Not Your Usual Horse Trader

Now we know the answer to the question, “What does $500,000 buy in MLB anymore?” Terry Adams. Let us hope this move -- re-signing a guy the Phils didn’t want a year earlier -- isn’t their final one of the off-season. By the way, the Phillies are Adams’ sixth team in ten years and fourth (including the two stints here) in a single year. Very inspiring.

Ed Wade is trying to put the best face on the Phillies modest off-season acquisitions in light of the high-profile signings in New York and Atlanta, but he doesn’t sound very convincing. The guess here, though, is he is finished. The most likely candidate to be traded remains Placido Polanco, who clearly should be a starter by any standard but won’t be in Philadelphia, and one possible destination would be Arizona, which needs a second baseman and currently has a pitcher, Javier Vazquez, whom the Phillies covet. Vazquez, who prior to his trade from the Yankees in the Randy Johnson deal publicly stated he wanted to pitch on the East Coast, would be a welcome addition to the Phillies staff, but if the Phils acquired the young right-hander, who goes? Randy Wolf or Brett Myers would seem to be the likely candidates if such a trade were made, but where would they go and for whom? The Phils appear “set” in centerfield, their most glaring off-season need among position players until they signed stop-gap veteran Kenny Lofton. The only other position about which there has been speculation is catcher and Mike Lieberthal’s big contract remains a major obstacle to moving him.

So, Ed Wade has maneuvered himself into a corner again. When Polanco accepted arbitration, that was the first major surprise for the Phillies. It seems doubtful in hindsight the Phils would have made offers to Cory Lidle and John Lieber had they known Polanco would be available to trade. The equally quick move to sign Lofton smacked of Wade’s usual panicked approach and, again, he is stuck with the 37-year old center fielder for now.

The Phils still have needs and the means to fill them. But they lack the savvy to do so.