Johan Santana Rumors

Toronto general manager JP Riccardi has said that he is willing to listen to offers for Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay. The impetus for such an openness to trading a pitcher like Halladay is due to the Blue Jays struggles this season (a respectable 43-41, but fourth place and seven games back in the AL East) along with the remainder of the $14.25M that Halladay is owed for 2009 and the $15.75M that he is due for 2010. Halladay does have a full no trade clause, but unless he takes a Jake Peavy-like approach, it seems unlikely he'd restrict a trade.

The more interesting question is what it would really take to pry Halladay away from the Blue Jays. Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins? Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Jacoby Ellsbury from the Red Sox? In reality, neither team would do a deal such as that, but the example illustrates just how talented Halladay can be. It seems unlikely that the Blue Jays would settle for what the Twins got in return for Johan Santana, the only other pitcher who really fits in Halladay's class in terms of effectiveness and consistency. What would the Blue Jays need to let Halladay go?

The American League seems like an unlikely destination for Halladay. The Blue Jays are probably hesitant to trade him within the AL East (it wouldn't really help that fourth place standing) and no team in the AL Central requires the kind of firepower Halladay brings to win the division. The only reasonable destination in the American League would be Texas. They certainly have the talent within their farm system to get Halladay and a player of his talent level may be the only type of player the Rangers would be willing to part with some of their top prospects.

The NL East is similar to the AL Central in that it's anyone's division to win (save the Nationals). The Phillies would love to add Halladay (or anyone else who can throw above 88), but lack much in their farm system to acquire him. Florida certainly has the talent to interest the Blue Jays as mentioned above, but probably is not interested in adding payroll. The Cardinals seem like a possibility with respect to adding payroll and have some prospects the Blue Jays could be interested in.

Here is Jon Heyman's latest post.  Below are the highlights:

• The Yankees are making CC Sabathia their off season priority and plan to offer him more than the $137.5M that Johan Santana signed with the Mets last year. 
• Beyond Sabathia, the Yankees are expected to go after AJ Burnett, Derek Lowe and Oliver Perez and may even try to sign two of the three plus Sabathia.
• Mike Mussina seems likely to retire, but the Yankees decision on Andy Pettitte will pend Mussina's decision.
• The White Sox are not expected to keep Juan Uribe.
• There have been vague rumors about Hideki Matsui being traded, but Heyman doesn't see much merit there.

After another traumatic collapse for the New York Mets that found them on the outside looking in on the playoffs, Buster Olney of espn.com took a quick look at the Mets for 2009 and what will be different.  Most pieces of the team are in place for 2009 already:

• Omar Minaya has been resigned for four more years (in an election year, none the less).
• Jerry Manuel is expected to be retained.
• Jose Reyes is signed to a multi-year deal (through 2010).
• Carlos Delgado's 2009 option will likely be picked up by the team. 
• The Mets may not be thrilled with Carlos Beltran, but he is due to make $55.5M from 2009-2011, so he's unlikely to be traded.
• Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey will anchor the rotation in 2009.
• The bullpen needs fixing, but that would have been the case if the Mets won the WS or lost 100 games, so no shock there.

So what is left to fix?  Olney suggests that David Wright needs to do something to keep himself calm in big situations because his clutch performance is anything but.  Perhaps a sports pyschologist would work? 

Ken Davidoff of Newsday has another direction for the Mets to go, signing Francisco Rodriguez.

Sometimes there are a few nuggets of information that are not exactly rumors or opinions but interesting none the less. We'll summarize those articles here, so let's get started:

• Great Q&A here with Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer.
• More here on Andy Pettitte's future with the Yankees. Pettitte wants to come back, but Sherman isn't sure he'll be welcome.
• The worst trades of 2008. I'm not sure I agree with the Johan Santana assessment.
• Tim Redding is a New York guy and would like to play for the Yankees some day.
• A 9-page analysis of the feared Dr. James Andres.
• Follwed by a 7-page article about Scott Boras.

John Perotto from Baseball Perspectus gives us his daily Sunday round-up from major league baseball.

• Ryan Dempster has been phenomenal so far in 2008, but it may be challenging for the Cubs to resign the pitcher for 2009 and beyond.  They recently signed Carlos Zambrano and still have $86.5M remaining on his contract through 2013.  They also owe Ted Lilly $24M over the next two years, Jason Marquis a little more than $9.8M in 2009, and a club option fo $7M for Rich Harden.  For those scoring at home, that's $46.625M for their pitching staff already for 2009, or almost 40% for their 2008 payroll. 
  
• The play of Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie will make Julio Lugo expendable this off-season.  However, I don't think there will be much of a market for the $18M due to the struggling shortstop over 2009 and 2010.  The situation sounds a lot like what Buster Olney described in his most recent blog entry. 
  
• There has been talk that Twins pitcher Carlos Silva's best seasons were while pitching with good friend Johan Santana.  The Mets are rumored to be interested in the righty hoping that reuniting the friends will bring back Silva's old numbers.
• There are rumors that the Cincinnati Reds ownership will give general manager Walt Jockety the money he'd need to make a splash in the 2009 free agent market and try to contend.  Considering that the Brewers are not expected to retain CC Sabathia or Ben Sheets and will likely not be as good in 2009, there's certainly an opening for the Reds (or any team) to step in.
• Perotto believes that the Pirates will trade Jack Wilson before the start of the 2009 season.