Amaro unsure about Utley's future

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Chase Utley left Phillies camp Monday to see a specialist because his chronically injured knees are not healthy enough to take the field, a decision that will force him to begin the season on the disabled list amid serious questions about his future.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. categorized Utley as "doubtful" for opening day and effectively anointed 22-year-old Freddy Galvis as the starting second baseman. The Phillies will begin 2012 without the entire right side of their infield in Utley and Ryan Howard, two of the players who have built the foundation for their run of success.

When asked if he was worried about Utley's career, Amaro could not answer definitively.

"I worry about Chase because it's a chronic knee problem," Amaro said. "About his career? I don't know."

Amaro revealed that both knees are bothering Utley, 33, and that the second baseman recently told him his left knee hurts more than the right. The Phillies had hoped a different conditioning and stretching regimen would allow Utley to manage the pain of decreased cartilage in both knees. When he arrived at camp, he found the stress of doing infield work to be too great.

"The guy's got bad knees," Amaro said. "We know it. That's a fact. We're just trying to limit and make sure he's ready to go and feeling comfortable for the bulk of the season."

Can Utley even play a significant chunk of the season?

"I think he can," Amaro said. "A lot of it depends on how things go with this specialist and some of the other things he's been doing with [head athletic trainer] Scott Sheridan. He's shown some improvement, but not enough to get him on the field."

Amaro would not provide details of the specialist whose opinion Utley will seek. The GM said Utley is not leaving the country, the specialist is different from the one he consulted last spring, and a member of the team's athletic training staff did not accompany Utley.

The second baseman is scheduled to return to camp Thursday.

Amaro said there will be no surgical procedures performed by the specialist and there have been no discussions about pursuing a possible surgery.

The Phillies released a 96-word statement Monday morning categorizing Utley's rehab process as coming "to a bit of a plateau." Utley has not yet played a game this spring nor participated in anything but batting practice.

Two days ago, Utley broke his month-long silence with reporters and said his goal remained to play April 5 in Pittsburgh. He was then asked if everything has gone according to his original spring training plan.

After a long pause, he said, "I don't know. That's a good question. There have been some ups and downs. There are parts that are really positive."

Asked Saturday if he felt better or worse than he did at the beginning of camp, Utley simply answered that "today, I felt pretty good."

"I don't know if anything changed, but he just didn't really progress the way we'd like for him to progress," Amaro said. "When he first came into spring he was feeling really good. He started taking ground balls. Our plan, as we had talked about, was to not have him play for a while because we wanted to make sure we put him in a position to not start pounding on his knees in the early part of spring, just to hold him off. But kind of when it was time to start getting him on the field, he wasn't really feeling well enough to do that. So he's not."

Can Utley ever be the player he once was without the ability to drive the ball?

"I couldn't even really speculate," Amaro said.

Utley is signed through 2013 and will earn $15 million this season and next as part of a seven-year, $85 million deal.

Amaro said he will not seek an upgrade outside the organization. At first, he termed Galvis as "one of the candidates" to replace Utley. Later, when pressed about the issue, Amaro said "we have a guy in house."

"Has Galvis done anything to not warrant playing?" Amaro said. "He's been our best player this spring."

Galvis is hitting .278 (10 for 36) with three extra-base hits in Grapefruit League play. He was a shortstop until two weeks ago, when the Phillies started working him out at second base. Galvis' defense has never been questioned, but he's had just 121 at-bats above double A and his ability to hit major-league pitching is a great unknown.

"We'll probably have to find out," Amaro said. "We're going to give him a chance."

Even if Galvis is at his best, the decreased production without Utley and Howard will be almost impossible for the Phillies current infield to replicate.

"We're going to have to catch the ball and pitch it like we did last year," Amaro said.

And now, the harsh reality of beginning 2012 with $155 million in guaranteed salary on the disabled list is realized.

Contact Matt Gelb at mgelb@phillynews.com or follow on Twitter @magelb.