What moves the Philadelphia Phillies make this offseason will go a long way in determining whether they reach their ceiling of winning a World Series title or not.

There are obvious needs on this roster despite being filled with high-profile names, so the way Dave Dombrowski and his front office approach things over the winter will signal how things could work in the coming years.

With that in mind, the Phillies just made their first major roster move of the offseason.

In an announcement on the team’s social media page, Philadelphia has traded Scott Kingery to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for cash.

The infielder is best known for being signed to a six-year, $24 million contract extension in March 2018, before he had even played a Major League game.

A second-round pick in the 2015 draft, Kingery quickly rose up the pipeline by performing well in most of his minor league stops. He was named the 2017 winner of the Paul Owens Award, which is given to the highest-ranking player in the Phillies farm system.

Philadelphia immediately used the newly extended rising star infielder during the 2018 season, playing him in 147 games. Unfortunately, his production wasn’t there with a .226/.267/.338 slash line, eight home runs, 33 extra-bast hits and 35 RBI, bringing his OPS+ to 61.

However, Kingery improved the following year, indicating that he might just be the future of this franchise.

However, things took a turn for the worse in 2020 after he contracted COVID-19 and had to quarantine away from his teammates. When he returned, the illness and other injuries he suffered played a role in putting together a poor season.

After that, the once rising star infielder played just 16 games for the Phillies, none of which came in the past two years.

Philadelphia trading him away marks the end of a very strange saga, and something that seemed to be heading this way for a long time.