Philadelphia Phillies Notes: Trade Rumors, Fixing Utley, Danys Baez and More

It has been a busy week for the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater, Florida, and for some, more than others.

While the drama in Phillies’ camp has momentarily moved away from the starting rotation, the buzz surrounding star second baseman Chase Utley has been unbelievable, as fans and personnel alike question whether he’ll begin the season on time, or whether he’ll even play at all. So what is Utley’s status?

General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr., head trainer Scott Sheridan and Utley each addressed the media today, and each echoed the same sentiment—they want to get this cleared up as soon as possible.

The evolution of Utley’s injury has been astonishing. He missed the first few games of the Grapefruit League schedule with what was described as “general soreness.” Following that, his injury was called “patellar tendinitis,” and finally today, Sheridan told the media that along with some tendinits, Utley was suffering from chondromalacia.

Understanding Utley’s injuries give us some insight to the actual gravity of the situation. While patellar tendinitis is obviously tendinitis of the knee, chondromalacia is a bit more difficult to understand. Also called “runner’s knee,” chondromalacia, in essence, is knee pain.

The injury is actually quite common among professional athletes, but doctors question whether or not Utley’s condition is a severe case. While the Phillies were traditionally tight-lipped about the future of Utley’s treatment when addressing the media, David Hale of the Courier Post recently conducted an interview with Dr. David Rubenstein, who is the head of sports medicine at Lankaneau Hospital, where he treats athletes from the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Soul.

Dr. Rubenstein’s take on the situation is much more relieving than Amaro and Sheridan first made it out to be. In an interview where he basically calls Detroit Tigers’ third baseman Brandon Inge a sissy, Rubenstein tells Hale that surgery is rarely used to treat chondromalacia, if ever.

When asked about the treatment of chondromalacia, Rubenstein said that there are two common types of injections to treat runner’s knee—steroids and artificial lubricants. I’m not a doctor, but my opinion is that Utley will be having one of, or both, of these injections within the next few days. If that doesn’t work, Utley will go under the knife.

Well, actually, he won’t. The surgery, according to Rubenstein, is an arthroscopic procedure that takes all of 15 minutes. He also says that the “four to six” week time-line we’ve been hearing about is bogus. Though everyone recovers at different speeds, Utley would be on crutches for a few days and ready to start working out again in about two weeks.

In my opinion, the sky is not falling, Chicken Little. Utley will play this season, and if I may offer a bold prediction—by Opening Day.

The prospect of Utley sitting on the shelf for a while has kicked up a flurry of trade rumors, however. Today on MLBTradeRumors, Tim Dierkes took a look at possible replacements for Utley, should the Phillies need  to explore their trade avenues.

Heading his list of possible candidates, Dierkes lists Chone Figgins, Jeff Keppinger, David Eckstein, Michael Young, Felipe Lopez, Luis Castillo and Ramon Santiago as possible replacements for Utley, and only a few of those seem like actual possibilities.

With the Phillies’ payroll having come into question in the past few days, most notably by Ken Rosenthal of FOXsports.com, players with big contracts seem to be out of the equation, removing Figgins and Young from the list, though Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Phillies have scouts following Young.

The most likely possibility is Eckstein, who is currently a free agent. Signing him to a minor league contract wouldn’t hurt the Phillies any. He’s a scrappy player who fits right in to the Phillies style, and at the very least, he provides competition for Wilson Valdez in that super-utility role.

On to some good news! I will now be taking full responsibility for fixing Danys Baez! (End sarcasm)

Last week, I wrote a story on Phillies’ non-roster invitee Matt Anderson, and how one of the major roadblocks on his path to the major leagues was Baez. Needless to say, ever since I started discrediting Baez, he’s figured something out with his mechanics. At the time the article was published, he had just received a shellacking from a squad composed of Toronto Blue Jays’ minor leaguers.

Since the article has been posted, he’s thrown 4 1/3 scoreless innings for the Phillies. “I feel like I have a better angle on the ball right now,” said Baez, who is entering a contract year with the Phillies. “I feel I’m in control of the pitch and the ball. My first outing against Toronto was tough. I realized I needed to try something else.” Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s about time I begin working my magic on Utley’s knee!

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