Report: Want Halladay, Then Take Wells Too
Via George King this morning:
The buzz around MLB scouts is that if a team is interested in acquiring Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays it better be ready to accept center fielder Vernon Wells, too. Since Wells has $107 million remaining starting next year, that’s going to be hard to swallow.
Funny, yesterday, I wrote:
Here’s today’s wild thought – and it’s tied to all the talk about Doc Halladay being available via trade.
What if the Blue Jays decide to handle this like the Marlins did when they made Josh Beckett available? By this, I mean, what if Toronto decides to use this as an opportunity to dump Vernon Wells contract – insisting that the team who trades for Halladay also takes Wells – like when Florida insisted that the team who acquired Beckett also took Mike Lowell.
Maybe I should have been a MLB scout instead of a blogger? [wink]
I sure hope that Cashman is not just bluffing about not being interested in Halladay. Then we’d be back to a team of overpaid, aging stars. The Yanks learned a lesson (as have many other teams) that accumulating big names does not necessarily make a winning team. It’s a model Yanks have thankfully moved away from.
Amen.
Of course, this means that if the more salary the Yanks are willing to eat, the less they’ll give up for Halladay/Wells.
Yeah, Wells stinks, but the Yanks could do worse. Stick him in a corner, or have him be a real expensive 4th/5th OF. Or pay some other team to take him off their hands.
It can be done.
I predict there is a 0% chance that any team takes on Wells’ contract in a deal. All you have to check out is the salaries better outfielders like Dunn got in the off-season.
Actually, I’d trade Wells to the Padres, or something, and absorb 75% of his contract. Maybe get a reliever (not Bell, of course). Maybe a long guy/spot starter guy, like Chad Gaudin. He’s not terribly good, but he can throw innings.
Would not tie up a spot on the roster with Wells, who’s obviously in deep decline.
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I would not close the door on Halladay so fast. If the Red Sox make a play, the Yankees must be in it, if only to deny him to the Sox.
No matter how things look now, and the near future, if the Sox can front Halladay/Beckett/Lester, they Yanks ain’t winnin’ nothin in the next couple of years.
I don’t think the Sox will do that, but the situation is a game of chicken, like the game over Santana a year and a half ago.
@ Evan3457:
I don’t care what the Sox do. If Cashman wants to play to increase someone else’s price then fine. But don’t get stuck with mortgaging the future so that Roy Halladay can get paid by us for his great years in Toronto. Do you want a 34 yo high-priced pitcher in decline on the team in 2 yrs?
Also, the Sox are loaded with young talent. They can make a deal with little impact on the major league team. How many AAA pitchers have a major league no hitter? We would have to give up Hughes and/or Chamberlain.
Let them have him.
Halladay…Beckett…Lester