By Scott Miller

CLEARWATER (CBS) – Chase Utley’s mouth moved, but very few definitive answers emerged. And the ominously uncertain spring of the Philadelphia Phillies continues.

For a second consecutive year, they will open the season without their five-time All-Star second baseman because his knees won’t allow him to play.

What’s worse is that the questions now hounding Utley are more philosophical than immediate. Such as: Will he ever be the same player again? Or, at 33 and with the knees of a much older man, is Utley doomed to provide seriously diminishing returns in the final two years ($30 million total) of the seven-year deal he signed in 2007?

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