Shane Victorino

NASHVILLE - Ruben Amaro Jr. slipped into a sixth-floor suite at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel that doubles as the Phillies' headquarters this week and insisted there was no rush. Less than an hour earlier, Angel Pagan had agreed to a four-year, $40 million contract with San Francisco, and another Phillies outfield target was eliminated. "We move on," Amaro said. On the first day of baseball's winter meetings, the general manager said he still prefers to add a centerfielder via free agency and not trade.

The winter meetings begin Monday in Nashville - they unofficially began Sunday night - and end with the Rule 5 draft early Thursday morning. That's a four-day period in an offseason process that can last almost as long as the season itself. The point is that regardless of what Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. accomplishes during his stay at the Opryland Hotel, there will be plenty of time to do lots of things afterward. Amaro, in fact, has typically made his major moves after the meetings, including the acquisition of Roy Halladay from Toronto in 2009, the signing of Cliff Lee in 2010, and the re-signing of shortstop Jimmy Rollins last December.

AS WE wrote in Thursday's Daily News, the Phillies face a fascinating conundrum with their situation in centerfield . They have money to spend, and they have an obvious place to spend it. But they do not have limitless money. And they have enough needs outside of centerfield that paying B.J. Upton $75 million over 5 years might not have been the wisest move. Especially since there are plenty of potentially cheaper options. But when you look at those potentially cheaper options, you can't ignore the following batting line from the 2012 season: .255 batting average, .321 on base percentage, .383 slugging percentage, 11 home runs, 39-for-45 on stolen bases.

A WEEK THAT began with Ruben Amaro Jr. confident he could upgrade his team before next week's Winter Meetings is likely to end with the Phillies general manager empty-handed and still looking to fill two big holes on the roster. The widely reported proposed trade that had the Phillies acquiring Houston reliever Wilton Lopez went from on the verge of completion on Wednesday to dead on Thursday, according to a baseball source. The deal would have cost the Phils two prospects and netted Amaro and Co. a young, proven and inexpensive reliever who could fill the team's need of a setup man in front of closer Jonathan Papelbon.

The Phillies' pursuit of B.J. Upton is over, and it did not end well if you believe he was the team's primary free-agent target. Upton, the youngest of the elite centerfielders on the free-agent market, will play next season with the Atlanta Braves after signing a five-year, $75.25 million deal. That was the news late Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Houston reliever Wilton Lopez was in Philadelphia for a physical that likely will be a prelude to a trade that sends minor-league prospects to the Astros.

        Like all of you I have a blueprint of what I think the Phillies should do in an effort to return to the top of their division and become a World Series contender again in 2013. The Phillies' greatest needs are known to all. As general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said last week, "I've been thinking about next season since September. " Let's start with some contract information. For luxury-tax purposes, the Phillies have a little more than $138 million tied to 10 players.

IT HAS BEEN 4 years and 2 days since one of the more memorable sports days in the life of many Philadelphians: the world championship parade down Broad Street, celebrating the city's first title in a quarter century. The Phillies have gone backward in each season since, and to use words like "stagnant" and "complacent" to describe the team and its core players isn't exactly uncharted territory. And that's probably why any thoughts of reconstructing the roster for the 2013 season with players from the 2008 team who have since departed might sound counterproductive or a tad crazy.

Second in a series examining the Phillies' potential offseason moves. Read the first part on center field options by clicking here . The solution to the Phillies' center-field vacancy created by Shane Victorino's departure and John Mayberry Jr.'s inability to take advantage of an opportunity likely will come from outside the organization. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is willing to reveal only that much about his offseason plans. Exactly who will be where in the two corner outfield spots remains a mystery, too. Domonic Brown is expected to be in the mix, but which side of the outfield he plays likely will be determined by other decisions that are made.

First in a series examining the Phillies' potential offseason moves. A shocked Hunter Pence left the visitors' clubhouse at Nationals Park after being traded from the Phillies to the San Francisco Giants on the final day of July. "I don't think anyone really anticipated the season that has gone on this year," he said during his final interview with the Philadelphia media. "It was just the perfect storm of injuries, and things didn't go right for us. " It all ended up perfect for Pence, who celebrated a World Series title with his Giants teammates Sunday night after they completed a four-game sweep of the Tigers in chilly Detroit.

You would have to go all the way back to November 1997, when Gregg Jefferies was entering the final season of a 4-year, $20 million contract, to find an offseason when the Phillies had as much uncertainty in their outfield. The Phils made a somewhat small, under-the-radar move that would add an anchor to an outfield for the next nine seasons. At Ed Wade's urging, they traded shortstop Kevin Stocker to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Bobby Abreu, who had been drafted away from Houston in the expansion draft on the same day. Coincidentally, the Phils' current outfield situation is the result of the end of another Houston-to-Philadelphia deal: the team bid adieu to former Astro Hunter Pence, who was under contract for 2013, when they shipped him and Shane Victorino out west before the trade deadline this summer.