Is Roy Halladay This Year’s CC Sabathia?

Two mainstream media sites are reporting that the Toronto Blue Jays are maintaining offers for their ace, Roy Halladay.

Halladay has been dominant in Toronto for the past seven seasons and has established himself as a top five pitcher in the league since then. However, at 32 years of age, there seems to be little or no future for Roy in Canada.

The Blue Jays have a few nice pieces, but their two best young pieces – Travis Snider and Adam Lind – and their best player – Alex Rios – all make their money at the plate. Without AJ Burnett protecting Halladay in the rotation, and with the other four arms in their rotation being left-handed, it looks like it is time for Toronto to deal their best arm, and arguably the best pitcher in the AL, to bring in a few prospects, preferably arms, to build a team that will compete in the future – when the Red Sox and Yankees are getting old.

Most of the likely contenders for Halladay that FOX Sport’s Ken Rosenthal lists are competitors with big checkbooks. The obvious suspects like the Red Sox, Mets and even the Yankees are involved in talks.

The Red Sox could set-up a playoff dream rotation with Halladay, Beckett, and Lester. Any deal with Boston would involve youngster Clay Buchholz, who is 2-9 with a 6.75 ERA but has tremendous potential, and hard throwing reliever Manny Delcarmen.

The Yankees could also set-up a stud playoff rotation starting with Halladay, Sabathia and Burnett. Roy would be reunited with his former teammate in AJ Burnett, though he would be stuck in the band box that is the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will likely offer catchers Jesus Montero or Austin Romine.

An underdog in the Halladay sweepstakes could be the Texas Rangers. While the Ballpark in Arlington is not a pitcher’s park by any means, Toronto could think up a dream deal with all of the prospects the Rangers have in the best farm system in baseball. Texas needs someone to relieve the ace workload from Kevin Millwood, who is having a surprisingly good year this far, and adding an ace like him. Give Halladay time to work with Nolan Ryan and he could easily improve his game, as strange as it sounds.

Toronto could pursue one of Texas’ two star pitching prospects – Neftali Perez or Derrick Holand – and a few young but less valuable bats that can give their system some more pop and I think you have a deal.

Possibly sneaky? Chicago White Sox. They offered for Jake Peavy, why not offer for Halladay?

In the National League, two East teams will be bidding for Roy. The Mets and the Phillies are both in need of rotation help and both teams have money to spend.

Philadelphia has been after Halladay for a few years now and Halladay and their improved farm system could offer studs Dominic Brown (outfield) or Kyle Drabek (pitcher). The World Series MVP Cole Hamels would be a fantastic punch in the playoffs, as would Halladay and Johan Santana.

The Mets could really use arm, but until they have a healthy line-up, it may not matter. Johan’s 9-7 record is misleading for how good he has been, so adding an arm without any run support may prove to be a waste of a prospect.

Team that needs him the most: The Brewers.

It would be their second straight rent-a-player, last year’s cost them Matt LaPorta, but they really need an ace to secure their division title in a weak NL Central. The situation this time around would be a bit different. Without another ace-caliber pitcher – is Jake Peavy sill available? – Milwaukee will likely be exiting the playoffs after the first round again.