It’s Officially Official: Halladay to the Phils, Cliff Lee to Seattle

After a few days of hammering out physicals and filing paperwork, the Phillies announced on Wednesday that they have traded Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners, and will hold a press conference at 5:00 EST to announce that they acquired Roy Halladay from Toronto.

The Phillies also acquire Phillippe Aumont, J.C. Ramirez, and Tyson Gillies from the Mariners along with $6 million from the Blue Jays. Philadelphia sends Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis d’Arnaud to the Jays, who ship Taylor to Oakland for Brett Wallace.

Halladay will wear No. 34 with the Phillies since Steve Carlton’s No. 32 has been retired by the Fightins.

For more Philadelphia sports coverage, please go to my blog: The Broad Street Scoop.

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It’s Officially Official: Halladay to the Phils, Cliff Lee to Seattle

After a few days of hammering out physicals and filing paperwork, the Phillies announced on Wednesday that they have traded Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners, and will hold a press conference at 5:00 EST to announce that they acquired Roy Halladay from Toronto.

The Phillies also acquire Phillippe Aumont, J.C. Ramirez, and Tyson Gillies from the Mariners along with $6 million from the Blue Jays. Philadelphia sends Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis d’Arnaud to the Jays, who ship Taylor to Oakland for Brett Wallace.

Halladay will wear No. 34 with the Phillies since Steve Carlton’s No. 32 has been retired by the Fightins.

For more Philadelphia sports coverage, please go to my blog: The Broad Street Scoop.

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Roy Halladay, Phillies Agree to Extension to Complete Blockbuster Deal

To complete the blockbuster trade that will net the Phillies their second Cy Young winner in five months, Roy Halladay has agreed to a $60 million three year contract extension with a chance at a fourth year either guaranteed or a vesting option.

Halladay took his physical early Tuesday morning, and an official announcement is expected on Wednesday in a press conference at Citizens Bank Park.

Along with Halladay, Philadelphia acquired $6 million from Toronto to help out with his 2010 contract. Halladay’s new pact will pay him an average annual salary of $20 million, according to reports.

Halladay, 32, went 17-10 with the Blue Jays last season while posting a 2.79 ERA with a Major League leading nine complete games in 239 innings pitched.

To get Doc from Toronto, the Phillies sent top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek , outfielder Michael Taylor , and catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud . ESPN.com reported that the Jays will then turn Taylor to Oakland for third baseman Brett Wallace .

In a separate trade, the Phils shipped an ace in his own right, Cliff Lee , to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for prospects Phillippe Aumont , J.C. Ramirez , and Tyson Gillies .

Acquired a couple days before the trade deadline for four prospects who will turn out to be nothing better than average MLB players, Lee posted a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts in the regular season with the Phillies.

Ruben Amaro Jr. knew that he needed to acquire an ace at the deadline last year, and everyone knew that Halladay was his first choice; however, he wasn’t willing to pay Toronto’s price so he went with the next best option in Lee.

This move has been reported as a three team trade, but it’s not that at all. These were two separate trades made by the Phillies: one to acquire Halladay, and one to restock the farm system.

In an ideal world, the Phils would have kept both Halladay and Lee, but given Amaro’s strict $140 million budget, it wasn’t possible unless they moved other parts like Joe Blanton and a fielder like Raul Ibanez or Shane Victorino .

If they did have both for the upcoming season, the payroll would be upward of $160 million. The ownership will not OK Amaro to go that much over the budget while there are still holes on the roster.

Remember, the Phillies still have to revamp the bullpen somehow. Keeping Lee and his $9 million salary for the 2010 season along with Halladay’s $16 million wouldn’t allow them to bring in a bullpen arm like Fernando Rodney or John Smoltz .

While having Halladay and Lee to go along with Cole Hamels would have given the Phillies the best rotation in all of baseball, people need to remember that Hamels can be just as effective if not better than Lee was last year.

Despite having a miserable 2009 season, Hamels is still young enough to rebound and mature into the pitcher he showed he can be in 2008 when he won the Phillies their first championship since 1980. Without Cole, they wouldn’t have won the World Series.

In more ways than one, Amaro is banking a lot on Hamels in this coming year. But he’s putting his head on the line for Halladay, the guy he wanted all along.

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BREAKING: Phillies Acquire Roy Halladay in Three-Team Trade

It took five months longer than we expected, but Roy Halladay is a Philadelphia Phillie.

