Chase Utley trade the final bit of 'selling' in the Phillies' rebuild

Chase Utley trade the final bit of 'selling' in the Phillies' rebuild

After a few weeks of rumors, the Phillies finally pulled the trigger and traded franchise icon Chase Utley on Wednesday. He goes to his hometown Dodgers for two prospects, one of whom, the versatile Darnell Sweeney, will join the big league team right away. CBS Sports MLB Insider Jon Heyman reported a deal was agreed to Wednesday afternoon.

For the Phillies, the trade not only marks the end of the tenure of one of the best and most popular players in franchise history, it also marks the end of the "selling" phase of their rebuild. They've moved all of their veteran players with trade value. Utley was the final piece after Cole Hamels, Ben Revere and Jonathan Papelbon went at the deadline.

Philadelphia is still stuck with Ryan Howard, but he has no trade value. The fact that the Phillies have been willing to eat a big chunk of the money left on his contract to facilitate a trade and still haven't found any takers is telling. Howard doesn't have much of a market. The best the Phillies can hope to get in return is salary relief.

Domonic Brown? His value couldn't get much lower. He's a change of scenery guy who would fetch another change of scenery guy in return. The Phillies are best off holding onto Brown and hoping he starts hitting a little bit and rebuilds value so they can trade him in the offseason, or maybe even at next year's deadline. Aaron Harang and Carlos Ruiz? Sorry, not much value there.
Utley's gone. Hamels and Revere and Papelbon are gone too. So are Marlon Byrd and Antonio Bastardo and Jimmy Rollins. The bones have been picked clean. Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and his staff have moved all their veterans with actual trade value, leaving them with a hoard of prospects and some free cash.

In fact, the Phillies only have about $65 million in salary on the books next year according to Cot's Baseball Contracts. This is a club that has run payrolls north of $165 million every season since 2011. The Phillies aren't hurting for money, they've always been a super high payroll team, so they'll have the resources to go out and sign some big free agents this winter.

Now, does that mean the Phillies should spend all that money this offseason? Of course not. That will only put them right back where they started in a few years, with a bunch of bloated contracts for past prime players. Spending money is easy. Any team can do that. Spending money smartly is much more difficult and that's the challenge now facing the Phillies. It could mean waiting a year or two before diving back into the deep end of the free agency pool.

Either way, whether they spend that money this offseason or not, the core of the next great Phillies team is third baseman Maikel Franco, starter Aaron Nola, closer Ken Giles and elite shortstop prospect J.P. Crawford. That's the foundation going forward. The Phillies have to fill out the team around them now.

Trading Utley was a rather significant move given his popularity. He was also the final step in the "selling" phase of the team's rebuild. Now the next step is turning all the talent they acquired into actual big league contributors, and using all the saved future payroll space to build a quality supporting cast around the youngsters.