Roy Halladay to rejoin Phillies as spring training guest instructor

By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Monday that retired All-Star RHP Roy Halladay will join the club in Clearwater as a spring training guest instructor. 

Halladay spent one-fourth of his 16-year career donning red pinstripes. In 2010, he led Major League Baseball in wins (21), complete games (9), shutouts (4) and innings pitched (250 2/3) en route to a National League Cy Young Award.

The 39-year-old is most remembered in Philadelphia for his perfect game against the Florida Marlins and his NLDS no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in 2010 — the first pitcher to accomplish such feat in the same season. During the latter game, Halladay also became the first starting pitcher in postseason history to get more hits than he allowed with his second-inning RBI single.

Halladay was 55-29 with a 3.25 ERA in 103 starts with the Phillies. He previously accumulated 148 victories over 12 seasons with the Blue Jays — the club that drafted him 17th overall in the 1995 amateur draft out of Arvada West High School in Colorado.

According to philly.com's Matt Breen, Halladay met with Phillies right-handed pitchers Jerad Eickhoff and Canada-native Nick Pivetta on Saturday. "From day one, I've realized how hard he worked and what kind of pitcher and role model he was for everyone else, his teammates," Pivetta told Breen. "That resonated with me. That's what I want to do when I get older and I'm more established."

It was first reported last Tuesday that Halladay was likely to rejoin the Phillies organization in some capacity. Halladay previously served as a Phillies spring training guest instructor in 2014 and spoke last year at the team's annual prospects seminar, according to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.

Halladay serving as as guest instructor could lead to future coaching roles within the organization, such as the big league pitching coach. Bob McClure has held that role since November of 2013, however, as the successor to Rich Dubee.

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