Given Chase Utley’s knee injury, don’t rule out the possibility that the Phillies could make a move for the disgruntled Michael Young, whom the Rangers are still trying to trade.

According to Yahoo Sports! Tim Brown, the Rangers are trying their best to move Young and are “willing to eat about half” of the $48 million that still remains on the infielder’s contract. Brown tweets that Texas is still asking for top-end prospects, but nobody is biting.

Meanwhile, the Phillies have a huge concern on their hands with Utley. There’s a chance that the second baseman will be sidelined for a lengthy period of time, maybe even the season. Seeing as how Jimmy Rollins hasn’t been the picture of perfect health himself over the last couple of years, scooping up a six-time All-Star and a career .300-hitter like Young wouldn’t be a bad move. If the Rangers were willing to eat half of his contract then hey, even better.

In the end, it doesn’t look like Texas will get what it wants for Young and if his situation is going to be a distraction throughout the year, then there’s no sense hanging onto him. I think it was wise of Nolan Ryan and Co. to be patient this spring and let the situation develop. But we’re about a week and a half away from Opening Day and it might be time to press teams in order to see what they’d be willing to give up. Calling someone like the Phillies who could be entering panic mode would be a good start.