and can do a lot of things for us."
Revere could be a top-of-the-order hitter capable of wreaking havoc on the bases. He had a .326 batting average and .383 on-base percentage in the Twins' minor-league system and batted .294 in 553 plate appearances with the Twins last season. He also stole 40 base in 49 attempts and scored 70 runs. He can hit either first or second in the order.
"He could hit at the top of the order or the bottom of the order," Amaro said. "We got him for his defense, but he can hit, too."
Revere will not be eligible for salary arbitration until after the 2013 season and he will not be eligible for free agency until after the 2017 season, so his cost in terms of salary is certainly appealing to the Phillies, who balked at the idea of paying a huge contract to free agents like Michael Bourn and B.J. Upton.
"We still have plenty of flexibility monetarily to try to piece the rest of this thing together," Amaro said.
Worley, 25, had gone from a fringe prospect at the start of 2010 to a valued member of a star-studded rotation in 2011. He finished third in the rookie of the year voting that year after posting an 11-3 record and 3.01 ERA. He was unable to repeat that success in 2012 as he went 6-9 with a 4.20 ERA before being shut down late in the year with a bone spur that was surgically removed.
With Worley's departure, it's possible the Phillies could be in the market for a veteran free agent to join their rotation. Some possible names to watch for are Shaun Marcum, John Lannan and Edwin Jackson.
"We could go either way to fill the other spot," Amaro said. "We could go outside the organization or inside the organization. Jonathan Pettibone is close. Tyler Cloyd will be in the mix."
The four definite starters in the rotation are Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Kyle Kendrick.
May, a 23-year-old righthander, was considered the best pitching prospect in the Phillies organization after Jarred Cosart was traded to Houston in 2011. He was also the 69th ranked prospect in the minor leagues by Baseball America before last season. But the righthander struggled through most of last season, posting a 10-13 record and a 4.87 ERA at double-A Reading.
Clueless Rube traded away outfielders with much better resumes (Pence, Victorino) for literally nothing, and then trades away assets for another outfielder who is barely servicable and less valuable than what he gave away...considering how expensive outfielders are this winter, if instead of trading Pence for close to absolutely nothing last July, is there anyone outside of the Clueless Rube who couldn't get more for Pence this winter than a double A .250 hitting non-prospect? once again the imbecile shows how to destroy a franchise by overpaying by 200 to 500% in cash or prospects for what he thinks he needs, and getting only useless trash when he discards something or tries to get something cheap— warbiscuit- how to run a business, Rube style: pay top dollar --more than value --for any acquisition; sell anything you have for nothing..imbecile hasn't made single "good" deal since he lucked into Lee from Cleveland— warbiscuit
- yes Victorino and Pence were infinitely better than this nobody...Phillies lost when they had Vic and Pence becuase they were far too insufficient in a lineup that was mediocre or poor at just about every spot, now they are even worse.. a really pitiful team with only 2 good players on entire 40-man roster, shaped by a complete imbecile who has turned a chamnpionship caliber team into useless sh$% with no present or future— warbiscuit
- The difference between this guy defensively in centerfield versus Mayberry Jr. in centerfield doesn't translate into even one more victory. Now the Phillies have to waste money to try to replace Worley.— Freedom Fries
- 2nd highest avg 294 on Twins, only 54SO 29BB 6 triples with 150 hits this says leadoff so drop JR to 3rd. May have paid high cost but long term will see— gibby58
- they know about Worley's bone chips.......— sonnybuoy01
- "Worley finished third in the National League rookie of the year voting in 2011 and May was considered the team's best pitching prospect at the start of last season."
Let's be real here. This price maybe would've been considered high before last year, but the 2012 season did in fact happen. Worley was awful last year and just elbow surgery. If healthy he's a middle rotation guy. Period. May got blasted by DoubleA hitters all year and frankly has regressed in each of the last 3 years. Sometimes prospects pan out. Sometimes they don't. You can't hold on to every prospect in your system on the promise that they're all going to be Tom Seaver some day because most of them won't. In fact the vast majority of prospects the Phillies have unloaded in recent years haven't done squat and that's the truth - maybe you forget gio gonzales — pojames
- uh that trade was like 7 years ago. He spent '08 and '09 getting lit up while the Phillies were playing for World Series.
Tell me who of this bunch you really, truly, honestly miss right now: J.A. Happ, Anthony Gose, Jonathan Villar, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald, Lou Marson, Jason Knapp, Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor, Travis D'Arnaud.
That's a whole lotta nothin to get Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt in return. Maybe D'Arnaud is a player but the Phillies have Joseph and VAlle as options. The only trade I'd say the Phillies really lost was the Pence deal, who I've never been a fan of anyway and thought it was a dumb trade at the time - The point of holding onto some prospects is so you don't shell out outrageous contracts every year and commit yourself to FA as the only means to improve. Have I enjoyed watching Doc pitch for the Phils, yes but I also know he is 35 making $20 mill/yr. But I also think it is good to have a top prospect to try and plug in and see if he is for real or not from time to time. Ifnyou keeping trading your prospects each year, you are going to killed in the long run b/c ever farm runs out. thats when you lose a Johnathan singleton, Jarrod Cosert and Dom Santana . Sometimes keeping a guy who wants to prove himself is worth the money you save over a FA. , — PhillyinBmore
- I guess you missed the part of the deal that mentions Revere is only making six figures and is 5 years away from free agency. At 24 years old he basically IS a prospect, albeit one who's already playing at the major league level and producing. I'll take the proven young major league talent over the unproven minor league talent every day of the week
- Actually you missed my point of improving a team by FA vs trades & playing some of your using prospects. I liked the Lee and Halladay trades but you don't have to trade away your top prospects every year. What you need to understand is the balance of economics in the short term vs the long term. Your basic point was that RAJ has taken the correct path each year by trading before spects for high priced vets to fill the teams holes. When you do that you end up with limited financial flexibility (typically in SP) and in many cases age your team rather quickly. Hence smaller window to build a championship team that needs to tweak and not reload every year when injuries occur. Ie: phillies. By trading your prospects every year, you lack cheap depth that could pan out. Think Ryan Madison 04-07 before he became the bridge. You also run the well dry and end up losing some real prospects. Ie: Johnthan singleton. While it is true more prospects than not fail, it can also be said that having prospects around gives you plenty of options. If we don't trade for Pence, how many more options could we have knowing that singleton or ruf are ready to play in the majors and we could trade Howard and eat about 10million of his salary to make the trade wok. — PhillyinBmore
- anyone who likes this trade doesn't understand the phillies problem. its lack of power. depending on utley and howard is fantasy. howard can't layoff the bad pitches and never will learn. he will probably bat 240. his best days are gone since he refuses to learn plate discipline. we needed at least one more big bat and we got a gnat with an obp of 319, worse than rollins who never walks. and signing young eliminates any chance of beltre. this can't be spun as anything be resigning phils to a 500 club again. no way they top the natls— pojames
- agree the phils problem is lack of power. utley's power is gone. howard will still hit. i think people are giving up on the big piece a little quickly. that being said, howard is not disciplined enough so we need to get him some protection and his name is Josh Hamilton. the guy can hit. not a lot of players out there who are elite hitters. Hamilton is close and the phils need offense. the pitching, in their advanced age, and defense is no longer the way for this team to win(and actually never was, even two years ago). you need elite hitters and utley is no longer that player so we better find another. nats have one.
- I'd have been happy with Worley for Revere straight up.
Including May in the deal was a mistake. Hopefully, as others have wished, Ben will be BourneII.— Edwin Malnick
