Details on Lee, Utley, etc. no trade clauses, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal
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Details on Lee, Utley, etc. no trade clauses, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Ken Rosenthal has a little Phillies tidbit in his latest piece for FoxSports.com. Rosenthal reports that the partial no trade clauses enjoyed by Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley all enable the player to block deals to 21 teams per season. Not that the Phillies are contemplating trading any of the four players -- at this point, Lee is probably the only player whose contract could be moved -- but the detail does show how difficult it would be to trade any of the four players even if there was a market for their salaries (and talents).
The way these things usually work is that before the season, the player and his agent submit their list of teams to which they will block a trade. The way to preserve the highest amount of leverage in any potential trade talks would be to block the 21 teams with the highest payrolls, because it is hard to imagine any of the nine lowest-spending teams taking on big money, particularly when you are talking about Howard and Lee, whose deals will pay them more than $20 million per year through at least 2015.
Again, the Phillies have given no indication that they would shop any of those four players. As Rosenthal notes, Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino would be the two players most likely to move in a sell-off. But I don't see that happening unless the bottom really falls out.
Lets see...don't trade the injured, old and now mediocre players and possibly shop the younger MORE PRODUCTIVE players. This seems to make sense given the past 2 years of RAJ THE RUBE. While your at it offer Luna a 3 year contract and bring Bowker back at 5 million. The front office and coaches are a joke in this league!!!— Trot- Can anyone explain the contracts to Ibanez,Blanton, and Rollins. Big money to chase down aging and unproductive middle line people. They let ibanez go only to ignore the postion. Blanton is a complete failure and Rollins should have gone 2 years ago.— Trot
- Guys, they got Papelbon. May be the best closer in baseball.— 2smart4philly
- Trot, no offense, but learn the game and then post ... it would atleast make u sound more intelligent ... worst RAJ contract was Polanco. You can belly-ache all u want about raul, jimmy, joe, but fact is mr. contact hitter has floundered in the last 2 postseasons ... also ur sarcasm (bowker/luna) needs a lil work.— bkid2424
- Trot, you're absolutely right. It could be worse, he could have traded Gio Gonzalez and Floyd for a 1 win, $11MM pitcher named Freddy Garcia. He could have signed Adam Eaton for 3 years, Geoff Jenkins for two as well.— palmyra21
- hmm. i assume you're referring to the moves that HOF'er Pat Gillick made (because RAJ didn't make those moves). you know, the guy who put together the only championship team in this town in the last 30 years. are you seriously ripping on gillick for moves he made in the 2 years prior to winning a world series. are you that dumb??
- Complain all you want, but RAJ has done a pretty good job this offseason. With the exception of Thome, Pap, Pierre, Wigginton, Nix and even Posednick have done their jobs. The guys who have floundered have been Rollins (offensively), Pence and Victorino. Phils need these guys to play to their potential and they'll be in decent shape.— Vote for Dickie
- Trot - did you bother to read the post? They can't move the "injured, old and now mediocre" players. No one will eat that much salary. Their only movable pieces are Hamels (which would be a foolish move, given his age and skills) and Victorino (who is the Lou Williams of this team - plenty of skill, very erratic, low sports IQ and a knucklehead who makes more boneheaded plays in a month than some guys make in a career). Griping about the Ibanez contract makes no sense, since he's a Yankee. Blanton will be gone at the end of the year. Let him and Polanco go, trade Victorino, resign Cole, and reload for 2013.— Doctor D
- Ibanez is batting .259 with 9 HR and 29 RBI right now in a very tough division, pitcher-wise; Mayberry is batting .274 with 2 HR and 11 RBI in a few less at bats. Ibanez has way-outproduced Mayberry/Nix on a $1.1 million salary, which is less than half what Mayberry/Nix are "earning." Make fun of him all you want but we sure could have used his bat this season. Pierre has stepped up but he's a slap hitter on a team of slap hitters (Polanco, Galvis, J-Roll to date). Who would you rather have had hit cleanup yesterday: Lunacy or Ibanez? Please.
— eman - A real reporter would have named the 21 teams for each player.— TomO
- C'mon with the pining for Ibanez. He could have either retired or gone to the one place that would forgive his aging, warning track power. Yes, Raul is hitting .211 with 2 HRs when not playing at Yankee Stadium. So unless the Phillies were going to move their home games to the Bronx, it's just as well they don't have Raul for any price.— jtj06
- Will the Phillies please trade Cole Hamels or sign him? This can't continue all season. I can't imagine how it can't take its toll on Hamels at some point.— re6035
- Ibañez is a streaky hitter. He gets hot for a week or so, when he puts crooked numbers then struggles for a month. Like I suspected and posted the other day. he was knew to the league after spending 3 years in the NL, but it was a matter of time when they adjusted to him. Over the last 28 days he is batting .234, over the last 14 days, .207.— EL Zorro
- The Phils will struggle this year not to finish in last place. Washington and Miami have a ton of young talent that will only get better. Halladay, Worley, Lee are not the dominant pitchers they were last year and middle relief is still not very good. Utley's knees will keep him from being an everyday player and Howard can't hit lefthanders. Not a great future for this team.— farley
- I am telling you as Gene Mauch once said the Phillies are riding on a dead horse...— denny1945
