Earlier tonight, the Phillies acquired Ty Wigginton from the Rockies. Here are a batch of links regarding the 2011 NL East champs, as well as an interesting tidbit on the Phils' previous history with Wiggy …
- Having signed Jonathan Papelbon and traded for Wigginton, the Phillies' primary focus is now filling shortstop, according to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. The Phils are "in negotiations" with Rollins, Salisbury reports, as well as other free-agent shortstops. GM Ruben Amaro Jr. characterized talks with Rollins as "slow" and said that he doesn't expect to have a shortstop signed by the outset of the Winter Meetings on Dec. 5.
- The Phils remain in search of an outfielder, according to Salisbury, so it's possible that they could still sign Michael Cuddyer, although it'd probably have to be on team-friendly terms.
- Finally, Salisbury notes the Phillies have long coveted Wigginton and tried to acquire him in 2010, when he was with the Orioles.
- Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer suggests that the Phils should re-sign Raul Ibanez, a favorite of both fans and Amaro, for something like one year and $4MM, as he could be useful as a platoonmate with the right-handed-hitting John Mayberry Jr. in left field.
- Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer examines the various ways the new CBA may affect the Phillies. One interesting possibility put forth by Gelb is that the Phils could become the first NL team in history to go over the luxury tax, which will be frozen at $178MM in 2012 under the new CBA rather than being increased by the usual $8MM anually.
Terrible suggestion on the part of Brookover. All Ibanez has left is power against bad righthanded pitching.
Wouldn’t mind Kubel but I don’t know if he’d accept a limited role. Sizemore is off the table or will be soon, so I’m not sure who they should target to be the lefty bat to back up Mayberry.
i noticed your name change..
I figured I’d get the Four out of there so that people would stop mentioning it every time I commented on something Oswalt related.
haha yeah good idea. save the hassle.
That happened about a month ago, didn’t it. Maybe less…
Johnny Gomes destroys lefties…Oer 300 avg and 400 OBP
Mayberry is a righty. They need a left handed bat to platoon with him, hence the ridiculous Ibanez suggestion
I could be wrong, but I don’t see Cuddyer agreeing to a “team-friendly” contract.
Well yea but it just says that if the Phillies were to sign him, it would have to be team friendly. If Cuddyer has some secret fetish for the Phillies or is from Philly I don’t know why he would agree to a team friendly contract.
Cuddyer was born in Virginia. The only link I see between Cuddyer and the Phillies is his friendship with Jim Thome.
I want to see us get a one year deal done with a guy like alex gonzalez, just to step in while Galvis continues to get ready
I’d rather just let Galvis come up than sign Alex.
I wouldn’t mind them trading for Jason Bartlett depending on what the ask would be.
Eh, id trade a RP prospect like Schwimer, but that’s it.
I wouldn’t give up anything major for him either, might be a name to keep an eye on.
I like Galvis better than anybody else on the market though. (besides Rollins and Reyes, obviously).
Still ticked, I wanted JJ Hardy..damn you Orioles. Still hoping they trade him after this year.
I was disappointed when I saw the Red Sox pick up Scutaro’s option. Thought he would have been a good stop gap option.
I think the padres are concerned about his 2013 option vesting so I think they’re more eager to trade him than they lead on.
I think the padres are concerned about his 2013 option vesting so I think they’re more eager to trade him than they lead on.
Bartlett wouldn’t be bad. Since all it’d take is money, I keep coming back to Clint Barmes if we can’t get Jimmy back.
Raul is a fan favorite or Brookover favorite? For the love of god don’t give into Jimmy, the team is old enough. They weren’t a Ty Wigginton away from a championship last year
Debatable. They didn’t have a capable back up to put in offensively for Polanco when he was struggling in the NLDS. Their bench was pretty bad offensively last year.
Or he could have given them the option of ending Polanco’s season with sports hernia surgery in September. Who knows?
Yeah, they were a cliff lee away…….
Or a Braves win…
Come on amaro cant be a big fan of ibanez, or the phillie faithful for that matter? Hes too damn old
Well, at least the local tobacco industry is a big fan of his
There was this local interview with Raul and he discussed that he had adapted to a gluten-free diet for his health. Yet he still gnaws on dip like it was going out of style.
His cheek seems to get bigger and bigger with every game hahaha
Should Rollins go elsewhere.. Jed lowrie could be a possibility here. Philly has Utley to cover some of his lack of range and Lowrie would more than make up for rollins bat lately *IF* he can stay healthy.
