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Jays not wowed, so Halladay stays put

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Jon Paul Morosi

Jon Paul Morosi is a national MLB writer for FOXSports.com. He previously covered baseball for the Detroit Free Press and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He began his journalism career at the Bay City Times in his native Michigan. Follow him on Twitter.

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Updated Jul 31, 2009 7:46 PM ET
     
 
The Roy Halladay Trade Mart shuttered its windows on Friday afternoon — and will likely remain closed until November. Baseball's non-waiver trade deadline came and went without its most-talked-about commodity changing teams. Halladay is still the Blue Jays' ace, just as he has been for years, just as Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi repeatedly said he would be. Despite countless reports about Halladay's status — on both sides of the border — for nearly four weeks, Ricciardi maintained his stance that the price would be steep. He told FOXSports.com senior baseball writer Ken Rosenthal earlier this week that he would need to be "wowed" in order to trade Halladay. Apparently, that didn't happen. "We knew what our wants were for something like this," Ricciardi said in a teleconference with reporters. "He's one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he does it in one of the toughest divisions in baseball. We call him Secretariat — he posts. "For us to trade this type of player, the face of the organization, we were going to have to get players of a high standard. ... We were very steadfast and honest about that from the beginning." Ricciardi said roughly 10 teams called to express interest in Halladay. In the end, he said he had serious talks with "two or three." The Phillies were perceived by many to be the frontrunner, but they acquired Cliff Lee from the Indians on Wednesday for a lower price than Ricciardi was demanding for Halladay. The Rangers, Dodgers and Red Sox all had conversations with Ricciardi about Halladay within the last week.
Halladay is under contract for next year at $15.75 million and a free agent thereafter. So, after all that fuss, the natural question is this: Could Ricciardi trade him during the offseason? Sure, he could. "If someone came up with a different approach in the winter," Ricciardi said, "we would have to listen." In other words, after the final out of the World Series, we'll be right back where we were on July 5, when Ricciardi acknowledged his intent to listen to offers. This fall, though, suitors won't be motivated by a pending deadline. They might also calculate that the price in prospects should be lower, since Halladay would only be available to pitch for them in one pennant race rather than two. In an efficient market — a term that doesn't always describe Major League Baseball — Halladay's trade value will never again be as high as it was this week, before the presumptive-favorite Phillies picked up Lee from Cleveland. Ricciardi, though, has a different read. "I don't know what the offers are going to be," he said, "but I would like to assume that the offers would be a little better than they were this time around." Players can be traded using waivers in August and be eligible for the postseason, but that's highly unlikely to happen in Halladay's case. He's almost certain to be claimed on waivers, and Ricciardi would have substantially less leverage in negotiating with one team in August than he did throughout July. So, Halladay will be a Blue Jay for the foreseeable future. The notion that Halladay would be in Toronto for 2010 was behind Ricciardi's decision to avoid trading the likes of shortstop Marco Scutaro, left-handed reliever Scott Downs and right-handed reliever Jason Frasor — all of whom had been tentatively placed on the market, pending a Halladay trade. "Roy was the central piece of the entire trade period for us," Ricciardi said. When considering the affect he had on every team looking for a starting pitcher, Halladay was the central piece in July for every team in the major leagues. And he didn't go anywhere in the end.
Tagged: Cliff Lee, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Marco Scutaro, Indians, Roy Halladay, Dodgers, Scott Downs, Jason Frasor, Phillies

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