When it comes to off-field distractions, Roy Halladay would prefer not to deal with the drama.
ESPN’s Buster Olney spoke with one of Halladay's reps and said that if Roy Halladay is still with the Blue Jays next season, he will veto any trades after Spring Training and will therefore fly the coop as a free agent
Part of me wants to believe that it's just Halladay's agents who are trying to stir the pot and get the check-books of the Yankees and the Red Sox warmed up for the impending bidding war. Alex Anthopolous says he hasn't heard this from the horse's mouth or spoken to Halladay's representatives directly, so one can only guess the validity of this claim.
If this statement is in fact true, is it really all that surprising?
From the All-Star game until the July 31 trade deadline, all eyes in baseball were on Roy Halladay. Up until that point, Halladay’s biggest audience was the handful of Toronto sports writers…then the Ken Rosenthal article dropped and all hell broke loose.
We learned one important thing during that storm of trade talk and rumours—Halladay does not want to experience that ever again.
Speaking to the media and fielding questions day after day was not part of his routine, and whether or not he wants to admit it, maybe all that attention threw him off his game a little bit.
Some might say that Halladay’s alleged declaration decreases his trade value, but I think it actually increases it. If teams were banking on picking up Doc at the trade deadline as a rental, they now have to re-think their strategies and determine whether they have the resources to trade for him prior to Spring Training 2010.
For Alex Anthopoulos and the Toronto Blue Jays, it’s either now or never—trade Roy Halladay or watch him leave uncontested, just like Carlos Delgado did in 2004.
While it would be excruciatingly difficult to see Roy Halladay just walk away from this organization as a free agent, Halladay and his agents have all the power and the Blue Jays are simply at their mercy.
I just hope that Halladay take it easy on Jays.
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