Phillies moderately warm stove rumblings: Chooch, Trumbo… oh and Stanton again

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Things have been lukewarm on the stove to start the free agency period in Philadelphia.

A couple of links of interest:

Chooch is a free agent and the Phillies will attempt to bring him back as their catcher for 2014 but they're not gonna just sit around and wait forever. Ruben did some posturing in the Daily News today, from Ryan Lawrence:

"I can assure you if it takes similar as long [to get a deal done], there will be very little chance of bringing Chooch back," Amaro said yesterday of Ruiz. "We can't afford to miss out on other opportunities."

Ruben is referring to the wait-and-see they played with Jimmy Rollins a couple of offseasons ago.

Jim Salisbury tosses the not-on-the-trade-market Giancarlo Stanton back onto the rumor mill:

One of the things we’ve learned about Ruben Amaro Jr. over the years is that he can be unrelenting in his pursuit of player that he really wants. Witness his stalking of Roy Halladay years ago. Amaro was still the Phillies’ assistant GM when he started plotting ways to get Halladay from Toronto. He became GM after the 2008 season and started a full-court press on Halladay in the summer of 2009. He finally landed him in December 2009.

This is why Stanton has to be on the list of potential targets. Amaro has admitted to continually checking in with Marlins officials to gauge the slugger’s availability.

In short, Stanton is Amaro’s new White Whale.

A more realistic option is L.A.'s Mark Trumbo:

2011-2013 stats: .251, averaged 32 homers, 94 RBIs, .300 on-base percentage, .473 slugging percentage
Most recent contract: Made $540,000 in 2013

Is he any better than Darin Ruf?

From earlier in the week, Ken Rosenthal said the Phils kicked the tires on left-hander David Price who you likely remember as a youngster from the 2008 WS, but anything actually happening there seems unlikely.

Heard any rumblings that excite you about the Phillies offseason? Let us know.

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