Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Halladay deal as it stands now

Nothing is set in stone at the moment, but, according to various sources, here is the Roy Halladay/Cliff Lee deal as it stands now:

The Phillies will acquire Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays, as well as some cash. They are also going to get prospects Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies and Juan Ramirez from the Mariners. Roy Halladay will also sign an extension with the Phillies for three years, 60 million dollars. The contract extension is believed to be done except for a few minor details.

The Mariners will acquire Cliff Lee from the Phillies for the prospects listed above.

The Blue Jays will acquire prospects Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis D'Arnaud from the Phillies for Halladay.

Essentially, this isn't really a three team deal but rather two separate trades. While I will continue to wait until the deal is finalized to hash out my opinions on the deal, this whole situation is a bit of a head scratcher. I understand that Halladay is a better pitcher and that the Phillies can keep him for longer with an extension but I still hate the idea of trading Cliff Lee. I'm also not crazy about giving up a mega-prospect like Drabek who was apparently "untouchable" at the trade deadline last year. While the Phillies will get a few interesting prospects back from the Mariners, their farm system will definitely be weaker because of these deals.

That said, a rotation of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer/Kyle Kendrick is one of the top rotations in the National League. Whether it's enough to get them back to the World Series is yet to be seen. It's just too bad they couldn't keep Lee and have a rotation that starts with Halladay, Lee and Hamels. Now that would guarantee a pennant!

1 comment:

unsavory said...

so bummed on losing Drabek