Phillies Rumors: Fact or Fiction on All the Hottest Rumors in Philadelphia

If this offseason has taught us anything, it’s that baseball is unpredictable. 

From the moment the regular season ended, the Philadelphia Phillies had a clear set of needs. In the post-Shane Victorino era, they needed a center fielder and were favorites to land a free agent from among names like Michael Bourn, Angel Pagan and Josh Hamilton. 

Didn’t happen. 

Instead, the Phillies refused to overpay for a big name free agent and waited the market out, finally striking an eleventh hour trade with the Minnesota Twins to acquire outfielder Ben Revere in exchange for pitchers Vance Worley and Trevor May.

With their center field situation solved (and for cheap), the Phillies then turned their attention to adding a setup man, an affordable starting pitcher, a third baseman and a corner outfielder. While Michael Young appears to be in the Phillies’ future, this is a club that still has some work to do. 

Now that the Phillies have a few dollars to spend, the rumor mill is churning in full force once again. Who are some of the players that could legitimately wind up in Philadelphia? Which rumors are completely fabricated? Only one way to find out.

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25 Offseason Moves the Philadelphia Phillies Can Make in the 2014 Market

The 2013 offseason hasn’t exactly gone the way the Philadelphia Phillies drew it up. They came into the winter in need of a center fielder, a third baseman, a setup man and possibly, a corner outfielder and were on the verge of leaving baseball’s notorious winter meetings with none of the above before an eleventh hour trade for former Minnesota Twins outfielder Ben Revere.

Is it too soon to look ahead to the 2014 offseason? 

Well, in this sport, it’s never too soon to look ahead, but this slideshow has little to do with the shortcomings of the Phillies’ front office this winter. It’s more about taking a look at what could become a landmark offseason for this club. 

In players like Roy Halladay, Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz, the Phillies could have a ton of money coming off of the books. There are free agents available that could receive a big payday from a club like the Phils and trade targets that should become more available. 

If you thought the 2013 offseason was interesting, just wait until 2014. The Phillies will be one year away from a mammoth TV deal and be faced with several of the classes’ top free agents given the opportunity to jump ship. 

What are the Phillies going to do? 

Glad you asked. Consider this slideshow as a bit of a primer and a reminder. Here are 25 players (and reasons) to be excited about the 2014 offseason. Oh, the possibilities! 

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Phillies Rumors: ‘Fact or Fiction’ on All the Hottest Rumors in Philadelphia

Any time you put baseball’s most prominent front office executives, owners, agents and free agents under the same roof, you can expect a storm of rumors—some believable, some not so much—to be tossed about the Internet like a rag doll.

Welcome to Major League Baseball’s winter meetings. 

The Philadelphia Phillies arrived in Nashville, Tennessee this week—site of baseball’s winter meetings—with not a single need scratched off of their to-do list. Normally, that would be troublesome, but this is a deep free-agent market as far as they are concerned. 

With Michael Bourn, Angel Pagan, Josh Hamilton and Shane Victorino still on the market, the Phillies are confident they can find a center fielder. Could Kevin Youkilis play third base? Will the Phillies find their setup man on the open market or attempt to swing another trade? 

These are all questions that could be answered this week, so with that in mind, what better time to update you on the “fact or fiction” of all the latest rumors surrounding the Phillies?

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25 Players the Philadelphia Phillies Should Target at the Winter Meetings

Major League Baseball’s winter meetings have become an annual source of offseason news and a rumor bonanza, and the Philadelphia Phillies are expected to be one of this winter’s most involved clubs. 

The Phillies, who set out to fill three positions—center field, third base and setup man—have come up empty so far this offseason. Now there is plenty of time remaining before spring training and the Phillies still have options, but there is no doubt that the countdown is own. 

Because each team sends an entourage of personnel to the winter meetings, they’ve become a popular source of rumors and “reach for the stars” kind of deals. The Phillies could use one of those right now. 

This slideshow will serve as a primer for the winter meetings from a Phillies perspective. This is a list of who they should target and why. If a player appears on this list, it means that he is a player that I believe the Phillies should do their best to acquire.

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Selecting the Philadelphia Phillies’ All-Time Free-Agent Bust Team

When owners of Major League Baseball teams give their general managers millions of dollars to spend on the free agent market, it’s kind of like giving money to a kid who wants candy. You tell them not to spend it all in one place, but know they’re going to do it anyway. 

And that’s because the free agent market is a fickle mistress. Like any good gamble, one pull of the handle could send you home with your pockets weighed to the floor or broke like a joke. 

The Philadelphia Phillies must know the feeling. The free agent market has changed since its inception. Teams no longer pay for past production. They pay for what a prospective free agent could do for them in the future. Nowadays, it’s easy to go broke. 

But one fundamental aspect of the free agent market that has never changed is that it is incredibly easy for you to spend millions of dollars on a single player and not be guaranteed that he is going to produce at the highest level. Is that the way the cookie crumbles? 

Some free agents are just “busts”—and for the sake of this slideshow—we will define a “bust” as a player who came to the city of Philadelphia with a certain level of expectations and did not perform up par. That’s it. There are no qualifiers other than that, but obviously, certain players are “busts” at different levels, so keep that in mind. 

We will pick a free agent “bust” at every position that you would normally build a 25-man roster with and hope that history doesn’t repeat itself. 

