Conflicting Reports That Phillies and Giants Have a Deal in Place for Hunter Pence

Pic via (@CSNBaggs) of CBS 5 in San Francisco jumping the gun on Pence trade

There are conflicting reports out there that the Phillies are trading Hunter Pence to the Giants. 

Dennis O’Donnell, the sports director for KPIX in San Francisco, reported that the Phillies and Giants have a deal in place to send Hunter Pence to San Francisco and, perhaps, minor leaguer Tommy Joseph (?) to Philadelphia.

O’Donnell has been hinting at this since Friday and got all worked up when Hunter Pence was scratched from the lineup yesterday. At around 1 a.m., he tweeted that the deal was in place. But the report has been denied by the Giants: 

Interesting. 

O’Donnell doesn’t Tweet often and only has around 700 followers, which is usually not the type of count you see from people breaking baseball trades. Then again, he is a San Fran based reporter and his station's sports director.

My take? Trading Hunter Pence would be stupid. He’s under team control next year, and even though he will likely earn around $12 million in arbitration, he’s the youngest of the Phillies’ “core” (if that means anything at this point) and probably the most reliable hitter besides Carlos Ruiz. Trading Pence now would indicate that the Phils are not only waving the white flag on 2012, but also considering doing the same for 2013. I’d trade Shane Victorino or Joe Blanton, both free agents at the end of the season, long before Pence.