For the past month, everyone in the baseball world has hung on every word to come out of the Toronto Blue Jays' front office, just waiting to discover the future of Roy Halladay. It's become more than just a storyline — for many, it's an obsession.
And it will probably amount to nothing.
The Jays will ask for too much in return for Halladay, the Phillies will balk at their best offer, the Dodgers and Angels won't have enough prospects to swap and Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi will eventually decide that his ace had best stay put. The month of hype will all have been for naught.
And in the midst of all the Halladay hype, the fans and media appear to be forgetting about another AL Cy Young winner who could soon be on the move.
That would be the current one.
With all the Halladay buzz going on, it's surprising that no one's talked about Cliff Lee, who's quietly putting up another superb year in defense of his Cy Young honors. Lee has put up a 3.14 ERA in 152 innings, but he's going unnoticed because his record isn't quite there. He's pitching for the Indians, one of the worst teams in the American League, and that's led to two things: obscurity and trade rumors.
Lee could easily find himself dealt this week. The lefty turns 31 next month, making him a little too old to be the centerpiece of a rebuilding effort, and the Indians might end up dealing him at a slightly more reasonable price than the one Ricciardi is asking for Doc Halladay.
There are a few possibilities for Lee's destination.
Naturally, the one that makes the most sense is Philadelphia. Eventually, the Phils are going to decide that a package of J.A. Happ, Kyle Drabek and Dominic Brown is just one prospect too many in the Halladay deal, and they could easily turn to Lee as their backup plan. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Andy Martino reported Monday that the Phillies were scouting Lee's last start, a strong outing in Seattle. They certainly have their eye on the Tribe's ace.
On the other coast, there's even more buzz. Mike DiGiovanna wrote Monday evening in the L.A. Times that the Angels, who lead the AL West and are making a push for a playoff ace, are in hot pursuit of Lee themselves. The Angels are short on top-shelf hurlers that they can trust in October, but a trade package involving promising young infielders would not be out of the question. Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar and Brandon Wood are names to watch as the Indians seek out suitors for Lee.
The wild card in all of this is the Yankees. (As is all too often the case.) Chien-Ming Wang has been shaky this season, and there's no better way to replace a shaky pitcher than with one of the most reliable pitchers in the game. The Yanks were reportedly one of the many teams scouting Lee this weekend, and they have a wealth of prospects, both pitchers and hitters, to dangle under the Indians' noses. Keep an eye on Brian Cashman for the rest of the week.
The reason all the Halladay rumors have been so confusing is that the Blue Jays are in an uncertain place right now in the American League. They're not a bad team, but they're not a pennant-winner, either. They led the AL East for a while early in the season, but they're not consistently going to beat the Red Sox or Yankees.
The Blue Jays are in a strange place, and whether they're rebuilding or not is difficult to discern. But in Cleveland, the picture is clear. The Indians are looking to find some young talent to start over again, and they certainly have the trade bait to get the ball rolling.
Never before has the real trade value of a current Cy Young winner gotten such little attention. But if the buzz around Lee starts to pick up over the next few days, it wouldn't be the most surprising thing in the world.
A week from now, all the Halladay hype might be a thing of the past. So might Cliff Lee's career in Cleveland.
