MLB Rumors: Phillies interested in Granderson

Ken Rosenthal tells us that that the Phillies are interested in Blue Jays outfielder Curtis Granderson. It is rumor season, and we will be see a lot of these.

They are looking to upgrade their bench. They demoted Aaron Altherr, a right-handed hitting outfielder, who was hitting just .170/.290/.305. in 89 games.

Granderson is hitting .230/.337/.417 with 9 home runs this season. The trouble is that he did most of his damage early. At the end of April he was hitting .306/.434/.548. Since then .202/.299/.370 in 57 games.

But he could be a handy player to have on the bench for a contending team. He can bring all the veteran presents that people want (every time I say this someone on twitter tells me I got it wrong, so for that person, it is a joke). He’s a good guy in the clubhouse, or so we are told.

I’m expecting the Blue Jays wouldn’t be asking for all that much. Last year the Mets traded him for a PTBNL, who turned out to be Jacob Rhame, a 25-year-old reliever who isn’t much of a prospect.

But we have outfielders in the minors who might as well get a shot with the major league team, and give us some idea if they can help us next year. Dalton Pompey is hitting .289/.357/.494 for Buffalo and .357/.500/.429 since coming back from his latest injury. Anthony Alford isn’t having a great season,.214/.293/.311 in Buffalo, but he has the kind of speed that we claim to want. Let’s give one of them a shot and get Dwight Smith more at bats at the same time.

Here is Ken’s tweet: