Will the Angels get greedy?

John Lackey is out there. So is Roy Halladay. The Angels could use either one.

“Or do both,” Torii Hunter said.

We laughed. He was not kidding.

“I want to do both,” he said. “Why not be greedy and do both?”

We hadn’t really thought about that, any more than we had thought about the Angels signing Jason Bay and Matt Holliday. Too expensive, too implausible, too fanciful.

Yet, for a pitching-first team desperate to return to the World Series, Hunter might have stumbled onto an intriguing solution: Beat the New York Yankees at your game, not theirs.

The Angels set a franchise record for runs last year. The Yankees still scored more runs than the Angels did, with more power at almost every position.

In the American League Championship Series, the Angels hit three home runs. So did Alex Rodriguez.

“When you’re one of the last three teams standing, you can really see your weaknesses,” Arte Moreno said at last month’s owners’ meetings. “They’re sending someone up that hit 35 home runs. We’re sending someone up that can’t hit a home run.”

Power play? Moreno has publicly ruled out Holliday, leaving Bay as the biggest bat available in free agency. The Boston Red Sox would like to keep him; the Seattle Mariners would love to lure the British Columbia native. The Angels’ offense could regress, with or without him.

Chone Figgins, who got on base more than anyone in the league besides Derek Jeter, appears gone. So does Vladimir Guerrero. Bobby Abreu will be 36 next year, Hunter 35, and both faded some in the second half last season.

The Angels are not one big bat away from standing up to the Yankees on offense, but they might be two strong arms away from trumping them in the rotation, particularly if Bud Selig follows through on his pledge to tighten the postseason schedule. The Yankees got away with using three starters in October; they had no fourth.

CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte and a mystery guest vs. Halladay, Lackey, Jered Weaver and, say, Joe Saunders or Ervin Santana or Scott Kazmir? Edge, Angels.

On paper, anyway. In reality, the Yankees assuredly would stage a pinstripe intervention if they seriously believed the Angels could get Lackey and Halladay.

To get Halladay, the Angels might have to surrender a battery -- Weaver, Saunders or Santana to pitch, Mike Napoli or Jeff Mathis to catch -- plus top outfield prospect Peter Bourjos and maybe top pitching prospect Trevor Reckling too.

When Reagins was asked if the Angels’ minor league system had enough depth to cover losing three or four prospects to acquire a top starting pitcher, he made clear he would trade from the major league roster as well.

“I think we have a strong farm system. We have some players that are desirable at the major league level,” he said. “I’m not there yet.”

All that for Halladay, and a contract extension too. In a winter when Moreno says he has roughly $12 million available to spend, he might have to go above and beyond to fit Halladay or Lackey into the budget, let alone both.

You never know. Moreno was finished shopping six years ago when Guerrero’s agent called. Guerrero’s deal with the Dodgers had fallen apart, and Moreno pounced, for the same five years and $70 million the Dodgers had offered.

Yet is it almost certainly Halladay or Lackey, one or the other, with a better chance of getting neither than getting both.

“If we did nothing,” Reagins said, “we’d have a pretty good, solid five, to rival any in major league baseball.”

That would be Weaver, Saunders, Santana, Kazmir and either Matt Palmer or Sean O’Sullivan. Hunter loves the kids, but he wants the Angels to take their best shot at the World Series.

“If we get Lackey back, or we get Halladay, I think we’re there,” Hunter said. “I definitely feel one is needed.”

That’s what the Dodgers ought to be saying, but they’re not, certainly not after they declined to offer Randy Wolf salary arbitration and preserve their right to two premium draft picks if he signs with another team. The Dodgers have spent fewer dollars than any major league team in the draft over the last two years.

The Dodgers say they were not worried about the $3 million or so it might take to sign those two picks. They were spooked by the remote possibility that Wolf would (a) accept a one-year contract and (b) win an award of $11 million or $12 million.

Would Wolf be overvalued at that salary? Absolutely. Is that minimal risk appropriate for a pitching-strapped major-market team to take? Absolutely.

So off to the winter meetings we go. If you’re an Angels fan, at least, you can dream big.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com