WYOMISSING — The Phillies are rebuilding.
Use whatever words you want to describe it — retool, change, transition or put the word rebuilding in quotes — every decision the Phillies make is made with an eye toward the future.
How quickly that future becomes the present depends on the progression and development of a core of young players at both the major and minor league levels.
That theme was evident at Tuesday’s annual Phillies Winter Caravan stop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
From general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. to manager Ryne Sandberg to director of player development Joe Jordan to players Ken Giles and Ben Revere, everyone associated with the Phillies who attended the annual Baseballtown Charities event spoke about the future.
For a club that hung on to an aging group of veteran players too long and has endured three straight losing seasons, it was a change of tone that should excite the loyal Phillies’ fanbase.
“We’re trying to find out which guys are going to be the new core of our club. We made a concerted effort to make a change and to make a transition and to ‘rebuild,’ and that’s what we’re doing,” Amaro said. “We’re trying our best to build as much talent as we can in our system and weed through and find out which guys we can move forward.
“We made some moves to start breaking that group up. Clearly, it’s time for us to find that new core.”
The Phillies’ most recent success — five straight playoff appearances from 2007-11 that included two World Series appearances and the 2008 World Series crown — began from within.
A solid core of players that the Phillies drafted and developed, led by Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels and Carlos Ruiz, was the cornerstone of the team’s success.
The Phillies were patient with their development, brought them slowly through the system, gave them ample time to mature and when the time was right, added pieces to that core.
The club got lucky with Rule 5 acquisition Shane Victorino, stole Jayson Werth from the Dodgers and made trades or signed Brad Lidge, Cliff Lee, Pedro Feliz, Raul Ibanez, Joe Blanton, Pedro Martinez, Roy Halladay, Hunter Pence and others.
The result was the Phillies’ biggest run of playoff appearances since the glory days of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
To return to that level, the Phillies had to start over.
“When I took over, I adamantly spoke about wanting to be a contender every year and wanting to win every year,” said Amaro, who took over as GM in 2009. “We got together as an organization and talked about a lot of different things as we moved towards the end of the year. We decided that it was the best road to take with our organization to go into that transition and rebuild it.”
The Phillies’ plan this offseason was to strengthen their starting pitching in their minor league system.
Trading Rollins to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitching prospects Tom Windle and Zach Eflin, Marlon Byrd to the Cincinnati Reds for RHP Ben Lively and Antonio Bastardo to Pittsburgh for LHP Joely Rodriguez during this offseason was a good start.
Amaro and Jordan said Windle and Eflin figure to join 2014 No. 1 draft pick Aaron Nola and top-10 prospects Jesse Biddle and Severino Gonzalez this spring in the starting rotation at Double-A Reading.
Rodriguez will start in Triple-A Lehigh Valley if he doesn’t make the major league club, while top position prospects SS J.P. Crawford and OF Roman Quinn will start in Clearwater and hopefully make it to Reading by the end of the season.
“The trades that we made and what we got back ... we addressed needs,” Jordan said. “And they were starting pitching needs. I’m excited.
“Reading the reports, talking to our scouts and then seeing all of those guys last weekend in Philly in our prospect program, we’re excited. The people in Reading should be excited.
“I think if we can get guys through spring training healthy and ready, this has a chance to be a fantastic rotation, and some of the new guys will be right in the middle of it.”
Amaro said the Phillies continue to engage in dialogue with other teams about some of their veteran players, but did predict Hamels will start the season in Philadelphia.
He wouldn’t grade his offseason rebuilding job, but said it ultimately will depend on how quickly the pieces acquired develop.
“I think it’s still a work in progress. A lot of it depends on what kind of progress we see out of the guys that we’ve acquired,” Amaro said.
“We like some of these guys and some of the things they’re able to do, but until they’re actually performing, we won’t really know. The proof will be in the pudding once we find out and see some of these guys playing here in Reading and at Lehigh Valley and the progress of some of the younger guys in our system.
“We’re doing exactly what we wanted to do as far as starting the process. But it’s still a process. It’s a challenge and there’s still more to do. We can’t stop.”
(Boyer is sports editor. Follow him on Twitter @pubsportsboss)