Phillies second baseman Chase Utley took ground balls at third base Wednesday afternoon, exploring the option of a move to third base for the future, Jim Salisbury of Comcast Sports Philadelphia reported.
Utley has never played the position in the major leagues but played 123 games at third base for Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre in 2002, making 28 errors and posting an atrocious .918 fielding percentage. Although errors and fielding percentage are at times only tangentially related to actual fielding ability, no major league third baseman with at least 500 innings this year has a mark below .923, and the worst three -- Wilson Betemit (.923), Pedro Alvarez (.929) and Chris Johnson (.938) are generally considered poor (or worse) at the position.
However, Utley has shown himself to be one of the league's better second basemen according to most advanced fielding metrics. If he could handle the transition, the more reflex-heavy third base could be easier on his perennially injured knees than the range-heavy second base. It would also allow Freddy Galvis, a slick fielder himself, to take over at second base when he returns to action next season.
For now, it's just an experiment between Utley and the Phillies, but surely Ruben Amaro Jr., Charlie Manuel and the rest of the Phillies brass would be interested if they believed it would help keep Utley on the field -- he hasn't played more than 115 games since 2009.
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