The Worst Companion Trade in the History of Professional Sports

Yesterday, December 16, 2009, the Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners, and Toronto Blue Jays finalized two trades that made the Blue Jays better in the future, made the Mariners better in the present, and ensured the Phillies will be exactly the same for the next couple of years. For the Blue Jays, their involvement was a no-brainer, for the Mariners it is a slight, but respectable, risk, and for the Phillies it is completely confusing.

The companion trade consisted of Toronto sending Roy Halladay to the Phillies for four minor league prospects including Kyle Drabek, while Philadelphia sent Cliff Lee to the Mariners for three minor league prospects. I’d name the other prospects involved if I felt that it had any relevance, but I’m not going to pretend I know anything about the Phillies or Mariners farm system. In case you were not familiar with what a companion trade is, don’t be embarrassed neither did anybody before this week. Kurpel defines a companion trade as “two completely separate deals that the Philadelphia Phillies front office felt had to be completed on the same day.”

When news first broke out that the three teams completed a trade that involved Halladay going to Philadelphia and Lee going to Seattle, it seemed like a great trade for all teams involved. Halladay was willing to negotiate a contract extension before the 2010 season with the Phillies, which was something that was perhaps not possible with Lee. Lee would then go to Seattle and help solidify their staff behind Felix Hernandez and go forward with their plan to go all-out in 2010. The Blue Jays would then receive the Mariners prospects and begin rebuilding their franchise. It seemed like one of those rare three-team trades that benefitted all involved, similar to the Yankees-Tigers-Diamondbacks trade completed earlier this off-season. However there was one problem…Toronto didn’t want the Mariners prospects…they wanted Drabek. And as a result, the companion trade was born!

The Roy Halladay trade should be considered the “win-win” half of the companion trade. Toronto is not likely to make the playoffs this year and there was a 103% chance that Halladay was not going to resign with the team. They wouldn’t have traded Halladay to the Phillies unless they received Kyle Drabek in return, and they eventually got their wish. In return, the Phillies got a star pitcher that also agreed to a contract extension. In addition, they were able to get 6 million from Toronto which will reduce Halladay’s 2009 salary from 15 million to 9 million. The significance of this is it gave them an opportunity to be able to afford Cliff Lee for one year which would give them a 2010 starting rotation of Roy Halladay-Cliff Lee-Cole Hamels-JA Happ-Jamie Moyer (ugh). Joe Blanton would need to be traded to make financial space for this rotation, but that is a casualty that would be understood by the entire baseball-watching population. Since the Phillies opted to extend Roy Halladay, it is very unlikely that the Phillies would be able to retain Lee after the 2010 season. Still, the team is so strong offensively, that Lee and Halladay together in the same staff would all but guarantee a third straight trip to the World Series…the only way I think they miss out is if one of them or Ryan Howard has a season-ending injury. A starting rotation fronted by Lee and Halladay would give them an advantage against all American League teams except perhaps the Red Sox. However, the Phillies offense as of today is significantly better than that of the Red Sox, so the fact that the Red Sox front 4 is better than that of the Phillies front 4, would be evened out by the Phillies better lineup. This option I’m sure was weighed by the Phillies front office, but in the end shot down. Instead the Phillies thought it was necessary to move Lee to replenish their farm system.

Lee to the Mariners is a risky move since Seattle was not exactly a World Series contender last year. It is possible that they only will get Lee for one year, so if they don’t make the playoffs this year, the trade will be viewed as a failure. The Mariners are in division that inexplicably only contains 4 teams (while the NL Central has 6…all the rest have 5) so on the surface they have a 25% chance every year of winning their division (actually it’s a 50% chance, but that’s another blog). For this reason, it is a risk that I can respect. The Mariners main competition, the Angels, are having a terrible off-season as they have lost their number one pitcher to the Red Sox and their starting third baseman to the Mariners. Also, the Mariners might not be able to keep their best player, starting pitcher Felix Hernandez, for much longer, so it makes sense to go all-out now. A starting rotation with Hernandez-Lee as the first two should be considered the best in baseball, slightly ahead of Lincecum-Cain. While their offense isn’t great, it is better with the addition of Chone Figgins, and it should be enough to get them to at least compete for a playoff spot. Once in the playoffs, the 1-2 of Hernandez and Lee should be enough to get to the ALCS.

