The Phillies made it clear that Roy Halladay and Carlos Ruiz are free to pursue their own careers in the free agent market yesterday. Not so surprising that the Phillies didn’t want to take a chance with Halladay given the prospect of having to pay him $20M dollars next season and not sure what they are going to get. Halladay is a draw though, he’s a sure Hall of Famer and someone that has done a few things for the Phillies that no other pitcher in the organization’s history has been able to do.
Watching Halladay during his time in Philadelphia was magical except for the last few months of 2013 of course, but then again this whole Phillies team was lacking as well, and you could point to Halladay being injured for the reason he didn’t look like we’ve always seen him on the mound. All of what Halladay and the Phillies team accomplished during his time here was great though, he wanted to win a World Championship and for several reasons that just didn’t happen with the Phillies during his tenure with the team.
The Phillies seem bent on riding certain players and carrying them far too long and for too much money, they don’t seem to always make logical decisions on players to keep and players that should move on. Just look at Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence for two examples, sending these two players down the rode was perhaps the single most hurtful moment that the Phillies team ever made as far as decisions are concerned.
Who will the Phillies end up with this offseason? That’s a mystery right now, but the clout that the Phillies once had with players ‘wanting’ to come here because the Phillies were on fire is now a moot point. There is not too much talk about that, but Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee both wanted to come to the Phillies back in the era that things were much better for the team.
