Halladay Inching Out of Phillies Grasp?

The Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays are seemingly getting further and further away from a deal for ace Roy Halladay.

After reports across the internet were reporting that Halladay was all but buying his plane ticket to Philly from getting the trade done.

Now it seems that Halladay is staying in Toronto for the time being, and there seems to be nothing the Phils can do about it.

The Phillies have been offering just about everything that they can offer, within reason that is. The Blue Jays are staying put in that they want top prospects Kyle Drabek, Dominic Brown, and J.A. Happ in return for Halladay.

The problem with that is that the Phillies are adamantly saying that there is no way that they will give up both Happ and Drabek in the same deal, let alone include Brown in the trade as well.

The perfect trade for the Phillies would be for them to trade Happ, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald, and Brown, or Michael Taylor. As I think about this trade, the Blue Jays are getting more top prospects, that more than likely will turn out to be good, solid players for them. They are getting a shortstop with a solid up-side, an outfielder with amazing talent, and two pitchers that will be middle-to top of the rotation pitchers for their whole careers.

And through all of that, the Jays are saying that that trade is not good enough to get Halladay. In fact, J.P. Ricciardi, the general manager for the Blue Jays is saying that there is a slim chance that Halladay will be traded at all.

The piece of information that has been said around various bloggers and reporters that has been bugging me is that Halladay’s trade value would plummet if he would fail to be traded before the deadline.

So why would Ricciardi want to keep Halladay if he says that he wants to test the free-agent market after this year, and Ricciardi knows that  would get close to nothing compared with what he might get now from the Philies. Here is a sample of what the Phils would most likely give up for Halladay during the off-season:

Carrasco, and Donald, along with some other minor prospects, but nothing compared to Drabek or Happ.

So it seems that we will see Ricciardi’s true intentions in the next couple of days when the trade deadline is looming, and he will have to think fast on what is best for his team, and if he really wants to ignore a very reasonable offer from the Phils now, and have to pay the consequences during the off-season, when teams are just ignoring his calls because of his outrageous demands.

If Ricciardi wants to get anything for Halladay, if Ricciardi wants to honor Halladay’s legacy in Toronto, as a Toronto Blue Jay, Ricciardi will trade Halladay now, for a reasonable offer, and drop the tough guy act. ( Because seriously, only Theo Epstein can pull that one off! )