By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
If I was going to draw up what a perfect offseason for the Philadelphia Phillies looked like, it would look pretty similar to the one that general manager Matt Klentak is currently executing. Tuesday's pickup of Clay Buccholz from the Boston Red Sox was the latest in a line of recent moves that have little risk, and potential for a fairly high reward.
Buccholz, who has flashed front-end-of-the-rotation potential at various points during his career, went 5-1 with a 3.22 ERA after the All-Star break a season ago. Health has always been an issue for the 32-year-old, but if he's able to stay healthy, he could either be dealt in a July trade or serve as a veteran innings eater in an otherwise young rotation.
The Phillies do have a ton of pitching at the upper levels of their organization, but they need to. Aaron Nola will likely be on an innings limit in 2017. Vince Velasquez has a history of health issues and has had his name floated in trade talks previously. Jeremy Hellickson and Jerad Eickhoff, at least in terms of giving you innings, are sure things, but not much else is. Jake Thompson posted a 5.70 ERA in 10 starts last year, so he will likely start the year at Triple A. Other names like Ben Lively, Zach Eflin and Alec Asher probably were going to start the season at Triple A anyway. Adam Morgan could be shifted into a bullpen role, whether that means the team just using him as a long man or trying to make him a true lefty specialist.
What Klentak has done is given the Phillies a ton of rotation depth, should injuries, underperformances or trades occur. Spoiler alert: they will.
Klentak has also upgraded the bullpen. On top of Jeanmar Gomez and Hector Neris, who had historic workloads in 2016, he's added veterans Pat Neshek and Joaquin Benoit, giving the Phillies two more mid-to-late inning options. When you consider the potential flashed by Joely Rodriguez and Edubray Ramos last year, the Phillies bullpen has a chance to be better in 2017 than it was in 2016.
Offensively, Klentak added a veteran in Howie Kendrick, which gives the team one of the professional hitters that manager Pete Mackanin desired, while also leaving right field open for Roman Quinn, Tyler Goeddel and Aaron Altherr to potentially grow. Prospects Nick Williams and Dylan Cozens are also on the horizon.
Klentak presumably has listened to offers on Cesar Hernandez and Odubel Herrera, but to this point has kept both and even signed Herrera to an extremely team-friendly contract extension that could benefit the team in a multitude of ways.
The Phillies offense may still struggle at times during the 2017 season, but the belief in the organization is that new hitting coach Matt Stairs will help Herrera and Maikel Franco to become more consistent, and other pieces like Jorge Alfaro and J.P. Crawford will eventually join a fairly talented young lineup that only should continue to improve.
Klentak and the organization were correct in not choosing to throw money at options like Ian Desmond, instead choosing to give their young talent another year to play and saving money for a potentially bigger signing after 2018.
From a more short-term perspective, Klentak has also set the Phillies up to continue to build on their already impressive farm system depth next summer. Barring surprise contention, Hellickson, Buchholz, Benoit, Gomez, Neris, Hernandez and Neshek are among some of the potential trade chips that the Phillies could have at next year's non-waiver trade deadline.
What Klentak has done thus far this offseason is balance the fine line of improving the team for the short-term, both in terms of on-field talent and veteran leadership, while setting the team up to be able to make some trades next summer and keeping the team as financially flexible as any in the league. That's the perfect approach for a team at the point that the Phillies are at now.
