Tuesday afternoon delivered some surprising news when the Phillies announced that they have signed soon-to-be 40-year old outfielder Bobby Abreu to a minor-league deal. Abreu, who will be 40 in March, has not played in the major leagues since 2012.
This move is laughable for a variety of reasons. I know that the team isn’t signing Abreu with the idea that he’ll be a savior of any kind, but its the same type of head-scratching signing that Ruben Amaro has made over the last few years. To me, this moves signifies that Amaro learned nothing from the Jim Thome signing. When the Phils brought Thome back a couple of years ago, they had the idea that he was going to be able to contribute as an everyday player, filling in at first base while Ryan Howard recovered from his injury. The team learned all too quickly that Thome was no longer capable of playing the field, and was really only suited for a DH role at that point in his career. As a pinch-hitter in the National League, Thome was able to bring very little to the table.
The same can be said for Abreu. At this point in his career, if he still has a place in the major leagues, its as a DH. If he makes the team, he’s going to be wasting a roster spot because the team will only be able to use him as a hitter and won’t be able to trust him in the outfield. And by the way, there’s a reason no other major league team brought Abreu in last season…his skills have been in decline.
When you look at the job that Amaro has done to improve this team, its really hard to feel any kind of optimism that 2014 will be any different from the last two seasons.
During the offseason, the Phillies have added Marlon Byrd, catcher Will Nieves, reliever Brad Lincoln, and now Abreu.
That’s not exactly a dramatic improvement. An old team has gotten older, and there’s been no infusion of youth into either the lineup or pitching rotation. The league’s worst bullpen doesn’t look any better.
Is that not enough good news for you? Well John Mayberry is coming back for another year! So is Kyle Kendrick. And Jimmy Rollins isn’t going anywhere because he has records to break!
For the Phillies to succeed in 2014, they’re going to have to rely on a lot of “ifs” breaking their way.
IF Chase Utley’s knees can miraculously hold together like they did last year, he might have something left! IF Ryan Howard is finally healthy, he might hit 30 home runs and drive in over 100 runs! IF one of the young bullpen arms can take a step forward, or IF Mike Adams can stay healthy (ha!) the bullpen might be better!
It’s the same tired storylines that we’ve become all too familiar with from this team over the last three years.
When I think of this whole situation, I hear Joe Banner’s voice in my head reminding me that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
The other thing that really bothers me about the Abreu signing is that potentially committing a roster spot to him is going to block a younger player from making the major league roster. Its the same mistake that the team made a year ago when they brought in Delmon Young. Amaro decided to commit the right field job to Young, and did so at the expense of Darin Ruf. Ruf spent the first half of the year rotting in the minor leagues, and only got a chance to play when the team was out of the race. Ruf did a decent job, hitting 14 homers despite limited playing time.
You could argue that the Phillies may very well not have a prospect worthy of that roster spot at the moment, but you have to ask yourself, at what point does this team think about getting younger? Amaro only seems interested in adding players on the wrong side of 30 to the roster. He won’t let any of the aging stars move on after re-signing Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Carlos Ruiz to multi-year deals over the last two years. Heck, if Roy Halladay didn’t decide to retire on his own, it’d be a good bet that Amaro would have brought him back too.
I don’t know how Ruben Amaro can really say with confidence that he’s putting a better product on the field than he did a year ago.
Slap in the face man this guy is an arrogant, unprofessional waste of trash he has no friggin clue than again maybe he does if u know what i mean
I was questioning if Reuben had any idea how to put a decent young roster together. O.K. He has answered that question with a resounding nooooo! The thought process behind consistently bringing in these older players and retreads makes me believe he is hoping to catch lightening in a bottle. Nope, he will not even catch static in a bottle with this squad he’s assembling.
Denny glad you have some sense unlike gary who thinks this was a good signing
I don’t know, maybe Ruben is trying to get a show on the ‘Comedy Channel’…
I understood picking up veteran spare parts to add to your aging core of players up until 2011. At that point, it was time to move on and rebuild. The opportunity was there to let the aging/underperforming veteran contracts expire, starting with Rollins when he was up. I guarantee Galvis could play just as good at SS and give you the pedestrian .252, 6HR, 39RBI & 22 SB and he wouldn’t even cry about not “leading off”. As much as I like him, Utley should have been traded for a prospect or two last summer to a contending team. We could have negotiated in the off-season as a FA if he wanted to come back. Instead, we gave him a multi-year deal. Same with Lee, who at 35 this season the slide will inevitably begin soon and his trade value diminishes. This off-season, 35 y/o Ruiz could have been off the books, but he gets a multi-year/NTC deal. Than they sign PED Byrd, sexual assaultist Gaudin and now Abreu? I’d rather win 60 games with young prospects and tradable veterans with an eye to the future than win the same 60 games with this ancient, un-tradable cast and no future in sight. This roster is laughable.
