Staff Blog
What If? Manny Could’ve been a Phillie
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Jayson Stark takes us down memory lane to a time when Manny was on the trading block and looks at one of the potential trade partners: The Phils.
Let’s play a little game of what-if. What if the world had spun a little bit differently in July?
Back in July, Phillies officials constantly denied they were actively pursuing Manny. But now that we’ve had 2½ months to sort out what really happened, it’s clear they were actually a lot more interested back then than they ever let on.In fact, executives of several teams have reported that they were told by Red Sox officials that, for a while there, Philadelphia was the place they most expected Ramirez to end up.
Stark then looks at what happened and while I know this sounds crazy in the wake of Manny’s half season – I’m happy it didn’t go through.
What held the deal up:
- The Phils didn’t want to give up Lou Marson, which says a lot about what they think of the kid. If he’s a player, its a smart move. Marson is like 12, and while I’m higher on Chooch and Coste than most, they’re not a long term answer. Sweet Lou could be.
- Pat Burrell would not have been part of the deal (this part seems odd) so the Phils would have had to play Manny in right. Victorino is a nice outfielder, but unless he turned into Willie Mays Hayes circa Wesley Snipes (the Epps version wouldn’t do) that turns a fly ball a game into extra bases.
- This was coming off Jimmy’s benching for not running out a ball, adding Manny to that mix could have been explosive.
So yeah, Manny would look nice in red pinstripes, but with the Phils in the NLCS looking healthy and rested I don’t think I’m ready to go back and step on butterflies. Now if he single-handedly beats the Good Guys …
