Phillies win busy day with deal to land Halladay
Who wins?
Simple. The team that gets Roy Halladay wins.
On a crazy day that saw three of the best pitchers in baseball close to changing teams, the Red Sox (with John Lackey) and the Mariners (with Cliff Lee) both helped themselves, and the Angels once again saw their best-laid offseason plans collapse in front of them.
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| Roy Halladay would fit in quite well in the Phillies rotation. (US Presswire) |
Roy Halladay is that best pitcher, and assuming his contract extension gets done (which it should), the Phillies end up with him.
That's nothing against Lackey, a tough right-hander who will look great in the Red Sox rotation and will give the Boston front office plenty of interesting options in the coming months (assuming his contract is completed, as it should be).
That's nothing against Lee, who pitched the Phillies back to the World Series and beat the Yankees twice when they got there. He'll help Seattle, where he's headed as soon as the three-team Halladay deal is finalized.
Lee is great. Halladay is greater.
Remember when the Phillies didn't seriously consider starting Lee in Game 4 against the Yankees because he had never started on three days' rest? Halladay has started -- and won -- on three days' rest.
Get back to the World Series next year, and Halladay might well demand that manager Charlie Manuel use him on three days' rest.
"Exactly," said one veteran scout who has followed Halladay's career closely.
"Clearly superior," another scout said. "We use the term 'No. 1' so much we lose perspective. This guy, I believe, is one of the best pitchers in the history of the game."
Not only that, but the right-handed Halladay actually fits better than Lee in a Phillies rotation that also features lefties Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ.
Halladay was far and away the Phillies' first choice last July, but they realized they weren't going to get a deal done and took Lee as a very valuable consolation prize.
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Now, Lee helps them get Halladay. And maybe Lee helps the Mariners take the next step that the Phillies have already taken.
By teaming Lee with Cy Young runner-up Felix Hernandez, the M's may well have the best 1-2 starting punch in all of baseball. And just as the right-handed Halladay is a good fit with the Phillies, the left-handed Lee could thrive in Seattle.
With Lee and Chone Figgins both joining the Mariners this winter, the balance of power has begun to shift in the American League West, with the M's making two key additions while watching the rival Angels suffer two big losses.
The Angels wanted to keep Figgins, but even more than that, they wanted to trade for Halladay. They saw Halladay as the one pitcher who could get them back to the World Series, the one pitcher who would be the October equalizer against the Red Sox and Yankees.
Halladay was their first choice. Lackey was their back-up plan. And, just as they were shut out last winter while chasing Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia, the Angels have been shut out on Plan A and Plan B once again.
The Angels are apparently close to signing Hideki Matsui, but the World Series Most Valuable Player doesn't improve their roster anywhere near as much as the loss of Lackey (and the failure to land Halladay) hurts it.
Lackey fits with the Red Sox, who already had Josh Beckett and Jon Lester atop their rotation. He fits in case they can't get an extension done with Beckett, who can be a free agent after 2010. He fits in case they want to offer Clay Buchholz in a trade for Adrian Gonzalez.
And he fits right now, in a rotation that will need to be deep enough to allow the Red Sox to finish ahead of the Yankees and/or the Rays in the American League East.
The only criticism of the Red Sox's pending five-year, $85 million deal for Lackey was the length of the deal and the high cost.
"I like Lackey," one National League official said. "I don't like him that long, or for that much. The Red Sox paid a dear price, but they can."
Like him or not, Lackey was easily the best pitcher available on this winter's free-agent market, and his signing is bad news for teams that were hoping to improve their rotation.
It could be good news for the Braves, who now own the best available starter in Derek Lowe, whom they are willing to trade for the right bat. The Angels, Yankees and other teams are possible destinations for Lowe.
Lowe isn't bad, and if the Angels can get him (maybe for a package headed by Juan Rivera), that's not a bad recovery. The Angels made it back to the playoffs after losing out on Teixeira and Sabathia last winter, and general manager Tony Reagins proudly said in October that their Plan B, Plan C and Plan D "are pretty good plans right now."
Maybe Matsui is Plan C this year. Maybe Lowe is Plan D.
Neither one of them is Halladay. And barring something really strange, Halladay is headed to the Phillies.
That could well make the Phils a winner again next summer.
There's no doubt that it makes them a winner today.
