There’s something new you may not have noticed in the Roy Halladay Sweepstakes fine print: Teams aren’t allowed to negotiate with the ace until after a deal is complete.
A Toronto source tells Boston.com that the Blue Jays will not permit
interested teams to negotiate with Halladay before a trade goes through.
So what does it all mean? Teams could be trading their entire farm
systems to acquire Halladay for the remainder of 2009 and all of 2010 —
but they won’t get any security that he’ll stick around after that.
Extensions aren’t going to be a topic of discussion until after teams
agree to a preliminary deal with the Doctor.
In the Jays’ eyes, though, this is precisely why they won’t allow
teams to negotiate with Halladay: Why get bogged down in the details
now if Halladay and his (potentially) new team have a whole year and a
half to talk about logistics?
Acquiring a player of Halladay’s caliber would be a smart move for
any team in need of pitching, but still, it becomes a risky endeavor if
that team moves some of its best prospects for a player it may only be
renting for another year.
Right now, Halladay makes $14.25 million in base salary, and he’s
due to earn $15.75 million in 2010. It could be worth it for one year —
but not if it costs all that money, half the farm system and then some.
After Halladay was named the starting pitcher for the American
League in the 2009 All-Star Game, he told ESPN.com that he believes his
chances of being traded before the July 31 deadline are 50-50.
“I’m still not 100 percent sure which direction we’re going in in
Toronto,” he told the Web site. “There’s going to be a lot of pieces;
it’s going to be complicated. I think it’s going to be kind of 50-50.”
Should Halladay somehow end up in a Red Sox uniform — however
unlikely that seems — let’s hope those pieces don’t involve a slew of
prospects that will leave Boston without a bullpen, or an ace pitcher,
by 2011.