If the want to stay on the money saving end..Could always go with Alex Gonzalez for 1 year.
You have to think that Amaro is smart enough not to go longer than 3 years for sure on Rollins.
what would you see going back to the sox ?
Kendrick at best and (gulp) Blanton if they cannot find anything on the market, or think they won’t find anything to come and hope he can at least pitch like he did in 2009 and 2010. Have a normal, horrible #5 SP like the rest of the teams do in MLB.
It would suit the NYY right and match him up against Burnett in every series if possible and am pretty sure, even with the loss of Oswalt the Phillies would love to be rid of the remaining 17m on his contract through 2013, on top of his being injured most of last season.
Kendrick is someone have liked for a few seasons and a change of scenery may do him good. Moving to the BP seemed to rejuvenate him and he has maybe found his niche, so that may be out of the question here, no Ramon Martinez type of pickup for a couple of years like they got in the Crisp deal perhaps.
I do see Lowrie being moved this off season and for an eventual 4-5 SP, or swing guy in the Kendrick mold.. Question is…Which team?? SS are in very low supply and Lowrie plays 2B/SS/3B, with SS being his weakest.. Somebody will take a flyer on him and should he stay health will get a superb bat.
Blanton basically has negative trade value. Why would the Red Sox give up on Lowrie to take on Blanton at $10MM+? They could sign someone better than him on the FA market for 1/2 that price and keep Lowrie.
was thinking Blanton as emergency.
Blanton might be one of those cases where going back to the AL would actually help and Philly would have to pay say.. half of the remaining 9m also.
Blanton would not be a worse option than bringing back Wake and scouting around options out there.. He can give innings.. Albeit 5th starter types.
Kendrick at best and (gulp) Blanton if they cannot find anything on the market, or think they won’t find anything to come and hope he can at least pitch like he did in 2009 and 2010. Have a normal, horrible #5 SP like the rest of the teams do in MLB.
It would suit the NYY right and match him up against Burnett in every series if possible and am pretty sure, even with the loss of Oswalt the Phillies would love to be rid of the remaining 17m on his contract through 2013, on top of his being injured most of last season.
Kendrick is someone have liked for a few seasons and a change of scenery may do him good. Moving to the BP seemed to rejuvenate him and he has maybe found his niche, so that may be out of the question here, no Ramon Martinez type of pickup for a couple of years like they got in the Crisp deal perhaps.
I do see Lowrie being moved this off season and for an eventual 4-5 SP, or swing guy in the Kendrick mold.. Question is…Which team?? SS are in very low supply and Lowrie plays 2B/SS/3B, with SS being his weakest.. Somebody will take a flyer on him and should he stay health will get a superb bat.
To say that $4 million would be better spent elsewhere is too easy. Ibanez is done.
Yeah, whoever suggested spending $4 mil for one year on a platoon player needs to get a new job.
Brookover is among the WORST sports writers in Philadelphia. Please take anything he writes with a grain of salt.
Gee, it sounds like the Phillies are going with fifteen hitters and a ten man pitching staff, which includes the five starters. A five-man bullpen would be different. lol. I guess when you have Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Worley, and prospect, the bullpen is only needed once every four days anyways. Just think of all the complete games those guys could throw and if they falter, you summon Papalbon 162 times from the pen.
Do the Phils even have a backup plan if they can’t sign Rollins or is their plan to just throw as much money as possible at him until he signs?
betancourt is available..
You might want to know the story before you start yapping about cliched money stuff. The Phillies have a 21 yr old shortstop who finished last season in AAA. His defense has been major league ready for a while now, his offense finally started coming around last season. Most scouts/insiders think he’s still a season away from being major league ready though.
I’ll believe the Phillies actually starting a rookie shortstop when I see it. Domonic Brown was a top prospect as well, but they never played him. Manuel favors vets and Ruben loves to pay them, so that’s what I see happening.
I like the pointless comment. Clearly if we were just throwing money at him a deal would be struck already. The fact that talks are “slow” means there aren’t on the same page money/length wise. Just continue to be upset that your city stopping having an national influence 50 years ago, while other cities in PA thrive.
to MLBtraderumors editors,
Is there any chance of getting all of this CBA stuff together in one spot once there is an agreement signed?
the words ‘covet’ and ‘Wigginton’ don’t belong in the same sentence