The Philadelphia Phillies got bad Roy Halladay injury news Tuesday—he'll miss up to two months with a strained shoulder, according to Associated Press reports—but not the worst possible news, which has to be small comfort to a Phillies team that's watched every piece of its championship-contending core appear to get old at the same time. If his rotator cuff is really unaffected it appears that Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, has avoided the kind of structural damage that would put his career into doubt.
Meanwhile, though, the Phillies are without the most obvious option in free agency—Roy Oswalt, who started 23 games for them last season, ended his holdout on the same day Halladay began to be held out by signing with the Texas Rangers. The Phillies hope to get young starter Vance Worley back soon instead. In the meantime, they're now without Halladay, in addition to the already-brutal losses of second baseman Chase Utley and first baseman Ryan Howard, who suffered a major Achilles tendon injury making the last out of the 2011 NLDS.