Trading Prospects For David Wright?

I mean, not really. It’s all made up. But a bunch of people weren’t in on the joke, and some of them think that would be a great move ... for the Phillies! Which leads to taco pal’s most inspired passage:

It would appear that the world is full of extremely ignorant people. If the Phillies were to send those three guys to the Mets for David Wright - heck, if the Phillies were to deal Domonic Brown for David Wright straight up - then it would potentially rival the Ryne Sandberg and Ferguson Jenkins trades as the worst in Phillies history. The day after that trade happens, Ruben Amaro should be marched from his office at CBP directly to the Walt Whitman Bridge and pushed off of it, and he should be joined by every Phillies fan who thinks he did the right thing.

I’m not sure about the Brown-for-Wright swap; the jury’s still out on both players, and there’s definitely a non-zero chance that Wright will turn things around and Brown won’t ever become the player we’ve been expecting. But yeah, trading Brown and Worley and Aumont would be the height of folly. Because, as taco pal well delineates, Wright just isn’t the player he used to be.

What’s really interesting about Wright is how his hitting and his fielding flipped at exactly the same time.

In 2008, Wright was +44 batting runs and +5 fielding runs.

In 2009, Wright was +23 and -10.
In 2010, Wright was +25 and -11.

And in 2011, worse than ever: +11 and -11.

Wright played only 102 games in 2011; if he’d played more, the batting runs would have been better, the fielding runs worse. Presumably.

I won’t suggest that Wright can’t again become a brilliant player. And even at +25 and -11 he’s a fine player. But the trend is clear, and between his performance and his age and his salary, you simply can’t trade three good young players for him.

Which is why the Phillies certainly wouldn’t do any such crazy thing.