You can all set your timer…NOW. Roy Halladay has stated that he wants a deal to be done by Spring Training or else he won’t approve a deal after he reports, which puts incredible strain on the Blue Jays and its new General Manager.
Given this new wrinkle to the almost daily saga of Halladay’s future, the Blue Jays likely only have about 2 to 2 1/2 months until they are stuck with two lousy draft picks from whomever would sign Doc Halladay a year from now.
The Blue Jays have said that they would do whatever is best for the Blue Jays in the long run. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that trading him and getting 2-3 highly rated prospects (or even young stars) would be the best way to go. If Halladay would leave and the Blue Jays would only receive two draft picks, none which would obviously not be remotely close to ‘Major League ready’ or even guaranteed of making the Majors.
A rush to get a deal done obviously would benefit the Yankees (or any other competing team) by possibly allowing for a situation in which the Blue Jays didn’t get ‘fair’ compensation from the team that traded for him. However, this also allows for a secondary situation such as overpaying in prospects for Halladay to emerge. Such a situation could happen to the Yankees (or any other competing team) if they feel other teams are offering more. Should make for an interesting offseason never the less. As always, as more information becomes available, Zell’s will have it, so stick close!
Kevin Rozell
M. B. Rozell
Ray Rothfeldt
Eduardo Perez
