The Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos continued one-on-one sessions with his fellow GMs on the second day of the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis.
“It's always tough to make trades," the rookie said. There's always gut-check time where you have to make a decision that makes sense or not. You never look at a trade and in the blink of an eye say 'Done!' There's always things to evaluate."
A.A. will meet with the Toronto media for an update at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday on an unspecified floor in an unspecified room, not his own.
Speculation is that the Angels still want to re-sign their own free agent starter John Lackey, but that he wants to begin negotiations from the platform created by A.J. Burnett with the Yankees of five years, $82.5 million. Lackey has been an injury prone No. 2 guy in the Angels' rotation (sounds a lot like A.J.). Any team would be better off making a trade for Halladay and then signing him to a four-year extension beyond his remaining one year for $15.75 million. In the proper situation for Halladay in which he and his family feel comfortable, it would not be surprising if he would take a four year extension at $20 million per year making his cost over the next five seasons $95.75 million. In the NL, given good health, he would be an annual 20-game winner over the course of that contract. That's as close to a sure thing as you can get in pro sports.
One interesting three-way (aren't they all?) could impact the Jays and Halladay, but it has been already dismissed in morning speculation. It would have involved the D'backs, Yankees and Tigers. The gist of it wold have seen the talented Curtis Granderson end up in pinstripes, with starter Edwin Jackson going to the Snakes. Where it affects the Jays' deal is that outfielder Austin Jackson would have gone from the Yankees to the Tigers and he is one of the players being coveted by the Jays in any Doc transaction. Apparently according to Buster Olney of ESPN The Magazine, only one team was happy with the details and when that happens, those sort of things usually flame out.
http://thestar.blogs.com/baseball/
