Remember when the Phillies internally discussed Howard-for-Pujols?

By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor

Earlier this week, Twitter was set ablaze by a report from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that said that while the Philadelphia Phillies haven't displayed formal interest in Giancarlo Stanton, they have discussed him internally. That rumor is nothing in comparison to one that surfaced in 2010, however.

In March of 2010, Buster Olney of ESPN reported that the Phillies had internally discussed the possibility of attempting to trade first baseman Ryan Howard to the St. Louis Cardinals for their superstar first baseman, Albert Pujols.

The trade, of course, never came to fruition. As Olney noted at the time, it's not even known if the Phillies got as far as even feeling out whether the Cardinals had any interest in the proposal. This rumor is indicative, as Olney and other insiders noted at the time, of how many potentially Twitter-shattering discussions take place inside front-offices. Most of them are never reported upon.

Even if this deal never had a real chance of happening, it's pretty interesting to think about how this trade could have changed the sport. (No, Howard for Pujols would not have been a fair trade straight-up, so this isn't meant to suggest it actually could have happened.)

Just over a month later — more than 17 months before he could become a free-agent — the Phillies signed Howard to a five-year/$125 million extension. Unfortunately for them, Howard was past his peak. He still posted impressive power numbers in 2010 and 2011, but after hitting 58 home runs in his MVP season of 2006, he hit "just" 64 home runs between 2010 and 2011.

He, of course, also tore his Achilles on the season-ending groundout against Pujols and the eventual 2011 World Series champion Cardinals. Howard's new contract kicked in after that injury, but he was never an effective player again. In fact, Howard posted the worst WAR in league history after his 32nd birthday, according to High Heat Stats. It's certainly fair to wonder if Howard's decline wouldn't have been so drastic if he had been traded to the Cardinals — and presumably not torn his Achilles — but trading an in-prime Pujols for him would have been a disaster.

While Pujols began to decline in 2010 as well, his "decline" involved him slashing .312/.414/.596 with 42 home runs, 118 RBIs and a 6.8 WAR (per FanGraphs). He actually finished as MVP runner-up in that year, even with numbers that declined from what he had done from 2003-2009. In 2011, he continued to decline, slashing .299/.366/.541 with 37 home runs and 99 RBIS, while posting a 4.0 WAR (per FanGraphs). This was indicative of a more drastic decline that came after Pujols signed with the Los Angeles Angels, but in 2010 and 2011, he was more valuable than Howard.

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Had the Phillies traded for Pujols, it's possible they would have allowed him to walk after the 2011 season in free-agency like the Cardinals did. Given how willing the team was the pay for star players at that time, that seems unlikely, though they likely would have had to fend off other suitors like the Angels in free-agency.

Knowing that they would have to essentially write a blank check to retain Pujols after 2011, the team probably wouldn't have given Cliff Lee a five-year/$120 million deal in free-agency after the 2010 season. So had this trade taken place, 'The Four Aces' probably never would have been a thing. Phillies fans would have had to "settle" for 'H20,' which still would have been a rotation deep in talent.

If Lee returned to the Phillies, Howard was on the Cardinals and Pujols was on the Phillies, the 2011 season would have been drastically different. When you consider that FanGraphs says that Pujols was worth more 2.4 more wins in 2011, the Cardinals probably wouldn't have even made the playoffs. Instead, the Atlanta Braves, who only won one less game than the Cardinals in 2011, probably would have won the National League Wild Card. So after facing the Braves for the final series of the year in Atlanta, the Phillies would have likely hosted the Braves, instead of the Cardinals, in Game 1 of the 2011 NLDS.

So the move alone would have probably kept the eventual World Series champion Cardinals from even making the playoffs. Lee likely would have signed with the Yankees, perhaps allowing the Yankees to not fall to the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS and eventually defeat the Texas Rangers in the ALCS. So if the Howard-Pujols deal took place, the 2011 World Series between the Cardinals and Rangers, which was a classic seven-game series, probably wouldn't have happened. It doesn't seem impossible that we could have seen the second Phillies-Yankees World Series in three years.

Between 2012 and 2016, Pujols was certainly a better player than Howard, but his 10-year/$254 million deal also looks like a disaster. While the Phillies are now free of Howard's deal, had they traded for Pujols and given him a similar deal to what the Angels did after 2011, they would have been stuck with Pujols' deal through 2021. Like Howard, they wouldn't have been able to trade Pujols either. They would have gotten to see Pujols hit his 500th, 600th and eventually 700th home runs in Philadelphia. His deal would have hamstrung the team, however, potentially limiting their ability to eventually chase Mike Trout, Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, all of whom were teenagers when this trade was discussed inside the Phillies' organization.

There is an argument to be made that if you trade the two most-feared sluggers in the game for each other at any time, it's going to have a drastic chain-reaction on the sport for the next decade plus. That's probably among the reasons why we don't see trades like this normally take place. It also gives you an idea of how much stock should be put into reports of teams internally discussing mega-trades. (That's not meant to throw shade at Rosenthal at all, but just take it for what it is.) But man, if this trade had actually taken place, ESPN may be planning a 30 for 30 on it already.