Roy Halladay Stays Put, But the Trade Deadline Still Sees Much Action

We’ve spent weeks arguing over the fate of Roy Halladay. Would the Blue Jays’ ace wind up in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, or LA? Maybe even Texas?

It seemed to be a done deal that the starter for the American League in the All Star game would find his way onto the roster of a contender. A starting pitcher the caliber of Halladay rarely hits the market midseason, so it seemed only logical that every general manager with a sniff at October would at least try to put together some sort of package that would please Toronto.

But that was the problem.

Toronto was in the unique position of not needing to trade away their superstar. Most teams don’t start shopping their talent until they have to do so.

Take the Oakland A’s. With Matt Holliday’s contract expiring at the end of this year, Billy Beane had to either take what he could in a trade or watch the slugger depart via free agency. The A’s bit the bullet. Did they get the most that they could for Holliday? Probably not, but it was better than getting nothing.

Toronto, however, still has Halladay under contract for next season. That gives Toronto a whole year before they have to make any compromises. They weren’t about to settle for a good deal when they still have a chance to get a great one.

Was J.P. Ricciardi being realistic in waiting for a team to make him an offer that would blow him away? Of course not. Baseball doesn’t work that way.

But Ricciardi still has a whole year to decide to settle for offers like the ones he was getting, so why jump now? He may get better offers down the road. If he does, Toronto will end up a winner. If he doesn’t it’s no major setback.

And what about the teams interested in acquiring Halladay? How did they fare at the trade deadline?

Well, Philly picked up Cliff Lee, a former Cy Young winner himself. Lee is not quite as great as Halladay, but he still gives the Phillies the one-two punch at the top of the rotation that they need. Once the playoffs start, Lee and Hamels are going to look like a pretty formidable pair of starters for the defending world champs.

Boston also came out strong despite not making the move for Halladay. The Red Sox already have strong starting pitching and used their trade moves to pick up cheaper, but still valuable players such as Victor Martinez and Casey Kotchman.

Love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that Theo Epstein is one of the smartest men in baseball.

The Yankees already have so much invested in their starting pitching that even they had to be leery of adding another high-profile, high-price pitcher. And for New York, I’m not sure that it matters. They are the most talented team without Halladay, so would his addition really change their fate? Probably not. They should be the favorite to win the World Series with or without another big arm.

As for the other teams that showed interest (both LA teams and the Rangers in particular), it is questionable that any of them had the means and guts to make a move for Halladay. They are teams that like to grow their own talent, so they can’t afford to trade away all of their best prospects for one guy, no matter how good he is.

Fortunately for them, all of those teams have been pretty good without Halladay. By protecting their farm systems, they probably ensured that they will remain pretty good for a while.

So nobody really came out a loser in the Roy Halladay sweepstakes.

Not even the fans.

There were so many other interesting trades. We watched the Pirates seemingly trade away their entire roster. The Indians followed Pittsburgh’s example by unloading their best players. Several other interesting deadline deals—Jake Peavy to the White Sox, Jarrod Washburn to the Tigers, and Orlando Cabrera to the Twins—bolstered the strength of the AL Central’s top three teams.

So we can enjoy watching the results of all of these trades pan out over the next few months (or in the case of Indians’ fans, the next few years).

And trust me when I tell you that you have not heard the last of Roy Halladay. He didn’t get an invitation to ride the merry-go-round of the trade deadline. But he will within a year.

And that means that we get to have fun speculating all over again.