Ryan Lawrence: Utley experiment ends almost before it begins

MIAMI - There was a popular belief that if the Phillies were going to give longtime second baseman Chase Utley a tryout at third base, it would happen this weekend in Miami.

Despite still being mathematically alive entering Friday, the Phillies, for all intents and purposes, are no longer playing meaningful baseball. On a weekend in Miami, where they are playing another team going nowhere, the Phils could put Utley at third base and not have the white-hot, scrutinizing eye of the media that would be present at home.

But instead of taking off the cover and wheeling the Utley Third Base Project into Miami, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. opted instead to keep it in the showroom.

Before the start of a three-game series with the Marlins, Amaro temporarily ended the experiment.

"It just seems like, after further review, that it probably makes most sense to keep Chase at second base and move from there," Amaro said.

Amaro, Utley and manager Charlie Manuel met in the visiting manager's office at Marlins Park on Friday afternoon. They didn't meet specifically to talk about the position change - Amaro and Manuel plan on meeting with all of their core players before the end of the season - but the subject did come up.

Earlier in the week, Manuel said he was awaiting word from Utley for the go-ahead. But Utley described the likelihood of playing third base this year as "up in the air" on Wednesday.

Although he believes Utley would have volunteered to give it a try this week, Amaro put out a pre-emptive strike by shutting it down.

"It's kind of on hold now, I guess," Amaro said. "After having thought about it a lot, I think he's made progress at third base. I don't know if it's a matter whether or not he can do it. I think it's more a matter of practicality and what's really best for the team overall.

"While having that option would be helpful, I don't know if it's really an option that's going to make us necessarily better. Freddy [Galvis] could play third. We could try to find somebody from the outside to play third. [Kevin] Frandsen could play third. We still have some options."

Utley could still be one of those options, as Amaro did say it wasn't a "dead issue." But the likelihood of Utley moving from second to third seems less likely than when Utley himself volunteered to give the transition a try a month ago.

After talking with Amaro about the future of the team in August, Utley volunteered to take ground balls at third base, a position he hadn't played since he was with Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2002. Utley had his first workout at third base on Aug. 29 and took infield practice at third a half dozen times in the last month.

Amaro, meanwhile, said the move would make the Phillies a better team, because it would improve the infield defense. When Utley began his second straight season on the DL with a knee injury, the 22-year-old Galvis stepped in and played Gold Glove-caliber defense at second.

Looking at the situation logically, Amaro figured it made just as much sense to shift the sure-handed Galvis to third instead of Utley.

"He did work out there during spring training," Amaro said of Galvis, who had never played second base professionally until he was asked to shift over during spring training. "Overall, there were pretty good reviews on how he handled it. He didn't do it in any games. But the man went from short to second and was awesome. And now . . . I don't know if it's that much of a stretch to move him to third base and not think he'd be a plus defender."

Just as Amaro didn't think he'd learn more about Utley's availability to play third in the final six games of the season, and, thus, shutting down the experiment, he also doesn't know for sure that Galvis can be his solution to the vacancy at third base in 2013 either.

When the Phillies season comes to an end on Wednesday in Washington, Amaro will have what amounts to a full month to analyze his options more before the free-agent and winter trade season opens in November. But third base is far from the only job he has to fill.

"I don't know if we have a No. 1 [priority]," Amaro said. "I think offense is important to us. I'd like to create some balance from the right side offensively . . . Third base is an issue we have to deal with. I think while we have some very, very good arms in the bullpen, we'll keep an eye on that, as well."

Utley volunteered to give third base a try only because the Phillies don't have any obvious, in-house candidates at the position and the upcoming crop of free agents isn't exactly inspiring. But just as there are no easy solutions for third base, there also aren't obvious answers for centerfield or the bullpen, either.

"I think patience is going t be important throughout this offseason," Amaro said. "And the reason that I say that is none of the opportunities that present themselves, at least at first blush, are all that fantastic. I think we're going to have to, as far as the availability of all players, I think we're going to have to be creative to try to improve. There are only a few standout guys out there that would be potential free agents."

Contact Ryan Lawrence at rlawrence@phillynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ryanlawrence21.