Drabek reacts to swap to Jays
First, the right-hander, son of former NL Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek, was one of the top propects in the Phillies organization and for that matter, all of Minor League Baseball.
Second, he was highly coveted by any team who talked trade with the Phillies.
For months the Phillies called Drabek "untouchable" while team after team asked for him to be included in any swap the Phillies discussed.
The Phils had coveted Roy Halladay, the right-handed Cy Young Award winner from the Toronto Blue Jays for some time. Their attempt to pry him away from the Jays in July never came to fruition, as the Phillies determined the price was too high. They did not want to part with the prospects that Toronto wanted. Those propects included the "untouchable" Drabek.
Instead the Phillies "settled" for another former Cy Young winner, engineering a trade with Cleveland to land Cliff Lee for four propects.
Speaking this week with Crosscutters.com Drabek said, "Once it was over in the summer (the Cliff Lee trade), I kind of thought it was over for good, so it kind of came as a surprise that it came up again," he said. "The first time I heard about it was just a week ago."
Maybe the Phillies did too. But the opportunity to obtain Halladay came around again right after the Winter Meetings and GM Ruben Amaro and the Phillies brass went to work.
In the end Amaro helped to engineer a blockbuster that involved four teams, nine players and two Cy Young Award winners in their primes.
Three of those nine players were former Cutters; Drabek, cather Travis d'Arnaud and outfielder Michael Taylor. Drabek and d'Arnaud move to the Blue Jays organization and Taylor landing with Oakland.
His dad, who pitched for the Yankees, Pirates, Astros, White Sox, Orioles helped the younger Drabek put things in perspective saying, "Hey look at it this way, there are at least two teams (the Phillies and Blue Jays) that want you. That's a positive thing."
Drabek says the sage advice from dad did the trick. "It helped me to just relax and say to myself whatever happens, happens. It's like a new start and I'm nervous but at the same time, I'm excited to show a new organization what I can do."
"Dad reminded me that where ever I am, to just go out and pitch the way I know how and everything will be fine."
His reaction when he officially heard the news? "You know, emotionally, it felt weird to be traded I guess. I didn't really know what to feel, I was excited, but then again not excited. Once I put on a Blue Jays jersey, it will kind of hit me. It definitely felt good that they wanted me, and now they've got me."
Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos envisions Drabek starting the year at Double-A New Hampshire but left the door open for bigger things if his new prospect earns it during spring training. And that's precisely what Drabek plans to do.