If there was a vote for Team Most Likely to Make a Trade as Spring Training comes to a close, it would likely be the Phillies that would win. An excess of starting pitching and an ever-growing lack of depth in the bullpen makes the team a target for trade rumors.
But, according to general manager Pat Gillick, Phillies fans shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for a move. Gillick told the local scribes that he doesn’t expect to make a deal for a reliever prior to the start of the season and that one of the excess starters will have to go to the bullpen.
Last year at this time, the Phillies most glaring need was a left-handed bat off the bench and just before the team came back north, Gillick was able to land David Dellucci. So, despite Gillick’s pessimism, this situation bears watching over the next few days and weeks.
Don’t forget, Gillick sometimes has bouts of pessimism, after all, he is the one that in July of 2006 didn’t feel the Phillies could compete for anything until 2008.
Tom Goyne is the author of Balls, Sticks, & Stuff, a Phillies-centric blog and maintains the Phloggers’ Pheeds page, a source for the latest commentary from around the "phlogosphere".
