Ricciardi Discusses Halladay

Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi is tired of the Roy Halladay rumors, even though they are entirely his fault.  He told ESPN’s Jayson Stark:

"Roy Halladay is not going anywhere," Ricciardi says, as emphatically as he can possibly say it without grabbing a bullhorn or splashing it on a billboard. "This has become kind of a hot topic in baseball, but we’re not trading him. We have no intention of trading him. He allows us to be good. And we feel we are going to be good. And he’s going to be The Guy."  So there. It’s settled, right? Trading his ace has never entered the GM’s mind?  "Nope," the GM says succinctly.

But here’s Ricciardi about a week ago, to Joel Sherman of the New York Post:

"Ownership wants no part of trading Roy at this time.  He’s the face of the organization. Right now we are not thinking about going down that road. But that is what we feel in February. Who knows how you feel in June?  We have thought about it, this has not escaped us [that Halladay could leave as a free agent, and trading him might be best for the long-term health of the organization].  In June, we may have to say. ’Is this the way we want to go?’ It will be up to ownership, and ownership has a strong attachment to Doc."

Ricciardi left the door wide open in his quotes to Sherman, and that was his choice.  Ricciardi also had this to say to CBSSports.com’s Scott Miller:

"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.  And if that was the case, then we’d be trading a lot of people."

If Ricciardi had made his emphatic statements to Sherman or Miller, we wouldn’t be talking about Halladay.