Phillies

Phillies on Verge of Trading Werth, Acquiring Oswalt

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jul 21st, 2010 · 7:37 AM EDT

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This Phillies season has officially blown up.

They have lost five of six games, sent Kyle Kendrick to the minors, watched Jamie Moyer possibly pitch his last game, and there are now reports that they are going to trade Jayson Werth for Roy Oswalt. 

All of that in less than a week.

Jayson Stark is reporting that the Phillies are on the verge of trading Werth as part of a three-team deal that would land Roy Oswalt in Philadelphia.  Oswalt is under contract through 2011 and has an option for 2012.

Werth on the other hand, will be a free agent at the end of the year and the Phillies would likely be unable to resign him.

The Tampa Bay Rays appear to be the favorite to receive Werth.  They would in turn send prospects to Houston (and possibly Philadelphia), while the Astros and GM Ed Wade would send Oswalt to Philly.

Werth would certainly help put Tampa over the edge in the AL East- they are currently 2 1/2 games back of the Yankees.  It should also be noted that Tampa, who just acquired Simon Gagne, would be netting two men of great beard in the same week.  Impressive.

Ruben Amaro has said all along that he wants pitching, and now that the Phillies have sent Kyle Kendrick to the minors and Moyer is hurt, it's even more likely he makes a deal.  We are told that Moyer has an injury "like Happ's", which took Happ, who is much younger than Moyer, three months to recover from.

I wonder if the conversation among GMs is anything like the below debate between fans about Werth.

Video after the jump.

H/T to TheFightins.com for this.