Herrera deal proves Klentak’s confidence in Phils

PHILADELPHIA — On a bitterly cold Friday morning at Citizens Bank Park, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak and center fielder Odubel Herrera sat on a dais to field questions about the young star’s new contract, which had been announced the day before.

Still a year away from being eligible for arbitration, Herrera has agreed to a five-year deal worth $30.5 million with two option seasons, which if invoked could lift the total value to $52 million.

That’s a big deal, in more ways than one. And it also highlights the fact that exactly one year and four days ago, in his first bold move as the Phillies’ new general manager, Klentak traded fireballing young closer Ken Giles to the Astros for five prospects.

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Or, to put it another way, almost exactly 12 months after trading a young, controllable player for prospects, the Phillies locked up a young, controllable player for potentially seven years. And this, in its own way, is just as bold.

Now, Klentak is way too smart to go say that he’ll never trade a potential young star again. Or even that this is tangible proof that the organization has moved into Phase II of its rebuilding process.

But it is.

Klentak does make it clear that he’s happy with where the organization stands now that he has one regular season behind him.

“We’re hopeful that we’re going to return to winning sooner rather than later,” Klentak said. “And the fact that we’re locking up Odubel Herrera should reflect that. We think within the life of this contract that the Phillies will be back to their winning ways. Not to say that we wouldn’t have been back to our winning ways in the years of control of Ken Giles. But I think with young players, we have to take …

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