ShareThisIt's not all about Roy Halladay. The Toronto Blue Jays are already thinking about 2010 in other ways and have approached Adam Lind about going to Instructional League at the end of the season to play first base, a position he manned in college.
Lind's lefty-righty splits are so good that the Blue Jays want him in the lineup every day next season, and he's hardly the butcher in the field his detractors insist.
More to the point, when the Blue Jays hit training camp next year, Lyle Overbay will not be with the team. Travis Snider will be an everyday player in 2010, and the thinking around the Jays offices is that, even if just one of either Alex Rios or Vernon Wells is gone, there will be another outfielder in camp either by trade (the suddenly mute Scott Rolen) or free agency.
Which brings us back to Halladay. We are now in the "Phony War'' stage of what could be his final days with the Blue Jays. ESPN's Jayson Stark used to work for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I know who his sources are, so if he says the Philadelphia Phillies said no to a package of pitchers J.A. Happ and Kyle Drabek and outfielder Dominic Brown for Halladay -- and that the Blue Jays quite properly waved off the Phillies' counteroffer of Happ, outfield prospect Michael Taylor, pitcher Carlos Carrasco and shortstop Jason Donald -- we can all take it as gospel.
What's also true is that enough groundwork has been done that general manager J.P. Ricciardi's so-called deadline Tuesdau to trade Halladay is not carved in stone. He would make an exception for the Phillies. They are Halladay's preferred location because their spring training site in Clearwater, Fla. is close to his Palm Harbor home -- just like the Blue Jays' Dunedin facility.
(Although after Saturday's murder of a fan outside a restaurant in Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Ballpark as a result of an eighth-inning brawl, I could think of other places a guy might want to play)
So the real deadline for the Phillies remains Friday, and in the meantime, the Blue Jays lose nothing by waiting.
On Sunday, the Seattle Mariners placed Erik Bedard on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation. Nobody in their right mind would count on him down the stretch.
The New York Yankees have put Chien-Ming Wang's immediate future (and shoulder) in the hands of Dr. James Andrews. Not good -- but is it enough to get the Yankees to trade Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes, the starting price for any package for Halladay?
Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin was quoted this weekend as saying it was "almost impossible" that he'd trade third base prospect Mat Gamel or shortstop prospect Alcides Escobar.
So ... what's almost impossible? Isn't that like being "a little pregnant?"
The truth is that more seeds were planted this weekend than deals destroyed, and I'm told the Boston Red Sox have signaled their intentions. Another injury, a pitcher such as Cliff Lee being traded, in the process unclogging the market ... there's a great deal to be played out here.
The Blue Jays headed on a road trip Sunday night for Seattle and Oakland, and Halladay -- like his teammates -- adhered to the one piece of baggage restriction for the charter. (Ricciardi, meanwhile, is staying behind in Toronto and not traveling with the team.)
Don't read anything into that, and don't buy into the assertion the team can't plan for 2010 until they've determined what they'll do with Halladay. With or without him, it's time to back up the truck because right now the product stinks.
(Contact Jeff Blair at jblair(at)globeandmail.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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