Well the second part of that is true. Ownership is banking on A.A`s scouting prowess in this trade, getting value is still a major factor and with a thin FA pool Toronto can still be tough negotiators

Yankees, do it......

It looks like Toronto is starting to get a little desperate in working out a trade for Halladay. Halladay will probably have a new home by Spring.

The Blue jays are looking to get at least 1 everyday player and at least 3-4 minor league guys for Halladay. If Halladay was smart he would demand to sign a long term deal prior to going to any team.

though a long shot, i say halladay, aaron hill, vernon wells for cano, melky,joba and mid level prosect, if blue jays eat 60 to 70 % of well's contract. all positions covered and blue jays payro;; drops dramatically.

Halladay would want to make a deal happen since unlike a deal made in July a full season anything can happen so it is safe to make a deal happen before the season starts. If he was traded and no extension was made and gets hurt after 3 starts for the season during his walk year his value would take a huge hit. I wouldnt be surprised if Halladay himself told the GM the only way he approves any trade was to include the extension window.

They weren't actively trading him 3 months ago, as they said then, and as demomnstrated by not allowing any team to talk contract extension with Doc! They will probably trade him this year if the deal is good, but it is NOT a done deal - with their whole starting staff, which was #1 in 2008, back from DL, they could contend, especially if they keep Doc. But they will be offered lots and maybe enough to take it - more than just an everyday player plus prospects.

Mark E,
Maybe the Jays should eat part of Halladay's new contract too. Don't want to leave the Yankees strapped for cash.

Evil you should be GM. If you were, the Yankees would trade for King Felix, Halladay and Zack Greinke. Then they'd sign Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. He'd order that the entire Yankee Stadium be covered in 24k gold leaf and would demand that Obama step down so Hank Steinbrenner could be president. Down the road, the Yankees would slowly buy every MLB team. He'd start with the Pittsburgh Pirates and demand a member of the Rooney family shine his shoes twice a day, five days a week. Throughout his tenure, he'd take blood samples from his star players and create a cloning chamber, keeping at least three clones for each starter on reserve.

Mark E, I bet the Yankees wish you were GM. That trade is awful. The best player the Jays would get is Cano and he's not THAT much better than Aaron Hill. On top of that, you want the Jays to pick up part of Wells contract? You can be Evil's AGM. Including Wells would help the Yankees chances of landing Halladay, but only if the Yankees take on the entire contract.

Abe Paul, honestly, I hope you're right. I enjoy seeing big-time players stay with the teams they came up with. We live in a material world and, unfortunately, baseball is a material sport. I don't share your confidence, though. I can say with 98% confidence that Halladay will be elsewhere come opening day.

Although I am Yankee fan I wanna believe the Yankees will land Halladay but I dont think they will. I can't see giving away talent for a big name pitcher. I'm not saying that Cano and Cabrera and Joba are the best things in baseball, but they have potential. I think the Yankees should focus on getting a pitcher like Lackey or someone to round out that second or third spot without the great expense. The outfield and hitting can also be a problem with the potential exiting of Damon and Matsui they should focus on a Bay or Holliday to round square away that order. Im not saying the Yankees won't land Halladay but chances are some other team is going to scoop him up with better prospects.

Here is this offseason odds on the team who lands Halladay
Red Sox 5-1
Dodgers 7-1
Phillies 9-1
Angels 10-1
Yankees 15-1
Mets 20-1
Field 25-1
No Deal 20-1

my moneys on no deal....Im a gambler

Artist #7: Good point. I agree that getting an extension done prior to a trade is now in Halladay's best interest (whereas it may not have been as high a priority in July), and with the extra time provided by the off-season, and him Halladay having veto power through his no-trade clause, the Blue Jays really have no choice but to accommodate him.
Having said that, I still think it is a buyer's market for Halladay. I still think most of the teams you listed in your odds in #14 will be in contention come the All-Star Break without Halladay, so they can save $8-9 million in salary by picking him up then IF they feel they need him to compete, but I think most would like to wait and see. The way I see it, Halladay's market value from a trade perspective will be about the same as it is now.
IF Halladay isn't traded to one of the LA teams (he makes too much sense in either location... the Dodgers desperately need a #1 starter and have the payroll capacity to afford him, and the Angels can slot him into Lackey's spot for only a modest increase in what they're willing to pay Lackey in an extension), I see him being the Blue Jays' opening day starter.

