CLEARWATER, Fla.Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said Wednesday that idled second baseman Chase Utley was getting closer to seeing some game action. Utley has not played in any of the first 14 spring training games because he suffers from chronic knee tendinitis and the team wants to preserve him for games that matter.Its coming up pretty soon, Manuel said. Itll be a few days yet, but then hell start pushing his workouts up. Hell get going pretty soon. Well get him some live pitching and see where hes at.Phillies officials have continually said that they are just exercising caution with Utley, that he can get enough at-bats over the final 10-12 spring training games to be ready to go for the April 5 season opener.Despite all this, there are signs that team officials are preparing for the possibility that Utley wont be ready to answer the bell on opening day.
Sign 1: Major league sources tell CSNPhilly.com that the team is actively looking to add established infield help through a trade. This could be because the team is concerned about its current utility infield situationutility defense has been shaky thus faror that it is concerned about Utleys condition.Sign 2: Freddy Galvis has been getting a crash course at second base recentlyand handling it well. The sure-handed 22-year-old is ticketed to open the season as the regular shortstop in Triple A. But he has started four of the last five games at second base and played the whole game at the position in three of those games. Even in the game in which he did not start, he still played five innings at second. Galvis is scheduled to start there again on Thursday. You dont need an advanced degree in baseball to know that the Phillies are preparing him as a second base contingency, just in case Utley is not ready, or a trade is not made.Utley continues to take batting practice, but the team has held him out of infield drills because that creates the most pounding on his legs.With Ryan Howard definitely out for weeks beyond opening day, its possible the lineup that the Phillies used in Wednesdays 6-4 loss to Minnesotaminus the designated hitterwas the one they will use on opening day in Pittsburgh. The lineup looked like this:Jimmy Rollins SSPlacido Polanco 3BShane Victorino CFHunter Pence RFTy Wigginton 1BJohn Mayberry Jr. LFDomonic Brown DHCarlos Ruiz CFreddy Galvis 2BRoy Halladay P
E-mail Jim Salisbury at jsalisbury@comcastsportsnet.com.