On Philly.com, Matt Gelb spoke with Ruben Amaro about the direction of the Phillies outfield heading into the 2013 season. Amaro was frank in saying they will likely go with what they currently have due to the monetary restraints in front of them.
“We’re likely going with what we’ve got,” Ruben Amaro Jr. said.
“There’s some risk in going with a possible double platoon or letting the guys we have battle it out for playing time,” Amaro said. “There are some advantages to that, as well. The best-man-wins type of scenario can be created and likely will be created in spring training. At the same time, a lot of these guys are not proven everyday major-league players. But that doesn’t mean they cannot become them.”
The GM did not eliminate the possibility of a veteran addition for the outfield, but admitted within his current constraints (both monetary and player-wise), there is not much more than a marginal upgrade available. He categorized his current pursuit as “looking around for some low-risk, high-reward type of players.”
Amaro clearly did not want to part ways with their highest draft pick in quite some time, in addition to multiple years on contracts for guys like Swisher, Bourn, and Hamilton. Rather than continually piling on to an aging roster, he’s scaling back and going with what they’ve got.
They’re putting a lot of faith in Darin Ruf and Domonic Brown, but I like that Amaro is firm in his stance. Is Cody Ross going to win you a title? Wait, don’t answer that…
You get the point. They aren’t willing to go overboard on contract for guys who don’t deserve them, so from that aspect, I think this is the right way to go. However, Ruf has to pan out and Brown has to start getting closer to the fulfilling his promise on being the top prospect in the organization.
Will Amaro’s stance work out in the end?
