Phils land Halladay; Lee to Mariners
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Phils land Halladay; Lee to Mariners
Daily News staff
The Phillies announced today that they have acquired righthander Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays, and in a separate trade sent lefthander Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for minor league outfielder Tyson Gillies and right-handers Phillipe Aumont and Juan Ramirez, according to general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.
The Phillies traded minor league righthander Kyle Drabek, outfielder Michael Taylor and catcher Travis d’Arnaud to the Blue Jays. Halladay agreed to a 3-year, $60 million contract extension with the Phillies that includes a $20 million vesting option for a fourth season.
Halladay, 32, went 17-10 with a 2.79 ERA and nine complete games in 32 starts for Toronto in 2009. He led the American League in complete games and shutouts (4), finished second in innings (239.0), third in ERA, tied for fourth in wins and quality starts (22), and was fifth in strikeouts (208).
“Roy is known as the best pitcher in baseball and will have instant respect,” manager Charlie Manuel. said “He’s a number one, a blue chipper and I expect him to stabilize our pitching staff. Roy brings a great work ethic and tremendous character and he’ll have a big presence in our clubhouse. As an organization, our goal remains the same – to get back to the World Series and win it again.”
Lee was acquired by the Phillies from the Cleveland Indians on July 29, along with outfielder Ben Francisco, in exchange for four minor league players. Lee was 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts for the club. In the 2009 playoffs, the 31-year-old went 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in five starts.
“It’s never easy trading a player of Cliff’s caliber, but we felt it was the right move to make at this time,” Amaro said. “We’ve acquired three players that we think have big upsides and will strengthen our player development system.”
Gillies, 21, played last season with Class A High Desert where he hit .341 with nine home runs, 42 RBI and 44 stolen bases in 124 games.
Aumont, 20, was 2-6 with 16 saves and a 3.88 ERA in 44 combined games between High Desert and Class AA West Tennessee last season.
Ramirez, 21, was 8-10 with a 5.12 ERA and one complete game in 28 games (27 starts) for High Desert in 2009.
"We are very excited to have Cliff Lee on board in the Seattle organization," Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said in a statement. "It goes without saying what a quality pitcher and competitor he is and what he will mean to our ballclub and organization.
"I also want to congratulate Philadelphia and Toronto on how this whole deal was handled. We gave up three very nice prospects to Philadelphia. I think they will be a nice piece of the Phillies' future, and I want to thank Tyson, Phillippe and JC, and let them know we'll be rooting for them as they progress toward the majors. It was not an easy decision for us, but we could not pass up the opportunity to add a pitcher of Lee's ability to our major-league team."
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They can afford Halladay at $20 million a year for who knows how many years into the future but not Lee at $9 million a year in 2010.— Dull- right on dehed, there is more to this. they definitely gave up more than they got for lee, and i can't imagine some other club out there wouldn't have given up more for lee even as a one year rental. inititially it was supposed to be a 3 team trade which it turned out not be leading me to believe talks broke down. and consequently the phillies got burned in this trade. how? we'll unfortunately never know. let's just hope rube learned something...— stevexmartin
- Ruben, the "right move" for a team this close to a WS championship is not to pick NOW as the time to restock your farm system, at the expense of WEAKENING YOUR ROTATION (you know, the thing that failed the Phillies against the Yankees)!— jman
- here's a real good analysis of the deal. http://www.reclinergm.com/analyzing-the-halladay-deal-what-it-means-now-and-for-the-future/— psalveso
- did not mean to post that many times.... sorry.... also - Halladay is better than Lee, there is not a SINGLE person who knows anything about baseball that will tell you otherwise. The last 2 years (Lee's best ever) Halladay beat him in EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY... AND he did it while pitching 230 INNINGS against the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays. If you aren't thrilled with this trade, you should probably find another team to root for.— psalveso
- Worst trade ever, I'll be a mariners fan now... I hope the phils don't even make the playoffs.— Mo Biggsley
- OK. It is done. What number will Halladay wear? 32 is taken. Forever.
- Love Halladay but we should of kept LEE....this has CHEAPO-Dave Montgomery written all over it.— ArtieLange
- i'll agree to take "cheap" off the table. and love the halladay trade- kudos to amaro. however- why the hurry to move lee? you cannot tell me no one would give more than these three unlikely projects for lee (read the seattle sports links!)? i'd rather have back the four guys we gave up! worst case you keep lee another year, have the best staff in baseball and get great comp for him. the second trade (cy young, battle tested lee for young single A guesses) is one of the worst trades the organization has ever made. amaro- too cute by half on this one.— stopbooing
- Are the people who complained about a $2 ticket increase the same ones saying just pay Lee what he wants? They could not keep both pitchers, get over that. And we now have the better of the 2. We got more for Lee than what we gave, maybe we are overrating him?— smfree31
- The coverage you guys have provided us has been poor. This is a story of two trades. The Halladay acquisition, which is a good trade. And the dumping of Lee, which was nothing short of moronic. Can some writer please expose Amaro for his incompetence. Not one of you have explained to us, or asked Amaro, why he would offer arbitration to Blanton over the weekend, and therefore committing about 7-8 million in payroll. Because of this gaffe, management forced Amaro to dump payroll. For some reason, Amaro felt compelled to dump Lee as soon as possible, as if there was some deadline to do this yesterday. Again, he never should have offered Blanton arbitration. Since that bridge passed, he should have been more patient in either finding a better deal for Lee, or finding a team willing to take on Blanton. They should have given Blanton away for nothing. I wonder if Amaro was actually expecting something significant in return for Blanton. Then they could have retained Lee. And they would have had two first round draft picks as compensation if he walked. Otherwise, shop Lee around to the highest bidder. I am pretty surprised that the Angels weren't interested in Lee, considering that just lost Lackey. Another thought, boy was the signing of Moyer to two guaranteed years last offseason a HUGE mistake! Especially, since Moyer was going nowhere, and no one else was offering the two year deal.— arrowamy
- i hate to say it, but if the steinbrenner's owned the phils we'd have lee AND halladay. baseball needs a salary cap like we need food to eat. its a terrible feeling to not be bouncing off the walls because we got halladay. losing lee hurts. a lot.
- This is a good trade. For everyone that wanted Lee and Halladay, should they also have go out and sign Matt Holiday? Maybe even bring in Jason Bay while we're at it to solidify the bench? The name of the game is "staying power" and the Phillies are starting to build our franchise into a consistent winner by not throwing every penny out the door as soon as it comes in. The loss of the prospects hurts that model, but prospects in and of themselves, have very little value. The real value to an organization is the team of front office personnel drafting the prospects and the minor league coaching staffs developing them. If the Phillies feel they have the right scouts and minor coaches in place (and I'm pretty sure they do given the success we've had since Ed Wade left), then there is no reason to think they won't reload the minor league pipeline.— SanDiego_Phils_fan
