Phillies stick to plan, stay quiet at Meetings

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Phillies could have been tempted this week to take a run at somebody such as Ian Desmond, who signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the Rockies.

They remained true to their plan instead.

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Philadelphia signed right-handed reliever Joaquin Benoit on Tuesday to a one-year, $7.5 million contract, its only transaction at the Winter Meetings. Before the week, the Phillies had acquired left fielder Howie Kendrick and right-hander Pat Neshek in trades, and claimed left-hander David Rollins off waivers. Jeremy Hellickson accepted a one-year, $17.2 million qualifying offer, and they also placed 11 prospects on the 40-man roster, protecting them from Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft.

The Phils entered the offseason looking to incrementally upgrade their roster with players on short-term contracts, giving them the flexibility to play their young players in 2017 and make a splash in the free-agent market as early as next offseason. So far, they have done that, putting them in position to be big spenders in the coming offseasons (Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, anyone?).

“One of the critical components of my job is to manage today and look out for Opening Day 2017,” Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said this week. “But I also have to be looking one and two and five years out. To successfully balance the present and the future is the single greatest challenge that baseball operations will face.

“We’ve talked about it all offseason. The decisions that we are …

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