For the Phillies, this half of the companion trade is a complete disaster. The only way this can be viewed as a success is if the Phillies win the World Series in 2010 or if Cliff Lee ends up missing the entire season due to an injury. While you can’t root for the latter to happen, it basically comes down to the Phillies needing to win this year to justify this trade. If they don’t, there always will be the “what if” hanging over the 2010 Phillies season. If they couldn’t afford both Lee and Halladay in the rotation, that would be one thing. However, Lee and Halladay together will cost $18 million in 2010. By himself Halladay will cost at least $20 million by himself in 2011. Having the opportunity to have two Cy Young award winners on your staff for one season that will cost cheaper than both of them will cost individually in 2011 to me is a no-brainer. You trade Joe Blanton, and you go for it…an opportunity like this will never happen again. If you argue that Cole Hamels could one day be a Cy Young award winner, then you have just thrown away the possibility of having three Cy Young award winners on the same staff.

The Phillies General Manager and Team President justified trading Lee to the Mariners as a way to replenish their farm system, because they want to create a team that will be competitive for many years. It’s hard to argue this point, because you do want to set up a team that is competitive year in and year out. The way the Phillies are set up, they are not going to be able to keep all their offensive players together for that many years longer. Eventually they are going to lose a Jason Werth or a Ryan Howard to a team with deeper pockets (not the Pirates). In that respect, perhaps it is good to trade Lee at this point, since they will only get two compensation draft picks if they lose him to free agency at the end of the season. However, the players that they received from Seattle were not good enough to complete a trade for Roy Halladay, so why should the Phillies settle on a weaker package for Cliff Lee? Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay are similar in age and it is tough to argue who is the better of the two. While you can say Halladay has done more over his career, you can argue that Lee has fewer innings pitched and he has also proved himself in the postseason (he DOMINATED the 2009 postseason…and his WS game 1 start against the Yankees had Jayson Start ranking it in the top 10 best pitched World Series games of all time). If anything, you could perhaps demand more for Lee, because Philadelphia was not as desperate as Toronto to get something, and Lee has better recent year stats. Instead the Phillies decided to rush the trade because they didn’t want to lead on Philadelphia Phillies fans on and think they were going to have a very affordable 2010 rotation fronted by Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. Making the trades seem necessary to be completed together is a complete lie, because there was no need to rush the Cliff Lee deal. Phillies fans would eventually understand if you waited a couple weeks to trade Lee for better prospects and perhaps a player that could fill in a bullpen spot this year. There is no reason to think that the Angels would not make a serious push to get Cliff Lee since their star pitcher just went to Boston. Also if you felt the need to make a trade right away, there is no reason that Joe Blanton could not have been traded for one of those Mariners’ prospects. Then with the two compensation picks you receive when Lee leaves via free agency after the season, you have three comparable minor leaguers (if not better) to those that you just received in the Lee trade.

The way the Phillies rotation shapes up now in 2010, you have Halladay-Hamels-Blanton-Happ-Moyer/Kendrick. This rotation does not make them a lock to achieve anything, since the Braves staff is better and the Mets still have Johan Santana. In addition, the Phillies were afraid to use Blanton and Happ in regular starting roles in the postseason, Moyer is like a billion, and Hamels nearly gave up last season. I still think Hamels can be great, but it is still too big of a what-if at this point.

I do not believe that there can be any argument justifying the trading of Cliff Lee to the Mariners. This will go down as the absolute worst companion trade in the history of professional sports…although I guess it also will go down as the best companion trade since I can’t remember any others.