According to Jon Heyman, the Phillies have agreed to a three-team trade with the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners that will send Halladay to Philadelphia, Cliff Lee to Seattle, and a package of prospects from the Phillies and M’s to the Blue Jays.

Halladay, 32, will sign a contract extension with Philadelphia to complete the blockbuster.

Heyman hasn’t been able to confirm whether Lee is the player that Seattle gets in the trade, but he was able to confirm that Seattle is the third team.

Who Toronto gets from Philadelphia and Seattle is still an unknown.

Halladay went 17-10 with a 2.79 earned run average last year with the Blue Jays while Lee had a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts for the Phillies.

Ruben Amaro Jr. now has acquired two former Cy Young winners in his tenure as the general manager of the Phillies.

More to come.

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Roy Halladay, Phillies Talking Contract Extension as Trade Looks Likely

Jim Salisbury reports that the Phillies are “actively” talking contract extension with the representatives for Roy Halladay, while Andy Martino is reporting that Halladay and his agent have

Salisbury says a source told him that Halladay is expected to take a physical exam this week and that there were indications Monday that Cliff Lee could be traded.

Speculation arose in the last couple days of baseball’s Winter Meetings in Indianapolis that the Phillies were back at the head of the sweepstakes to acquire the 32-year-old right-hander.

FOXSports.com says that the situation could be resolved this week and that the Phils and Blue Jays are talking a blockbuster that would send Doc to the Phillies while sending Lee to a third team. A straight trade is still possible according to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi.

The Phillies would be willing to trade Lee, who they traded four prospects for at the deadline, because he will become an unrestricted free agent after this season and will likely test the free agent market.

According to Jon Heyman, Lee told Ruben Amaro Jr. that he would take no discount in signing a contract extension, while Halladay may be willing to take less than Johan Santana or CC Sabathia to play for a winner who plays close to his home in Florida.

More to come when more details become available, but it looks like Halladay will be traded to the Phillies within the next couple of days.

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Verducci: Philadelphia Phillies “Very Aggressive” in Pursuit of Roy Halladay

Tom Verducci, a baseball insider for Sports Illustrated and the MLB Network, reports that a source has told him that the Philadelphia Phillies have been “very aggressive” in their pursuit of Roy Halladay, and are the front-runners to acquire the right-hander.

The Phillies are looking for the players that Toronto wants for Halladay, and are putting together a package, even if it means they have to add another team into the mix, according to Verducci’s source.

This coming one day after FOXSports.com reported that the Phils are offering a package that includes J.A. Happ and either Dom Brown or Reggie Taylor.

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Phillies, Angels Leading Halladay Sweepstakes

Phillies, along with the Los Angeles Angels, are the front-runners to land Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jay. 

Rosenthal says a source told him that the Phils are offering a package of young players, including J.A. Happ and one of their top two outfielder prospects, Domonic Brown or Reggie Taylor .

The Phillies would “almost certainly need” to clear up some payroll to acquire Halladay, and Joe Blanton is a possibility to be dealt, Rosenthal says; however a source told him that moving Blanton wouldn’t be enough as additional moves would be required.

(Check out my previous article about why Halladay to the Phillies makes the most sense )

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Phillies Still in Hunt for Roy Halladay, but Who Makes the Most Sense?

With the winter meetings coming to a close shortly, Roy Halladay still remains a Toronto Blue Jay. Speculation picked up some steam in the last couple of days as the Phillies have quietly jumped back in the sweepstakes, and Philadelphia is his preferred destination.

The Phillies were the favorites to land him during the regular season before they decided to find an alternative in Cliff Lee, a move that turned out to be the best possible deal considering the circumstances surrounding the soap opera Toronto was running.

Five months later, it appears as if the Phils would still love to get their hands on Halladay; however, there are a few things that would have to fall into place before considering a potential Halladay trade with Philadelphia.

Reportedly, Ruben Amaro Jr. has a spending limit for the 2010 season of around $140 million, and adding Halladay’s $15.75 million salary for this coming season would send the Phillies over their budget, meaning the ownership would have to make “Doc” an exception.

Or it makes sense of the rumors that Philadelphia is shopping starting pitcher Joe Blanton, who made $5.75 million in 2009 and is set for a raise in arbitration.

Several media outlets have said that the Phillies have let teams know that they would be willing to trade Blanton to free up money to improve the bullpen. It now looks like they could be shopping “Big Joe” in a precursor move to acquire Halladay.

