So the Phillies made two trades. Whoopee. Did they get who they wanted for two first class major leaguers? No. Not by far.

On Friday, the Phillies swapped third baseman David Bell with the Milwaukee Brewers for minor league reliever Wilfredo Laureano. Then, right before the start of yesterday’s afternoon game, Abreu was scratched from the lineup – no explanation provided, but this Phillyist and a lot of other people assumed that the long rumored Yankees trade had been made. That deal swapped Bobby Abreu and pitcher Corey Lidel for four Yankee minor leaguers. But what the Phillies really did was dump a lot of salary – at least $20 million that was owed to Abreu.

The value of this trade won’t be determined until we see what general manager Pat Gillick will do with that extra $20 million in the off season. And while we’re glad that the Phillies have realized they’re out of the race and made some moves, we wish they’d done a bit better than four minor leaguers, though it would have been a tough job considering that Abreu was very selective in waiving his no trade clause. Heck, we would have thrown a party if they’d dumped that lump in left field. But miracles are few and far between.

Read the coverage here, here, here and here.

Image via Stock.xhng.