Scott Miller of CBSSports.com looks at just how long the Toronto Blue Jays will be able to hold on to ace pitcher Roy Halladay. Writes Miller:
If the Blue Jays veer off course… they could reach a point where the organization might be best served if Ricciardi fields offers for Halladay.
"The only way we’d trade him, I’d say, is if all hell broke loose and the stock market went nuts and (ownership) said we’ve got to take the payroll down to bare bones," Ricciardi says. "And if that was the case, then we’d be trading a lot of people."
The other part of the "all hell breaking loose" scenario, of course, would be the bottom dropping out unexpectedly on the Blue Jays early in ’09, and them sailing toward the July trading deadline hopelessly out of the AL East race.
That happens, Ricciardi is guaranteed to be inundated by contending vultures looking to pick Halladay from the Jays’ carcass.
"At that point, we’d have to reevaluate," the GM says.
In this case, "inundated" might be a bit of an understatement.
