I am totally making something out of nothing here, I’ll completely admit, but as I run around doing wedding errands today, I can’t stand to have last night’s game thread as the most recent post all day, because who wants to think about yet another awful game?
So instead, let’s focus on how it sounds, according to Barry Bloom of MLB.com, like Shane Victorino would seemingly rather be on a suddenly red-hot Phillies team than sucking it up in Los Angeles:
If you’re wondering, Victorino hasn’t left his nearly nine Philadelphia seasons behind.
“We’ve always been known as a second-half team,” Victorino said before checking himself. “I should say, ‘They’ always have been known to be. It’s not we anymore. I’m no longer part of that team. I’m here.”
(snip)
He’s a free agent after the World Series and at nearly 32, there was a question whether the Phillies wanted to re-sign him.
But Victorino still harbors hope he can go home again. At the same time, he’d be more than happy to remain with the Dodgers. They’re the organization that drafted him. He’s with them for the third time. It’s much closer to his Maui home than Philly. Now all he has to do is pick up his .257 batting average so those teams will show any interest.
Despite the trade, Victorino said he believes the path back to the Phillies is still unencumbered.
“At the Trade Deadline, they just wanted to give me an opportunity to come here to win,” he said. “They never said anything that the door was closed, so we’ll see what happens in regards to free agency and all that. But I’m not really focused on that. In the present time, I’m focused on this team and getting this team to the playoffs. But I’d entertain the possibility of going back. I’m not shutting the door on that.”
Accurate depiction? Opportunistic reporting? You decide. For me, no, I don’t think that we should act like Victorino “isn’t a Dodger” and that his distraction is the reason he’s hitting just .245/.311/.331 since arriving. But man, that doesn’t sound great, does it? Whether it’s because he wants to return to Philadelphia or because he’s not performing in Los Angeles, it seems all but certain that Victorino is in his final three weeks as a Dodger, and the way that trade has worked out so far, I can’t say that’s a disappointing prospect to me at all.