The only thing left on Amaro’s to-do list is to improve his pitching staff—more importantly, the bullpen. It has been said that the Phillies aren’t willing to pay top money for a top-notch reliever, but would rather take a chance on a bullpen arm with upside.

One has to wonder why Amaro would be looking in the bargain bin for relievers when he has around $10 million left in his checkbook if the supposed budget is accurate. And while we’re in the speculation game, is Amaro planning to break the bank for Halladay?

I wrote a month ago that it would be a good baseball decision to reel in Halladay this winter, and that’s still my thought process at this point of time.

Halladay wants out of Toronto according to former general manager J.P. Ricciardi, and everyone knows that he will not be pitching for the Blue Jays past this season shall he remain on the team come spring training.

His contract expires after this coming campaign, which is another obstacle in a possible trade with the Jays. If the Phillies were to pull the trigger, they would want to talk extension with him considering what they would have to give up.

Jayson Stark quoted an official from a team who has talked with Toronto about acquiring Halladay in the past saying that Philadelphia is where he wants to pitch.

“If he could only pick one place? Oh, Philadelphia,” the source said. “No question. He lives right near their spring training camp. It’s an easy trip down to Florida to get home. They’ve got a great team. And it’s not the pressure of New York—not that pressure bothers him.”

Stark also said that he would be willing okay a deal to the Angels, Red Sox, or Yankees. His source thinks Halladay would approve a trade to either Los Angeles team, but not sign long-term there.

It’s the thinking that Halladay would want an extension along with the trade from the team who acquires him, and that leaves three teams that he would waive his no-trade clause for: Philadelphia, New York (Yankees, not Mets), and Boston.

Despite rumors of the Sox’ apparent interest in Halladay, it doesn’t sound to me that they are serious about getting Doc. They seem more focused on signing Jason Bay or Matt Holliday than trading away top prospects to meet Toronto’s demands.

The Yankees completed the offseason’s first blockbuster trade yesterday when they acquired Curtis Granderson from Detroit. Though, I wouldn’t count the Bronx Bombers out of the Halladay sweepstakes just yet.

New York still thinks they have what it takes to pry the 32-year-old away from their divisional rival, and lord knows that they have the financial flexibility to add his contract onto the books so there’s always a chance with the Yanks.

And then there were two to dance, and Halos have reportedly offered Joe Saunders, Erick Aybar, and Peter Bourjas to the Jays; however, there’s speculation that Toronto doesn’t want Major League players in return.

So, by the process of elimination, the Phillies make the most sense for Halladay—and for that matter, Toronto as well. If you look at it from the Jays’ perspective, trading him to the Phils would get him out of the American League.

Alex Anthopoulos finds himself between a rock and a hard place because of the guy he replaced as the GM. Blue Jays fans know that they are going to get less for Halladay now than they would have gotten at the trade deadline.

For Anthopoulos, the best-case scenario is to trade Doc into the National League. Imagine how many pissed-off Jays fans there will be 19 times a year if Halladay is donning a Yankees or Red Sox jersey.

The asking price is what got in the way of a Phillies-Jays trade at the deadline; Ricciardi was asking for an arm and a leg for him, and Amaro wasn’t willing to comply with the demands.

I’m expecting Anthopoulos to ask for the roof again until it gets closer to spring training, and desperation starts coming into play. Halladay told the Jays to have a trade done by March, and that he will not waive his NTC during the season.

You have to think at some point this offseason, Toronto will lower their demands for Halladay in fear of losing him for nothing like they will if they don’t trade him next winter. There have been reports that he will not re-sign with the Jays.

Like I said before, the art of trading is all about leverage and right now, Anthopoulos has absolutely none. Everyone knows he has to trade Halladay, and he will trade him sometime between now and spring training.

It’s only a matter of time before this saga finds its solution, but at the end of the day, Halladay will be wearing pinstripes. The question is, what color looks better on him, red or blue?

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Report: Phillies Sign Ross Gload

According to Todd Zolecki , the Phillies have signed free agent outfielder Ross Gload to a two-year contract.

Gload, 33, hit .261/.329/.400 with six home runs and 30 RBI in 230 at-bats last season with the Florida Marlins, who declined his $2.6 million option for 2010.

The left-handed hitting corner outfielder also plays first base, and will be the final piece added to the Phillies’ bench. Next up on the to-do list: strengthening the bullpen and rotation.

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Are the Philadelphia Phillies Targeting J.J. Putz?

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