Phillies swap Vance Worley, Trevor May to Twins for Ben Revere

The best trades in baseball are the ones with youth exchanged for youth. DeShields for Pedro. Alomar for McGriff. Hamilton for Volquez. These aren’t the cynical “gotta trade this guy before he makes too much” -- they’re the pure trades. They’re the trades that happen because a GM thinks a guy can help his team for the next four years more than another guy can. That’s the essence of the trade.

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That’s about as exciting as I can make this trade, so I hope it helps! Exciting, it’s not, but interesting, it is. The Twins sent their center fielder, Ben Revere, to the Phillies for 25-year-old right-hander Vance Worley and prospect Trevor May. The Twins are going full rebuild at this point, shipping out two of their fleet-footed outfielders for pitchers, with Denard Span going to the Nationals last week.

Revere, still just 24, has 989 at-bats in the majors, with a .319 on-base percentage and nary a home run. That sentence probably clues you into the rest of his skill set, as he’s fast and plays a mean center. He won’t be a free agent until after 2017.

Worley finished third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2011, but he took a step back in 2012, with a high batting average in balls in play (.351) not doing him any favors. He’s not especially homer-prone, but a move to Target Field usually makes pitchers happy.

May was the #69 prospect in baseball and the top prospect in the system according to Baseball America before the 2012 season started, but he took a step back in Double-A, allowing almost twice as many home runs as he had in Class-A.

Revere doesn’t need to hit to justify his existence -- he was a two-win player for the Twins, despite an OPS under .700 -- but Worley was already a good major-league starter, and May still has a coveted arm. So the Phillies must really, really think there’s a little more growth in Revere’s bat. Maybe even a home run!

It’s worth noting that when soon-to-be-rich center fielder Michael Bourn was Revere’s age, he was kicking around and doing Revere-type things with the Phillies. This looks like a deal to help with the healing of a trade burn from years and years ago. The Phillies finally have their defense-first speed-monger back!