If all goes as advertised, for the first time in six years, when the Phillies sit down this week at the winter meetings to talk about trades, Bill Giles won't be at the controls.
The authority to put together the Phils' trades has been given to Woody Woodward, the newly crowned vice president for player personnel. This should make it Woodward, not Giles, who must face the music on the talk shows when he makes a deal unpopular with the local geniuses.
It's not clear whether Giles, president of the Phils, actually is staying away from the wheeling and dealing he has seemed to savor. But in the midst of last week's pre-meeting trade talks, if he was keeping his distance, he didn't seem to feel left out.
"At times I miss it a little, I guess," Giles said. "But in all honesty, I have really enjoyed letting Woody do all that stuff.
"I've given him pretty much a free hand. At least twice last week, he came to me and said he could make such and such a deal, and I said go ahead. Both deals didn't pan out, but the point is that when he had deals, I told him to make them if they were what he wanted."
If in fact Giles' dealing days are over, an era of Phillies history has passed. Since he assumed control of the club, Giles has made 32 trades involving players at the major-league level. Some might have been negotiated by aides, such as Paul Owens or Hugh Alexander. But each of those transactions was approved and completed by Giles.
Giles probably always will carry the weight of the controversial deals. And he will be vilified in some quarters for his outright mistakes. But a close look at his trades shows a mixed bag that includes deals that have worked very nicely in the Phils' favor.
THE DISASTERS
Giles would be the first to admit that he never should have thrown Ryne Sandberg into that now-infamous 1982 deal in which his aim was to unload the irascible Larry Bowa. Sure, the Phils got three decent seasons from Ivan DeJesus. But in Sandberg, Giles let a star slip away to the Cubs, and he has heard about it ever since.
Then there were the amazing four days in March 1984, during which the Phils provided both Detroit and the Cubs the ingredients that helped those teams win division championships. The Phils then embarked upon four years of mediocrity.
Giles put together a deal the principal ingredients of which were Willie
