Roy Hallady Set To Join Philadelphia Phillies

A blockbuster deal is set to be taken place, as Toronto's Roy Halladay could be wearing red next season.

Halladay would go to Philadelphia, as Phil's starter Cliff Lee would head to Seattle.

The final touches of the deal are still being taken care of.

It is believed that Toronto would pay a portion of Halladay's 2010 contract.

Halladay also agreed to sign an extension with the Phillies as part of the deal.

Halladay went 17-10 with a 2.79 ERA at the age of 32.

With Toronto's less-than-stellar offense, he could be a force with the defending National League Champion Phillies.

I expect Halladay to be a 20-game winner next season behind the bats of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Raul Ibanez.

This finally gives Halladay the chance to win with a ball club.

Seattle is likely to give prospects to Toronto, so they can rebuild and grow a strong farm system.

This is exactly what Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos was looking for.

Lee was traded to the Phillies from Cleveland midseason last year. He went 14-13 with a 3.22 ERA.

While those numbers don't look as comparable to Halladay, he had much better numbers when he was just with the Phils and had a remarkable postseason.

This is a good move for all teams.

Seattle gets a quality starter in Lee, and the Blue Jays can move Halladay with prospects in return.

We don't know which prospects are to be packaged in the deal but likely young pitchers who can develop in the farm system.

What I don't understand completely is why the Phillies wanted Halladay so bad that they were able to trade a quality starter in Cliff Lee.

Why upgrade pitching when it was not their No. 1 priority?

While Halladay is without a doubt one of the best pitchers in the game right now, why lose a quality starter to gain a slightly better one when you still need to fill positions right now after losing third baseman Pedro Feliz.

Once we figure out which prospects are included in the deal, we can further break it down and really see who won this trade.

It seems to me that all teams have benefited from this trade.

More deals are being done as we head toward the holiday season and spring training.

This has been, so far, an exciting winter.