Phillies cut ties with disappointing Delmon Young

WASHINGTON - Ruben Amaro Jr. smiled as he sat at a table in the news conference room at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday afternoon. He had just put the finishing touches on a smart contract that will keep his best and most popular player in a Phillies uniform for at least 2 more years, and perhaps as many as 5 more years.

But re-signing Chase Utley wasn't all that difficult of a decision to make. Health aside, Utley has been one of the most productive second baseman of his generation.

As former general manager Pat Gillick often demonstrated, it's the smaller moves that can be the difference between contender and pretender.

For the second time this week, Amaro yesterday designated an outfielder for assignment. The Delmon Young Experience came to an end before the Phillies began a three-game series between two disappointing teams at Nationals Park.

Young was designated for assignment 4 days after Laynce Nix met a similar fate.

Young hit .261 with a .302 on-base percentage and eight home runs in 80 games. In 17 games since the All-Star break, Young hit .254 with a .254 OBP and one home run.

Young's .699 OPS ranked 31st among 59th among the 84 major league outfielders with at least 275 plate appearances this year.

"I think honestly that Delmon is a better offensive performer than he performed for us," Amaro said. "He couldn't get anything consistently going for himself. It's unfortunate, because I think he's a talented offensive player. He just didn't do enough consistently enough to continue to play."

Young was in line to lose his starting spot as the Phillies give Darin Ruf a major league audition in the season's final 2 months. Amaro, who spoke with Young about the possibility of going to Triple A, thinks the 27-year-old veteran will find another major league job.

"I think that he has value out there," Amaro said. "If a club doesn't think he could be a viable option in the outfield, he could be a DH. He can do some things to help a club - particularly an American League club . . . I got nothing but positive things to say about him, other that I don't think he performed consistently enough to warrant being on the club and taking at-bats away from Ruf and Domonic Brown."

It's fair to wonder whether Young was taking away at-bats from Ruf for the season's first 4 months. Since being recalled from Triple A last month, Ruf was hitting .303 with five home runs, seven doubles and a .960 OPS in 26 games entering play last night.

"As far as Ruffie is concerned, it was a difficult option for us to bring him in for spring training and put the pressure on him to make the club," Amaro said yesterday. "He did struggle at the beginning of spring training to learn leftfield. It wasn't fair to stick him out there and expect him to play out there."

If it weren't for Nix, the Phillies could have slowly worked Ruf into regular outfield play in a possible platoon with someone such as Nate Schierholtz.

Schierholtz, whom the Phillies nontendered this winter, is hitting .273 with an .842 OPS and 15 home runs this year with the Chicago Cubs. Nix hit .180 with a .486 OPS and two home runs.

But the Phillies thought they were too lefthanded at the plate, with Nix under contract and Brown in line for a starting job, so they but ties with Schierholtz and signed the righthanded-hitting Young. Like anyone else, Amaro wonders how it might have worked out had he gone a different route.

"We talk about that stuff all the time," Amaro said. "We're not perfect, and we probably made a mistake on Schierholtz. We thought that we had enough coverage from the left side. Whether he would have performed for us the way he performed for the Cubs, who knows? But at the same time, we have to move forward. If we don't take chances on guys or do things to improve our club, what's the point of doing this job? So I thought this was a low-risk, high-reward kind of a guy to bring Delmon on, as he's performed in the past . . . it would have been a much better option for us."

Young was projected as the Phillies' everyday rightfielder by Amaro when he signed an incentive-laden contract this winter. Young earned close to $2 million with his base salary ($750,000) and incentives (tied to active days on the roster and playing weight).

Young was nine plate appearances away from earning a $150,000 bonus.

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