This is a big month for new Phillies GM Matt Klentak. After an up and down season the likes of which we’ve rarely seen, the Phils are back where we expected they’d be: rebuilding. Right now, they’re nowhere close to contending, but there are pieces here some teams want. And that’s how you speed up the rebuild.

Klentak has said in the past that he wouldn’t buy at the deadline to his team’s detriment, but he likely won’t have to. From the Burlington County Times, Klentak said:

“It’s been very active the last few days. I think once we got within two weeks of the deadline, industry-wide, it’s really picked up a lot. There has been a lot of dialogue. Truth be told, a lot of those conversations go nowhere. None of them have led to anything. Some are fairly superficial. Some are fairly detailed. We’ll just continue to take the calls and see what may happen. I wouldn’t handicap it at this point. I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. But we’re open minded to ways to improve our club, both for the now and into the future.”

Some of the more obvious targets other teams are likely calling about are Jeremy Hellickson, Jeanmar Gomez, and even the surprising studliness of Peter Bourjos. But since the deadline is still about a week away, some teams are making “one phone call and then there’s no follow-up,” likely testing the waters to see what it’d take right up against the cut-off.

Klentak says he doesn’t have “any great desire to trade” young guys who are under team control for a while, and also said that it’s nice to know teams are asking. That’s adorable.

He’s in an enviable position right now. By not making a deal, he can’t do wrong. By making a deal for one of the guys teams really want, he’ll probably have a decent return fall in his lap. Harder times will be ahead for Klentak, but this trade deadline isn’t one of those.