Jays and Phillies talking about Hamels and Victorino?

Ken Rosenthal’s report makes it clear that no trade is immediate, nor is one likely. But, he says that the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies have discussed possible trades including Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino.

It sounds ridiculous, but not when you consider that the Phillies are in last place in the NL East and continue to find ways to lose games and fall farther behind.

Both are in the last year’s of their contracts and if the Phillies don’t think they can resign them, they are likely trade bait. The Phils don’t want to bail on the season before Chase Utley and Ryan Howard come back, but at some point, they’ll have to face reality.

“My job is to keep all lines of communication open, for the good of the club today and tomorrow,” GM Ruben Amaro said. “I can’t shut any doors down. You try to be creative. And there are a lot of creative GMs out there who have different goals.”

I would think Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee would make more sense to move, considering the team needs to get younger and replenish the farm system. We’ll see what happens, right now this is probably a tire-kicking on behalf of the Jays.