Phillies deal Freddy Galvis to Padres

The Phillies’ middle infield situation has been the talk of the town this winter.

“You hear about this logjam,” Philadelphians have asked, unable to hear each other’s muffled words through the scarves and layers made necessary by the abrupt onset of December.

The unheard conversations will change, it seems, as longtime infielder and mostly shortstop Freddy Galvis has reportedly been sent to San Diego (one of the teams long speculated to be a landing spot for Galvis) in a deal that has netted Matt Klentak and the Phillies pitching prospect Enyel de los Santos. The Christmas-born 21-year-old RHP last pitched for the Padres’ AA affiliate in San Antonio, logging a 3.78 ERA over 150 IP. A ground ball pitcher, de los Santos has been noted for persistent improvement in the minors, upping his velocity from low 90s to 97 with promise in his change-up and curve.

Galvis was first promoted to the Phillies in 2012 as the opening day second baseman after Chase Utley’s knee problems (and presumably several armed guards) kept him off the field. Galvis, a known defensive commodity, struggled to find his first hit, but finally came through with a clutch RBI double days later following the supportive chants of “FRED-DY, FRED-DY” by a Phillies crowd who at that point still believed in things.

Since then, the 28-year-old has become a leader in the clubhouse, the longest tenured Phillies player after the departure of the last members of the 2007-11 core, and a Gold Glove contender. His offense never came consistently around, and he leaves Philadelphia with a slash line of .255/.309/.382 (.247/.293/.400 at CBP), generating 1.3 WAR in each of the last two seasons—though in 2016 he saw a power surge that made him one of the four Phillies with 20 home runs on the year, one of which came right after the birth of his daughter.

His leadership has helped keep a reforming younger team from losing their minds as the brain-shattering losses piled up, and his defense has been admired and gaped at from any position in the field.

With J.P. Crawford, Scott Kingery, and Cesar Hernandez in the fold—and Cesar’s trade offers thus far underwhelming, Kingery a trade chip in hypotheticals or unexecuted ideas to this point, and Crawford being trotted out to Sixers games as a future face of the team—it’s not surprising that the Phillies could strike a deal involving Galvis.

Should the deal go through, the logjam will become a bit less tense, and Philadelphians can go back to discussing their normal winter activity: Reheating the slabs of cheese steak meat we use to insulate our homes and jamming them back into our walls.