Artist #14: Do those odds add up to 1:1?

I'll take the Dodgers and throw a C-Note on it! lol.........im crossin my fingers.

PPW - So you pick no deal also. I think what happens to the big 3 free agents will be huge in deciding who gets Halladay. If Lackey goes to the Dodgers I can see the Phillies wanting to make this happen b/c the Phillies played LA 2wice the last 2 seasons in the NLCS and would like to assume they will be there a 3rd time with them and would want to counter that. Even more a reason for them to go for Halladay is if the Mets get Lackey and/or Holliday to offset their moves. Mix in Happ's value is still high Phillies to me will be the team that will land him still but I have the Sox number 1 on the list only b/c I imagine they hated the Yankees winning this year and if there is a chance they lose Bay they will try to get Felix or Halladay with their huge pool of pitching talent in the minors to keep pace with the Yankees. Of course if they do trade for either of them they are banking on Dice K and Wakes health b/c it will certainly cost at minimum Clay Buchholz..

#13 - nyy23457 - I can tell you're a Yankee fan just by you saying you can add Lackey "without the great expense." Granted, he'd be cheaper than signing Halladay to an extension, but he's still one of the top free agents out there and will get pretty big money.

Based on what I was hearing back in July the trade deal is not going to get done unless a team wants to rent Halladay for a year. Halladay had made it quite clear that his plan is to test the free agent market after the 2010 season. I don't see any reason for him to have changed his mind on that. As a free agent he has complete control of the team he would end up playing for. Personally I don't see any advantage to turning that power over to the new GM of Toronto. If Halladay had been interested in discussing an extension with a team, that would have been included as part of this past summer's deal, it wasn't and the Toronto GM knew it, so did the other GM's. That is why no trade got done. The old GM wanted more than what other teams were willing to give up for a pitcher they would have only for 1-1/2 years.

Artist #20: I'd place three bets. No deal @ 20-1, Dodgers @ 7-1, Angels @ 10-1. I would accept money from those betting on the Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies. The wild card bet, to me, is the Mets. I just don't know what the Mets will do, but it almost doesn't matter, because no matter what it is, they'll find a way to screw it up.
I think there is absolutely no way on God's green creation that the Phillies trade for Halladay this off-season. That ship has sailed. There is just no way, no how, that the Phillies have the money to spend on long-term deals for both Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, so giving up the prospects that we already know the Blue Jays want for Halladay (several, not all of Taylor, Happ, Drabek, and Brown) for a one-year rental of Halladay, when the team is already expected to heavily contend without him, is epic stupidity. And if Ruben Amaro, Jr. proved anything in his first year as GM, it's that he's not stupid. A very vocal portion of the fan base, on the other hand, is clamoring for a "sell the farm, buy Roy Halladay" trade. They're, obviously, not quite as smart.

Artist,
At 15-1, I want to put some money on the Yankees. How much can I get down? Boston at 5-1 is a sucker bet.

Edward B #22: Not that you don't make some good points, but the reason Ricciardi didn't want to provide teams a window to discuss an extension was that there were time pressures associated with getting the deal done, and to provide an exclusive window to any one team only reduced the Blue Jays' bargaining position in terms of trade value as the clock ticked closer to the deadline. Ricciardi botched the Halladay trade pretty badly, but on this issue he was right, I think. Perhaps he should have started earlier (mid-June), but other than that, I think he didn't have much choice.
If I was Roy Halladay, I treat this off-season as my "testing the waters in FA." The reason being is that there is a relatively weak FA market for starting pitchers this year. Not so next year. Next year, Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett, Brandon Webb, Javier Vazquez, Jorge de la Rosa and Ted Lilly, among numerous slightly lower tier pitchers (Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroya, Kevin Millwood, Jake Westbrook) will all be on the FA market. And that's just the pitchers. I count six 2009 All-Star position players who will also be FAs after the 2010 season, as will Manny Ramirez.
With only a limited number of teams who can afford the big bucks all these guys will command, Halladay may be much better off trying to demand a trade and sign an extension this off-season than to get in the middle of that game of high-stakes musical chairs a year from now.