Blue Jays Playing Hard Ball?

The price was steep, top prospect Kyle Drabek, Dominic Brown and rookie of they year candidate J..A Happ.

 

Throughout this process Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. has made it known that the Phils were willing to give up either J.A Happ or Kyle Drabek,  but not both. So obviously Ruben didn't pull the trigger on the deal.  

 

The Phils did supply a quick counter offer believed to be a package including Jason Donald, Carlos Carrasco, Dominic Brown and J.A. Happ. The Blue Jays rejected this offer as they are insisting that both Happ and Drabek are included in a deal for Halladay.

Now is this a GM and a team playing hardball? 

It certainly appears that way, but it's all just smoke and mirrors. Ricciardi is obviously trying to get the best deal for his club. He's playing sides against each other hoping to get perhaps a handful of teams in a bidding war for Halladay. However, Ricciardi has asked for too much from every team who has inquired about Roy's services. He's asking for the moon when in reality he and the Jays have nearly zero leverage. 

Hallady does have one year remaining on his deal so that buys them a little bit of time to trade him right?

Wrong.

If Halladay is not traded before the July 31st trade deadline Ricciardi and the Jays can forget about cleaning out another teams farm system come next July.  Halladay's value goes down if he's not traded this season. No team is going to butcher their entire Minor League system for what could amount to be a 2 month rental.

 

It's simply not going to happen and Ricciardi and the Jays know it. Well at least you would hope they do, you would think they could have learned something from the Minnesota Twins and how they handled the dealing of Johan Santana. 

Ricciardi is playing the tough guy GM which has seemed to rub other GM's around the league the wrong way. One thing Ricciardi has failed to understand is that he is no position to demand anything from anyone. True he has a commodity that teams are after, but Halladay's only on the trading block because Ricciardi has no choice but to put him there.

 

The Jays payroll this season is a little above $80 Million, they already have over $81 Million committed for next season. And with contracts like the one Vernon Wells got, one that will pay him over $100 Million Dollars, that committed number will only get better. And a team that consistently fails to compete can ill-afford to continually add payroll. 

Now I'm not saying Toronto should trade Halladay to the Phillies, I'm saying that they simply must trade him now if they expect to get back near full value. Also, the Phillies we're right to not give in and give away nearly their entire farm system. Yes, I understand that they are called prospects for a reason but you can't allow yourself to get bullied by someone whose not a threat.

 

There is no sense in giving up more then you have too, and it's my belief that as the days go by Halladay maybe had for less and less. Now if a few other teams get involved or  are "reportedly" involved then of course you may have to just suck it up and give up more then you previously thought if you really want him.

 

Something Ricciardi has done a very poor job of doing is making it seem like a few teams are "close." He's done so much demanding that he's made the price for Halladay too high for almost every team in the Majors. 

Ricciardi's job is certainly in jeopardy and because of this he obviously wants to get this Halladay deal done right. However, there is a reason why his job is in jeopardy and we're seeing exhibit A right now. 

Yeah sure, Ricciardi and the Jays are playing hard ball now but if they're smart they'll change their tune as deadline day approaches. Tick-tock Toronto, Tick-tock.