Boston Red Sox Offered Toronto Six Pitching Prospects for Roy Halladay?

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According to a recent article on MLBTradeRumors.com (seen here), the Red Sox had offered six of their best young pitchers (Justin Masterson, Felix Doubront, Nick Hagadone, Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, and Michael Bowden) to the Toronto Blue Jays for their ace, Roy Halladay, before the trade deadline of July 31.

This deal seems incredibly un-Theo Epstein-like. Since arriving in Boston in 2003, Epstein has repeatedly preached prospect development.

Several of the products of the deep Red Sox system, such as Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Kevin Youkilis, have gone on to have a ton of success in the majors.

It had already been known that the Red Sox offered the best package to the Blue Jays for Halladay, and that Boston had very aggressively pursued Halladay. JP Ricciardi, Blue Jays GM, had also said the Boston deal was "probably the best deal [we] received."

One scout has said that he has "zero idea why they didn't take Boston's offer." Bob Elliot of the Toronto Sun has given his readers two reasons why Toronto didn't take Boston's offer:

1. They didn't want Doc to beat them in 2010 (the only full season he'd be with the Red Sox).

2. They had doubts about Masterson developing into a starter. Apparently, the Cleveland Indians didn't share the Blue Jays' doubts, as that was the main reason why Masterson was sent to Cleveland for Victor Martinez.

I can add a reason why Epstein must've been drunk when he offered this deal: Why would he send the future of his franchise's pitching staff to a division rival for a player that they'd have to either pay ungodly amounts of money or let walk?

So that's my take on this (potentially fabricated) deal. What's yours, Red Sox Nation?

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