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Ranking the Philadelphia Phillies’ 25 Most Likely Offseason Moves

General managers and their crew of front office cronies have spent the last month or so sweet-talking free agents and laying the groundwork for major trades. Now, with the annual Winter Meetings rounding into focus, it’s about time they put their money where their mouth is. 

Ruben Amaro Jr. and company came into the offseason knowing that the Philadelphia Phillies have a specific set of needs: center fielder, third baseman and setup man, likely in that order. Until the moment those voids are filled, we can only wonder—who are they going to sign? 

When you look at a team like the Phillies this winter, we can build a ranking of who they are most likely to sign and which free agents are on the other end of the spectrum. They’re operating on a limited budget, are locked into contracts at most positions and have very specific areas of need. 

So with that in mind, let’s rank them. The following list will start at number 25 and list a player that the Phillies are not likely to acquire, culminating in number one—the player that the Phillies are most likely to wind up with when the offseason is over.

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Phillies Rumors: Fact or Fiction on All the Hottest Rumors in Philadelphia

With the annual Winter Meetings set to kick off on December 3, the rumor mill is about to shift into overdrive, and you don’t want to be caught in the middle of the road when this thing gets going. 

The meetings—designed to give each team’s executives an opportunity to speak with not only each other, but some of the top free agents and their representation—have become a rumor bonanza over the last couple of seasons. The week leading up to the annual meetings is normally all about “laying the groundwork.” 

The Philadelphia Phillies are expected to be among the most active teams over the next couple weeks. They have a huge gap to fill in center field, and until they fill it, you can’t count them 100 percent out on any given player. 

They have the money. They have the need. 

And that’s only the biggest hole in this Phillies roster. They’ll also be in the market for a third baseman and a setup man, as well as on other, smaller fronts, like the corner outfield market. 

With the Winter Meetings quickly rounding into focus, you could call this the “calm before the storm,” but if the rumor mill never takes on a single attribute, it’s calm. Let this slide show serve as a tool of either debunking or confirming the hottest rumors coming out of Philly. 

Each player will either be labeled fact (meaning the Phillies have a legitimate interest and an opportunity to acquire said player in a reasonable fashion) or fiction (bringing said player to town is outside the realm of possibility). 

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Grading Ruben Amaro Jr.’s 25 Biggest Offseason Moves as Phillies GM

No one is ever going to accuse a general manager of a Major League Baseball team of having an easy job, namely because when someone needs to shoulder the blame (or reap the benefits), it falls on the guy who is responsible for putting the team together. 

As with any position with an ounce of power and responsibility, when things go well, you’re a great general manager. When things go wrong, it’s all your fault. 

Ruben Amaro Jr. is a man who has experienced both ends of the spectrum as the GM of the Philadelphia Phillies. He took over following a World Series title in 2008 and missed the postseason in one of the team’s most highly anticipated seasons in 2012. 

Now, with an aging core and few prospects ready to step up as reinforcements, Amaro has his work cut out for him this offseason. With several holes to fill and limited resources, he’ll need to be both smart and savvy. 

Is he up to the task? One way to find out is to take a look back at his offseason history. Amaro has a long history of offseason moves with the Phillies and now, it’s time to slap a grade on them. 

Each move will be graded on the following attributes: Performance and contract. 

That’s it. Did Amaro get the perfect amount of bang for his buck? Let’s take a look.

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Selecting the Philadelphia Phillies’ All-Time Free Agent Team

Signing a free agent isn’t easy. 

It’s a transaction process in Major League Baseball made out to look like a piece of cake. Have a team offer a player as much money as they can and hope that he signs on the dotted line, but it’s so much more than that. 

Free agency was designed, at it’s core, to give players options—rights. After accruing the necessary amount of service time, players are allowed to hit the open market and make a decision for themselves on where they want to play next. 

From a team perspective, it’s a bit different. Free agency becomes about retaining your own players and trying to better your club by making offers to others. It becomes a parade of why a given player should sign with your team; how they can make you better. 

Some people will make it out to be easy from time to time. It’s not. If any team knows this, it’s the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Free agency has not been kind to the Phillies in the past because while they have found some real keepers, free agency has broken their hearts more than once. 

So while Ruben Amaro Jr. and company attempts to restock the Phillies through the free agent market this winter, let us take a look at the past. I’ve assembled the Phillies all-time “free agent” team. 

That means that I have assembled a 25-man roster of players who signed exclusively as free agents. For the sake of fairness, this list will not include amateur free agents.

*All statistics refer to a player’s career with the Phillies only.

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Phillies Rumors: Fact or Fiction on All the Hottest Rumors in Philadelphia

True or false? Fact or fiction? 

We are not even a full month into the offseason, and already we have seen the Philadelphia Phillies linked to almost every warm body capable of playing center field or third base—and those aren’t their only holes to fill. 

With so much technology and a constant stream of information flowing about the offseason in today’s game, it is important to approach the winter with a grain of salt and a heaping helping of common sense. 

The Phillies are more than a professional sports team. They’re also a business. They operate under a budget and cannot overspend in certain areas while leaving other portions of the club bare, so keep that in mind when you hear them linked to guys like Zack Greinke, for example, whom they will not be signing. 

So who do the Phillies have interest in? Glad you asked. 

The slideshow will go through all of the popular rumors in Philadelphia and attempt to interpret which ones are “fact” and others that are “fiction. 

If a player receives the “fact” label, it does not mean that he is going to sign with the Phillies. It means that the opportunity exits and is plausible. On the other hand, if a player is labeled “fiction,” do not expect to see him with the Phillies next season.

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