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Phillies reportedly made an attempt to acquire Scott Hairston
By Jonathan Atwood on July 9th, 2009 3:27 PM |
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According to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, the Phillies’ offered Class AA RHP Vance Worley and Class A RHP Heitor Correa to the Padres for outfielder Scott Hairston, but they were beat out by the Oakland Athletics.
Hairston is batting .296 on the season with 11 homeruns and 31 RBIs. He has played all three outfield positions for the Padres this season. He likely would have been the fourth outfielder on the depth chart and the needed extra right handed bat off the bench.
Worley, 21, is 6-5 with a 3.75 ERA and 65/32 K/BB ratio in 17 starts for the Class AA Reading Phillies. Correa, 19, is 6-2 with a 3.07 ERA and 56/26 K/BB ratio in 12 starts (13 games) with Class-A Lakewood.
The Phillies have been actively pursuing another right handed bat to come off the bench since Spring Training. They initially acquired MIguel Cairo before the season started, but he was eventually relegated to the minor leagues. A month or so ago they acquired catcher Paul Bako to allow Chris Coste to come off the bench as a pinch hitter.
With the exception of left handed Matt Stairs, the Phillies bench, one of the best in baseball last season, has been a monumental disappointment so far this year. Stairs is batting .271 with three homeruns and 12 RBIs.
Greg Dobbs, another left hander off the bench, was the best pinch hitter in baseball last season. He is batting .284 with five homeruns and 15 RBIs in 102 at bats this season, but those numbers are somewhat deceiving. Dobbs has been starting of late in left field during the absence of Raul Ibanez. Since July 1, Dobbs has 11 hits and six RBIs. At the end of June, he was batting just .237.
Utility infielder Eric Bruntlett is batting a paltry .139 with six RBIs in 72 at bats. Coste is batting .245 with eight RBIs in 102 at bats. Bako, in 18 at bats this season with the Phillies, is batting .222 with just three runs scored.
With Hairston off the board, the Phillies will likely shift their focus back to the Rockies’ Ryan Spilborghs, who would command a package similar to that of Hairston, according to Rosenthal. The Athletics acquired Hairston for minor-league right-handers Ryan Webb and Craig Italiano and a player to be named.
Spilborghs is batting .257 with six homeruns and 33 RBIs in 218 at bats for the Rockies. The Rockies, however, are still in contention for the NL West division and are unlikely to trade him in the near future.
