Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said his team would scout Carlos Zambrano at some point but told CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury that reports out of Venezuela that the team had reached an agreement with the veteran hurler were "ridiculously premature." FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link) reported earlier today that the Phils weren't in the process of signing Zambrano and if they did check in on him, it could be something of a due diligence scouting move.
With Roy Halladay and John Lannan both on the disabled list, Amaro said earlier this week that he was in the market for starting pitching help. Zambrano would fit the bill as a low-cost veteran who could eat some innings for the Phillies, though Zambrano spent the last two months of the 2012 season pitching out of the Marlins' bullpen. Zambrano didn't draw any interest in the offseason and even explored signing in Taiwan before he signed a deal to pitch for the independent Long Island Ducks on Wednesday.
Zambrano has a 4.66 ERA over 278 innings with the Marlins and Cubs over the last two seasons. He has generated as many headlines about his temper and other off-the-field issues as he has about his pitching, but Zambrano is still just 31 years old and has three top-five finishes in NL Cy Young voting to his name.
