Phillies acquire local hurler for Francisco

AT FIRST, Frank Gailey's anguish was deep as he walked around the Toronto Blue Jays' clubhouse in spring training. As a Philadelphian and a baseball fan, Gailey seeing pictures of a jubilant Joe Carter and the 1993 World Series championship ring initially stung.

Gailey, a lefthanded reliever, is now on the other side of that equation after he was acquired yesterday by the Phillies from the Blue Jays for outfielder Ben Francisco.

"That took some time to get over," Gailey said of the mementoes from '93. "But it's crazy how it all worked out. I am excited to be playing baseball and glad it's now with my hometown organization."

Yesterday was the deadline for the Phillies to tender contracts to their five players eligible for arbitration. Rather than tendering Francisco, they traded him.

The Phillies were expected to tender their four remaining arbitration-eligible players by the midnight deadline. Lefthander Cole Hamels and rightfielder Hunter Pence were the easy ones. Hamels made $9.5 million last year and Pence made $6.9 million. Both will get hefty raises.

The Phillies potentially had an interesting call to make on Kyle Kendrick, who has shown his versatility as a starter and in the bullpen. He made $2.45 million last season. Wilson Valdez is up for arbitration for the first time and made $560,000 last year.

Players can begin filing for arbitration in early January with the sides exchanging figures Jan. 18. Hearings, if necessary, would be held during the first 3 weeks of February.

Francisco, who began the season as the starting rightfielder, made $1.8 million last year and expected to get a raise in arbitration.

He hit .244 with six home runs and 34 RBI last season, although he will be remembered for his pinch-hit homer in Game 3 of the National League Division Series against St. Louis.

Gailey, a product of Archbishop Carroll High and West Chester University, split last season between Class A Dunedin and Double A New Hampshire. He combined to go 5-6 with a 3.41 ERA in 45 relief appearances. He struck out 61 in 74 innings and the opposition hit .217 against him. He has only made 19 appearances in Double A in five seasons in the minors.

"My type of game is to pound the zone and work quick," Gailey, 26, said. "I like to believe I have what the Phillies are looking for and that I can help any team."

Greg Mamula, Gailey's coach at West Chester, said Gailey's strength is his ability to do different things and keep hitters off balance.

"Even as a collegiate pitcher, one of the things that Frank did better than just about everybody at that level is he had a great feel for how to get certain hitters, guys he was going to throw it by them or force contact early in the count," said Mamula, now an assistant coach at Cincinnati. "He has good movement on his pitches, he can change speeds. There are a lot of different things he can do as far as location, movement and changing speeds and that's been reflected in minor league baseball."

Gailey said one of his dreams was to play for the Phillies. He seems likely to start the season in Double A Reading, although he said he won't know until spring training what the Phillies have in store for him.

"Growing up I just wanted to be one of those guys to wear that uniform," he said. "Now I can say I am one step closer to that dream. I got a ton of calls today. It was awesome to know that people still care about my career . . .

"I can't wait to put on that red jersey after wearing that blue one for so long."

Francisco, 30, spent parts of three seasons with the Phillies, where he hit .259 with 17 home runs and 75 RBI in 225 games. He was initially acquired in the trade that brought Cliff Lee to the Phillies the first time.

Francisco was the odd man out as the Phillies remade their bench with the acquisitions of Jim Thome, Laynce Nix and Ty Wigginton, along with re-signing Brian Schneider. A middle infielder, likely Valdez, would fill the bench.

Francisco hit .269 as a pinch-hitter last season in 32 plate appearances.

Tweeted Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino, "Gonna miss my boy BennyFresh #goodluck in Toronto bro!"

Jimmy Rollins took to Twitter to clarify that he did not have wrist surgery last week, as was reported on the team's website. The surgery was last fall. The story has been removed from the site.

Daily News sports writer Kerith Gabriel contributed to this report.