Domonic Brown, Ben Revere, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Jon Pettibone. If you're on this list, you're sticking around, at least if I were the GM. If you're named Galvis, Hernandez, Ruf, or Asche, prepare to be here a month from now. Everybody else, buckle up.
The Philadelphia Phillies are 9.5 games out of first, and 39-44, or also only 3.5 games better than the Mets. They're 7.5 games out of the Wild Card. They're heading to Pittsburgh to get a total beating this week. I understand that you don't trade before July 4th very often, but if I'm the Phillies, I'm wheeling and dealing as soon as I can. This team can be rebuilt quickly, and that process moves even faster if we bring some of the AAA kids in for August and see if they can play major league ball before the off-season. If we know early that Cesar Hernandez is or isn't the second baseman of the future, that allows us to decide if some of the $50 million in money that isn't paid out for next year yet is needed at second base. We stink anyway, who cares how bad we stink? If we have a better idea of what we have, we're further along in the process of piecing this together. Move any really bad contracts (Papelbon is most likely), move out old players who are leaving (Chooch, Chase, the Youngs), and any players who's values probably won't rise (Kendrick, Bastardo), and let's see what we have.
Also, while we're at it, sit Charlie down and tell him that we want to see these guys play. Yes, every day for Ben Revere, and hit him leadoff so we know where he's at. When Cesar and Galvis are back, let's see more of them. We're not a good team, but we should find out if we might be later.
No, I'm not saying we're going to give away all of these guys, or that we should even. I'd trade Jimmy Rollins, but only for a good package. I'd trade Ryan Howard, but I'd probably have to get at least $30-40 million in contract relief (which is why he won't be traded). Obviously don't do destructive stuff, but move on. We're at that point. Just move on from this era.
