[h1]Phillies GM Amaro denies swap talks[/h1]
By Buster Olney
ESPN The Magazine
Archive
It's the sort of thing that is much morelikely to happen in fantasy baseball than in real life, but accordingto sources, an idea has been kicked around the
Phillies' organization internally, with discussions about proposing a swap of slugger
Ryan Howard for
St. Louis superstar
Albert Pujols.
It's not fully clear whether the Phillies actually have approached theCardinals with the idea, and even if St. Louis were to seriouslyconsider such an offer, executives with the Cardinals would have toswallow very hard before dealing Pujols, a player widely regarded asthe best in the sport.
Pujols
Howard
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaroflatly denied that the internal discussions have taken place. "Lies,"he said. "That's a lie. I don't know who you're talking to, but that'sa lie."
The talk may well echo, in the end, another blockbusterdeal that was discussed but never consummated many years ago:Executives of the Red Sox and Yankees once famously discussed a tradeof Ted Williams for Joe DiMaggio.
The logic for a Howard forPujols swap, as discussed within the Phillies' organization, could fallalong these lines: Pujols, 30 years old, is eligible for free agencyafter the 2011 season, and early conversations about a contractextension have not led to any long-term deal. The expectation withinbaseball is that Pujols may ask for a deal that would rival, in annualvalue, the record-setting 10-year, $275 million deal that
Alex Rodriguez negotiated with the Yankees in fall 2007.
If the Cardinals were to decide, at any point, that they could notafford to sign Pujols, they could consider dealing him, in the way the
Toronto Blue Jays traded
Roy Halladay, or the
Minnesota Twins traded
Johan Santana.
AndHoward, who is just a couple of months older than Pujols, would not bea bad alternative. In the past four seasons, Howard has hit 198 homersand accumulated 572 RBIs, and has finished in the top five of the NLMVP race.
Here's the public relations kicker: Howard was bornin St. Louis, and is regarded as a hometown kid in that city.
Howard is under contract for each of the next two seasons as well --for $19 million in 2010 and $20 million in 2011 -- as part of athree-year deal he signed last year. He would be more expensive thanPujols in each of the next two seasons, but on the other hand, heprobably will not be as expensive to sign as Pujols in his nextcontract.
Pujols is a right-handed hitter who would help tobalance a Philadelphia lineup that has been very left-handed, and he isregarded as a superior first baseman, as well as being the best hitterin the sport.
Pat Gillick, who preceded Amaro as general managerand is currently serving as an adviser, knows something about makingout-of-the-box blockbusters.
Twenty years ago, as general manager of the Blue Jays, he stunned the baseball world by trading stars
Tony Fernandez and
Fred McGriff to the
San Diego Padres for Joe Carter and
Roberto Alomar.
Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine.
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