In my last article, I said that Blue Jays General Manager J.P. Riccardi would never trade Roy Halladay to divisional rival. Now it seems like he is ready to dangle his best pitcher in the division.
Rumor winds begin to swirl now that Halladay is all but gone in Toronto and the Blue Jays GM will now begin to listen to offers and if the right one comes along, he would pull the trigger.
Now, the Yankees aren't just the only team involved in this. There are plenty of teams who will be vying for Halladay's services.
The Red Sox will be looking into this as well. As would be the White Sox, Dodgers, Phillies, Mets, Rangers, Cubs, Angels, Brewers, and Braves. What a list of teams, most of them playoff bound. Let's try to shrink this list.
You can cross off the Braves because of the trades they have already made in getting Nate McLouth and Javier Vazquez.
The Brewers will probably not want to trade top prospects again like they did last summer when they got CC Sabathia for a few months. If the Brewers make a deal, it will probably be for another pitcher.
The Cubs probably won't be a player either as they made a deal last summer for Rich Harden. They also weren't able to get Jake Peavy over the summer, so getting Halladay, who is better than Peavy, will probably not happen.
I can't see the White Sox getting Halladay either after the whole Jake Peavy veto trade mess. Sorry Chicago teams.
Now the Angels have been known to be players at the deadline, as they did get Mark Teixiera, but Tony Reagins is very picky about letting go of prospects, so he may be inclined not to make a trade.
I wouldn't count on the Mets either. Their team is in such shambles right now, and their farm system is so depleted, if Omar Minaya were to unload the rest of his top prospects for Halladay and then miss the postseason for a third straight year, he might as well start packing up his office now.
The Rangers at a time seemed like a logical choice. Baseball America voted them as the team with the best farm system. Apparently, owner Tom Hicks started having financial troubles as well, which is why president Nolan Ryan is looking to possibly buy the team from him. Usually when an owner is having money trouble, the team sells off players more than tries to trade for players, so maybe the Rangers won't be a factor after all.
That leaves the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and Dodgers.
The Dodgers have been rumored to be players for Halladay for a while now. The Dodgers also don't have a typical ace on their staff either, their two best pitchers, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw, came from their own system and are being groomed under Joe Torre. Getting Ned Colleti to part with both of those starters would hurt the team more than help it, even for Halladay. I'd leave Los Angeles in as a distant fourth.
The Phillies are still the current defending champions and need pitching help with Brett Myers out. They apparently have great hitting prospects that were once deemed untouchable, but when someone like Halladay comes along to strengthen your pitching staff and make you a contender to repeat at World Series champions, it might be hard to pass up and this is Ruben Amaro's first full season as G.M. and hasn't had a history of trading yet, so who knows what kind of deal he might make, so we'll leave Philadelphia in the race.
Now come the heavyweights.
The Red Sox have been popping out major leaguers from their farm system, which means Theo Epstein and company know how to draft and trade for the right people. Clay Buchholz has already thrown a no-hitter in his major league career and Lars Anderson is being groomed well, plus some like Jacoby Ellsbury who is still young could always be asked for like he was in the Johan Santana negotiations. Theo Epstein knows how to make trades, so he might pull the trigger if needed.
However, we've seen the decline of David Ortiz and Mike Lowell is on the D.L., so Epstein might go in the other direction and get a bat. He struck out in the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes this past winter, which hurt. Victor Martinez's name has been mentioned as has Nick Johnson's. Both would take over first and Kevin Youkilis would remain at third, depending on Mike Lowell's injury severity. But if Lowell comes back healthy, maybe the Red Sox don't make a deal. Or maybe they need to if Ortiz continues his slide.
Now this leaves the Yankees. They spent big money on CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and their payroll right now is the highest in baseball. But they also haven't won a World Series since 2000 and haven't been to one since 2003, so the Yankees are probably getting a little sick of losing, especially watching Boston win two championships.
The Yankees have slowly begun to get their farm system back to respectability and they do have good prospects like Jesus Montero, Austin Romine and Austin Jackson, plus Phil Hughes has increased his value by pitching extremely well in 2009.
However, the Yankees do have Burnett on their team, a friend of Halladay's from the past few seasons. Halladay and Burnett became very close when pitching for Toronto and apparently, have still remained friends. Halladay has the no-trade clause in his contract, which means he controls where his next location would be; if Burnett were to convince Halladay to come to New York and pitch there, Halladay's next call may to be Riccardi to get him to the Bronx.
If Brian Cashman were to offer the right package of players to Toronto, a trade to the Yankees may not be as crazy as it seems.
So there you have it. Halladay seems like he is the prize of the 2009 trade deadline like CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez were last season. It seems like whoever gets the services of the 32-year-old All-Star, the balance of power will shift and follow that team down the stretch.
General Managers, to your phones. On your mark...get set...good luck!
By Doug Rush
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