The Phillies finally made a hot stove move yesterday, and what they came up with is an aged outfielder who earned $10M last year with the Dodgers and didn’t deliver much in return for it.
Howie Kendrick is now a Phillie, he’ll be patrolling out in the field for the team in 2017 or he may be in the infield. What the Phillies gave up for Kendrick is quite a bit. The Phils traded Darnell Sweeney and Darin Ruf to the LA Dodgers in the deal.
Sweeney looked like he had a lot of promise with the Phillies. He is young, and he had a very good swing, hitting 3 HR and driving in 11 RBI in his brief stint with the Phillies. Sweeney was drafted by the Dodgers in 2012, but found his way to the Phillies and now back to the team that originally paved his path to the big leagues. Darin Ruf is another player that is an example of how the Phillies really messed up a career of a ballplayer by keeping him in the minors too long.
Is this the kind of moves that the Phillies management feel that are really upgrading this team? Matt Klentak used to be an assistant GM with the Angels prior to getting the GM job with the Phillies, so he is familiar with Kendrick as Howie played there from the age of 23 to 30.
Kendrick will be making $10M from the Phillies this year. Last year, he had low offensive production with the Dodgers, he wanted to be traded. Maybe the change in teams will be a good thing for him, and the fact that 2017 will be coming up for another contract after next year,
All in all, I think I’d have rather seen Sweeney have a chance at left field, the few times we saw him, he looked like he had a whole lot of potential.