By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

On the heels of Wednesday’s news that the Marlins tried to acquire Cy Young winner Zach Greinke from the Royals, rumors started flying that the Phillies had shown some interest in the Kansas City Ace as well.

How much interest the Phillies have and how deep in discussions they may have gotten is unknown. Our guess? The Phillies were just doing their due diligence as they do whenever any player becomes available.

Could Zack Greinke be joining Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt? Wouldn't count on it.

Halladay, Hamels, Greinke and Oswalt would be flat out sick. You’d have depth headed into the season and not need to worry about adding a pitcher even with a — gasp — injury.

Still, the Royals want quality young players and the Phillies don’t have many to offer, unless they have soured so much on Domonic Brown that they deal him. Don’t see that happening, however.

The Phillies likely started sniffing around the stud pitcher once word about a possible Marlins deal got out. Greinke and Johnson would give the Marlins a nice 1-2 punch that could push Halladay and Hamels. That would make the young Marlins contenders this year and going forward. Coupled with the moves by the Nationals and Braves and you can see every team in the division getting better why the Phillies have lost Werth.

The offseason is far from complete, but you better hope if Grienke comes to the NL East, he’s headed to Philly and not Florida.