The funny thing is Bobby Abreus last year in the majors would of lead the Phillies on OBP.lol He is ripping up the Venezuelan league and probably comes here and leads the team in OBP with walks and quality at bats at the age of 40. That shows you how flawed our lineup is.
True dag and good point
The fact that amaro signed this guy shows how bad of a job amaro has done since replacing Gillick
Remember, on of the earliest Gillick moves was to get rid of Abreu, so the Phillies have now come full circle back to mediocrity
Good job Reuben
Paulman’s 2014 NL East Predictions
1) Nationals (94-68)
2) Braves (89-73)
3) Mets (84-78)
4) Marlins (79-83)
5) PHILLIES (74-88)
By June, Phils will be 13-14 Games out by mid June and by Trade Dead-Line in July will be approaching 18-20 Games out …
Players that will be Traded and or given away for Prospects to Playoff Contending Teams
Pitcher Cliff Lee
Reliver Jon Papelbon
Reliever Mike Adams
SS Jimmy Rollins
1B Ryan Howard will Retire by Season’s after another leg Injury sets him back
The Phils are about to enter a 3-5 Year Stretch where they are one the worst Teams in the NL and will struggle to get back to eve .500 Ball
Thanks for the encouraging words Paulman.
Unfortunately, you may be right.
***MLB News***
NY Yankees Sign RHP Tanaka on a 7 Year – $155 Deal..
Not to be outdone, Phils GM Ruben Amaro annouce’s the Signing of
RHP Chan-Ho-Park to a 3 Year $44 Million Deal…..
Atleast our bullpen is looking better this year than it did last year. I can’t say I ever felt comfortable last year when they were bringing any of their relievers outside of bastardo.
However, I’m still confused about what they are doing with this outfield. Does Ruf get put back on bench even though down the stretch last year he was arguably our most consistent hitter? Are we going to trust that Dom Brown is the real deal instead of trading him for valuable prospects while his stock is high? And are asche or franco going into the season as our only potential 3rd basemen? Reuben is killing this team right now!!!
The Chan-Ho-Park signing is a decent signing but I think we could have gotten a better quality right hander for that money. Regardless, it sures up the starting 5 rotation going into spring training.
Dude chan ho park has been out of baseball for four years… That was Paul’s ‘wit’
‘Doh!
Got Ya Seansyh …. Ha Ha… Was just being Sarcastic, though it would not surprise me one bit to hear Amaro was reaching out for Chan-Ho Park …
You dont need a crystal ball to know they aint making 500 or getting rid of lee plus they gonna be bums for 3-5 yrs well I say more like 5-10 or till amaro and the stooge brigade goes. He thinks he can compete with this fukin bunch of sandlot old beatup retreaded no clue no talent sorry excuse for a make believe majorleague team average age gonna be 40 by time they fire the crumb if they do.Everybody in southphilly should boycott going to senior citizens bank to watch the geriactric bunch make believe they are playing baseball!
I don’t even have the energy to spew venom at this retarded, @$$backwards GM, & organization anymore. My warranted vitriol, has been well documented on here, towards Ruin 2morrow, & his ineptness, & lack of qualifications, to be an MLB GM. Right now I am in a state of total apathy, towards this organization, & until the corpses who run this team, get there heads out of their pruned @$$e$, & fire this useless stump as a GM, & put someone other than Montgomery as the organizational poster boy, that won’t change. They live in a world of blind loyalty, & if WE didn’t put up the tax $$$$, to give them a stadium, they still would be the disgraceful, cheap bastards, that they always were! I wish Middleton would convince the rest to sell him their shares, & fire Montgomery & Ruin 2morrow!
they fired wheeler that was a good thing —
you know Rollins and Bowa will get into a fight so that could be entertaining —
I stopped caring about the Phils when they fired Charile. Charlie did what no one could do for 100 straight sport season since Billy Cunningham (win it all)