It wasn’t exactly the midnight ride of Ben Revere.
This one occurred late Thursday morning, and the only thing missing was Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. riding through the baseball winter meetings declaring, “Our center fielder is coming, our center fielder is coming.”
Welcome to Philly, Ben Revere.
Amaro yesterday sent promising young pitcher Vance ‘Vanimal’ Worley and minor league pitching prospect Trevor May to the Twins to get Revere, a a singles hitter who has a great glove and covers more ground in center than green does at Augusta. You can read all the details on the deal here in Dennis Deitch’s report from Nashville.
Revere hits for average, but not power. He arrives with a batting average of .294 along with 40 stolen bases in 124 games last year. But he did not hit a single home run.
So does Charlie Manuel supplant to the team’s longtime leadoff man, Jimmy Rollins, with Revere. Doesn’t sound that way. Look for Revere to start the season at the other end of the lineup, in the eighth spot.
Amaro left Nashville with two more questions. He’s still waiting to hear from Michael Young, who is mulling whether to lift his no-trade clause and leave the Texas Rangers to play third for the Phils. And Amaro still needs an eighth-inning setup arm for his bullpen.
Then there is the Josh Hamilton sweepstakes. You keep hearing that all of this is merely a prelude to the Phils still swinging a megadeal for the slugging outfielder.
As of right now here is your Phillies opening day outfield: Revere patrolling center, with young power hitter Darin Ruff in left and Domonic Brown in right.
With those two guys manning the corners, it’s no wonder the Phils were so concerned with getting a great glove in center. Revere better be the next coming of Garry Maddox.
Maybe the Phils can have Ruf and Brown stand on the lines and tell Revere to go get everything else.
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