Phillies Rumors: Reliever Koji Uehara on Radar?

Ken Rosenthal reports that the Phillies are allegedly inquiring about Texas Rangers' right handed relief pitcher Koji Uehara:

The Phillies, in their search for a setup man, are asking around about free-agent righty Koji Uehara, who previously was with the Rangers.

Uehara, 37, came to the United States in 2009 and, in four seasons with Baltimore and Texas, has essentially aggregated one of Roy Halladay's better seasons, with an insane 7.97 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 2.89 ERA in 212 innings pitched. The only flaw to his game is a moderate propensity for the long ball, having given up 27 home runs in his career out of the bullpen.

Advanced metrics like him, too: 2.96 FIP and 3.12 xFIP, and 2.59 SIERA. He's also demonstrated that he can pitch in a tough hitters' park in Arlington.

As always the devil is in the details with potential moves like this one. It's usually not very wise to give out big money deals to relief pitchers, but Uehara might be worth a decent sized two to three year contract.