"An idea has been kicked around the Phillies organization internally," Olney writes, "with discussions about proposing a swap of slugger Ryan Howard for St. Louis superstar Albert Pujols."
Philadelphia general manager Ruben Amaro flatly declines any such rumors, telling Olney, "That's a lie. I don't know who you're talking to, but that's a lie."
Whether a lie or not, it's an interesting deal to ponder. As Olney points out, the St. Louis Cardinals may not be able to sign Pujols, an impending free agent after 2011, who many expect to near a $30 million annual salary. The Cardinals currently have big dollars wrapped up in Matt Holliday and Chris Carpenter, with an impending payday for Adam Wainwright coming up.
While Howard is also a free agent after 2011 and will make more in 2010 and 2011 due to Pujols' club-friendly contract, the 30-year-old Phillie is expected to command less in a long-term deal than Pujols. The St. Louis All-Star is two months younger than Howard. Both play first base.
Would St. Louis ever entertain a trade of Pujols? Perhaps — but the club would first exhaust all avenues to extend him before entertaining such an offer.
"There's no question we'd like to have Albert be a lifetime Cardinal,'' Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt told Sports Illustrated. "That's a major objective of ours."
Pujols, for his part, hopes to stay in town — although he was more understanding of how the game works.
"This is the best city to play baseball. The way the fans embrace me, I don't want to go anywhere else,'' Pujols also told Sports Illustrated. "As we know, this is a business. There are things you can't control. I hope to finish my career as a Cardinal."
Over the last four years, Howard has out-homered Pujols 198 to 165, but Pujols is a defensive wizard and boasts a stronger overall game, winning back-to-back MVPs the last two seasons. He's won three MVP awards total, finishing in the top four of MVP voting in eight of his nine seasons.
Howard edged Pujols for the MVP in 2006 and would present a saving grace to the St. Louis PR department should the trade improbably happen: the left-hander is a St. Louis native.
Philadelphia would take the plunge on the trade because they are considered a bigger market than St. Louis and have less long-term payroll concerns than the Cardinals do, enabling them to commit massive dollars to the slugger. Also, Pujols would be a right-handed weapon in a left-hander-heavy lineup.
Any Howard-Pujols trade is highly unlikely, but not impossible. Baseball saw such a blockbuster trade happen this offseason when the Phillies acquired Roy Halladay from Toronto while shipping Cliff Lee to Seattle, effectively swapping the two in a three-team trade.
Such a trade would hearken back to the 1940s, when the Boston and New York owners verbally agreed over drinks to exchange Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Cooler heads prevailed in the morning, and the trade was never finalized.
