Mariners Blog

Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

December 15, 2009 at 7:23 PM

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Phillippe Aumont takes physical in Philadelphia as official announcement of Cliff Lee trade nears

Posted by Geoff Baker

Just got off the phone with Class A outfield prospect Tyson Gillies, soon to be officially traded to the Philadelphia Phillies organization once this complex three-team trade goes down.

Gillies is in Vancouver, B.C. with his family and said he's yet to be officially contacted by anyone from the Phillies or Mariners and told he was being dealt. That's par for the course in trades like this. Normally, players who aren't key focal points of a trade don't have to take physicals.

But former No. 1 draft picks who are pitchers? That's a different story.

Gillies told me he'd just gotten off the phone about an hour ago with Phillippe Aumont, who phoned him from a hotel room in Philadelphia.

"He told me he was there to take a physical,'' Gillies said. "I'm sure it has to do with his being a pitcher and all.''

That it does. The physical is now done, by the way.

Gillies, Aumont and J.C. Ramirez, the three Mariners prospects headed to Philadelphia while Cliff Lee comes here, all teamed together at Class A High Desert this past season.

Gillies told me he'd originally assumed he'd be off to the Toronto Blue Jays once he heard that Aumont and him were in a package. When Michael Saunders was rumored to be in the deal as well.

"I said, 'Wow, that's a lot of Candian prospects','' he said.

But oddly enough, in a trade involving the Toronto Blue Jays, both Canadian prospects are staying south of the border. Go figure.

"It's kind of sad because I grew up in this organziation and got to know a lot of people here,'' Gillies said. "There are a lot of people I'm going to miss. But on the other hand, it's exciting, starting with a different organization that wants you enough to trade for you.''

Keep an eye on Gillies. He was named to the Futures Game, should begin the year in Class AA and could very well make it to the big leagues within a year or two. We'll see how deep the Phillies' outfield remains by that point. They have a pretty good center fielder named Shane Victorino there already and are paying some good coin for Jayson Werth in right and Raul Ibanez in left.

Mariners Blog

Phillippe Aumont takes physical in Philadelphia as official announcement of Cliff Lee trade nears

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