The Philadelphia Phillies have lost out on the bidding war for centerfielder Aaron Rowand. Reports are circulating that Rowand received the 5 year deal that he was looking for and that the San Francisco Giants bucked up close to $90 million. (Update: MLB.com has "believed to be $90m" while ESPN.com has $60m)
At this point, we can argue all you want about whether Rowand is actually worth that much money, but the fact of the matter is the Phillies now have a huge hole in their outfield.
Can Pat Gillick work some magic? At this point, there isn't much out there. Earlier in the day the Cubs overpaid for Japanese outfielder Fukudome. The Giants seemingly overpaid for Rowand. Everybody seems to be overpaying for talent these days but the Phillies don't want to get involved.
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The Flying Hawaiian will be your new everyday centerfielder with Jayson Werth seeing a whole lot more playing time in right. That leaves... I'm not really sure what that leaves. Chris Roberson? I did get an autographed Roberson card off of eBay for .40 cents if that tells you anything.
Rowand's balls to the wall attitude will be missed.
UPDATE: ESPN has the deal at a reported $60 million which makes a lot more sense. UPDATE 2: MLB has changed their number to $60 but didn't note the fact that they had previously had $90.