No matter what happens now, then, the Phillies have earned some immunity from second-guessing for that deal. Please direct all complaints to that big, shiny trophy with all the gold flags on it.
Still, life goes on. So Cardenas, a nonroster invitee to big-league camp, and Outman, vying for the fifth spot in the rotation, are working out at the Papago Park Baseball Complex these days. Spencer will report with the rest of the minor leaguers next month.
Cardenas, 21, acknowledged last week he was a little surprised to hear he had been traded.
"But the bottom line is that you look above you and you see that they've got great players like [Chase] Utley and [Jimmy] Rollins and you kind of wonder where you fit in," he added. "It's always in the back of your head. Even if Utley and Rollins weren't there, there's always talk about trades. It's part of the business I guess."
The 24-year-old Outman, on the other hand, saw the move as a lifeline.
"I'm extremely happy being with the A's. I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me in my career, because I feel like I had kind of leveled off in the Philadelphia system," he said. "I don't know if it was true or not, but it was just kind of a feeling I got, that I had reached my maximum there.
"So coming over here was like a breath of fresh air. I didn't feel like the [Phillies] organization had anything against me. It was just getting a little demoralizing being stuck in Reading, because I thought I had pitched well enough to at least get the chance to prove myself in [Triple A] Lehigh Valley."
Athletics assistant general manager David Forst said Oakland zeroed in on the players they wanted from the start.
