The Philadelphia Phillies came into this season as the favorites to win The National League Eastern Division for a sixth consecutive season. During the span, The Phillies made two appearances in The World Series while winning it all in 2008. The Phillies won 102 games last year and they seemed poised to make it back to The World Series until they were upset in The National League Division Series by the eventual World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals. Worse than the loss was that All-Star first baseman Ryan Howard ruptured his Achilles tendon in the game five loss. This put Howard out of action until July 6.
Recently The Phillies have sported one of the better starting rotations in baseball. Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, and Roy Oswalt all have the potential to be 20-game winners as they put fear into batters in The NL. After 2011, Oswalt left in free agency to join The Texas Rangers while Lee and Halladay have spent time on the disabled list this season. Philadelphia has put a potential All-Star team on the disabled list this year as chronic knee problems prevented All-Star second baseman Chase Utley from making his season debut until June 27.
The Phils have found themselves in last place of The NL East for the majority of the season while they have seen the upstart Washington Nationals take control of the division. Subsequently, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has started the process of dumping salaries in the hopes of getting young prospects in return.
Prior to the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31, Amaro traded All-Star outfielder Shane Victorino to The Los Angeles Dodgers for Josh Lindblom and Ethan Martin. Outfielder Hunter Pence was traded to The San Francisco Giants in exchange for outfielder Nate Schierholtz and minor leaguers Tommy Joseph and Seth Rosin. After the trade deadline, Amaro put starting pitcher Joe Blanton on waivers as he was picked up by The Dodgers. Amaro also put Lee on waivers as he was claimed by The Dodgers as well, but the two sides could not agree on compensation for the former Cy Young Award winner.
The Phillies came into this season with a payroll over $174 million which was only trumped by The New York Yankees payroll of $198 million. Philadelphia already has $123.5 million committed to next year’s payroll in the form of Howard, Utley, Hamels, Lee, Halladay, shortstop Jimmy Rollins and closer Jonathan Papelbon. All of these players are over 30-years of age and Amaro knows that it is time for this team to get younger.
Amaro traded young prospects such as J.A. Happ and Michael Bourn to The Houston Astros to acquire Oswalt and Pence respectively. Now he must start over as it will be tough to take on another big contract, especially since The Phillies gave Hamels a six-year, $144 million extension on July 24. Hamels’ contract hurt The Phillies more due to the fact that the team could have signed him last year for nearly half of the amount that he received.
In the case of The Phillies as opposed to other teams is that they were able to hoist The World Series Trophy once with their core of Hamels, Utley, Rollins, and Howard as some teams never get that opportunity. The additions of players such as Halladay and Lee were good because The Phillies were in a “win-now” mode. Since 2009, Amaro has put all of his chips in the middle of the table and he has lost. Now he must save his money to be once again be a player at baseball’s poker table.
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