As clear as it was last summer that Halladay wanted to be a member of a team like the Phillies, it was still more obvious that the Phils wanted Toronto's ace. Yesterday, they consummated the belated deal.
The historic series of trades cost the Phillies their own former Cy Young Award winner, Cliff Lee, but the Phillies acquired Halladay and $6 million from the Toronto Blue Jays for prospects Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor (who was immediately traded to Oakland), and Travis d'Arnaud. They also signed Halladay to a three-year, $60-million contract extension that included a $20-million vesting option for a fourth season.
"He is a player we have coveted for a long time," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said yesterday of Halladay.
In a related move that the front office insisted was more about restocking its farm system than limiting the payroll, the Phils traded Lee to Seattle for minor-leaguers Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies and Juan Ramirez.
Amaro and team president David Montgomery insisted yesterday that it was prospects, not payroll, that led him to trade Lee to the Mariners.
"We could have kept both of them [Lee and Halladay], but it was a baseball decision for me and our organization and the people in the organization," Amaro said. "We could not leave the cupboard bare. If we had just acquired Roy and not moved Lee, we would have lost seven of the best 10 prospects in our organization. That is not the way you do business in baseball."
Montgomery stuck to the same theme - that his team needed to receive prospects in order to justify the cost in talent required by Halladay.
"Why are we where we are today?" Montgomery said. "May I suggest Jimmy Rollins? May I suggest Chase Utley?"
Amaro added that, after meeting last week with Lee's agent, Darek Brauneker, he was unconvinced that he could sign the lefthander for a contract comparable to the one Halladay agreed to.
