Stairs wants to play somewhere next year

Here's an item for the He Won't Be a Phillie Anymore But I Thought You Might Be Interested file.  Matt Stairs told the Bangor Daily News (he lives in Bangor, Maine) that he is not ready to retire, but hasn't had any offers yet.  Phils GM Ruben Amaro has said that Stairs is welcome to showcase himself for other teams at spring training; Stairs' agent, Bob Garber, told the Inquirer last week that Stairs had not yet decided whether to do that.  For the full story out of Bangor, click here:

Here's some of what Stairs told the Daily News:

"Things won't pick up until next week when they hold the winter meetings [from Dec. 7-10]."

"If I get a job, I'll be happy. If not, I'll be as happy as well," said the 41-year-old Stairs. "I want to keep playing. I still have the desire to play. I still love it. But I have a lot of plans in Bangor if I don't...(2008 was) the lowest number of at-bats I've had in 14 years. It was frustrating. I'd go six, seven, eight games without an at-bat. I'd get a start and then wouldn't get another one for 31-32 days. You want to stay as fresh as possible. I went into a funk. I didn't get a hit for two months and it's hard to get out of a slump when you have such great players in front of you who play every day. And they stayed healthy.

"I wanted to play, but I understood the situation. I still kept a positive attitude. I didn't worry about my average. I was happy with my pinch-hit home runs and that I drew a lot of walks."

For the post on J.J. Putz and the Phils other pitching options, click here.