Jays must trade Halladay now

Sunday, July 19, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

A whole bunch of baseball people traveled to Toronto this weekend to watch Roy Halladay pitch, as Ken Fidlin writes. It's a sure sign of a robust market for Halladay -- a seller's market, perhaps, a market in which the Blue Jays can set a price and stick to it.

But if the folks in the Toronto front office took some time to review the events that followed the 2007 season, they could reach only one conclusion: If they want to make the best possible deal for Halladay, they must trade him in the next 12 days. If they don't make a deal before July 31, they may wind up with much less than what they can get now from the Phillies, Angels or Dodgers.

To see Buster's take on the Twins' handling of the Santana deal, why that should prompt the Jays to trade Halladay sooner rather than later, plus extensive news, notes and analysis from around MLB, you must be an ESPN Insider. Insider  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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