Winter Meetings Remain Quiet

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.

*The hoped for result of Rod Barajas rejecting the Jays' offer of arbitration means that if he signs with anther club the Jays will have nine June draft selection before the third round. The only three players to accept their club's offer of arbitration were Rafael Soriano, Rafael Betancourt and Carl Pavano.

The two Hall-of-Famers named by the Veterans Committee were in the press rom on Tuesday morning, manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey. The White Rat was always a media favourite because one of his things was that win or lose he always opened his clubhouse as soon as the last player was in, thus making them accountable to fans. He also, personally, would go in the training room or the lounge to fish a player out for the writers if he felt they were trying to hide. As for the regal arbiter Harvey, t was pointed out that his nickname was "God" because of his infallible decisions, but I always felt that the nickname was invoked more often by guys that disagreed with him or had been tossed.

Congratulations to Harvey and Herzog, but one mistake that has continued to hurt the credibility of the Veterans Committee is the continued exclusion of former union chief Marvin Miller who formed the Players' Association back in the '60s and changed baseball forever. He improved working conditions, ushered in free agency and organized the best pension plan in North American organized labour. His impact on the game in a positive way has been irrevocable and deserves recognition, but the management types on the Veterans Committee have constantly voted against him. It's not right.

Comments

[Clint]

Richard, it sounds like Granderson to the Yanks is back on, will the loss of Austin Jackson in the trade take the Yankees right out of the trade market for the Jays? If so then what does AA do with the Doc situation? Settle for less from Boston.

[Todd Buttenham]

Richard, has there been any speculation as to who the Jays would receive in a trade with the Angels? Are there multi-team trade scenarios under discussion with more than just the Jays and Angels?