Blue Jays Pitcher Roy Halladay on the Trading Block

Coming into 2009 the Toronto Blue Jays knew they had an above average offense. What remained suspect was their pitching staff. With only two starters from the previous season on the roster for opening day, the Jays were in position to possibly reload for the future.

However, Toronto got off to a good start in April, going 15-9 and tied for the lead in the AL East with the Boston Red Sox, according to MLB.com. Surprisingly, the Blue Jays starting pitching was delivering quality starts and were pitching deep into ballgames, thus lightening the load on the bullpen. Everything was clicking along surprisingly well for the first half of the season until June 13, when Halladay went on the Disabled List with a strained right groin. At the time, according to Fanhouse.com, Halladay was 10-1 with a 2.53 ERA, numbers that had him in contention to start the All-Star Game. After Halladay's injury, the Blue Jays have gone 10-15 according to MLB.com and have fallen to one game under .500, ten games behind the division leading Red Sox.

With the team quickly falling out of contention, the Blue Jays have made it known that they are willing to trade their star pitcher in return for some good young talent. Now, there are several aspects of this story that need to be considered. Halladay still has another year left on his contract, but he also has a full no-trade clause that means he must approve any deal that Toronto puts together for him in a trade. This clause has already been used by Padres' ace Jake Peavy when he turned down a possible trade to the Chicago White Sox.

The other part to this story is what teams are in line to pick up a pitcher like Roy Halladay? Just about every team in the league would like to pick up a pitcher of Halladay's caliber, but it only makes sense for a few. This narrows the playing field significantly. The Philadelphia Phillies are one team that has expressed interest in picking up a starting pitcher. They will probably make a bid to get Halladay, but they are also looking at signing free agent Pedro Martinez as well. Expect the Phillies to get one of these two, but they will not have to give up a load of prospects in order to sign Martinez as they would to get Halladay.

Halladay has also expressed that if traded, he would like to move to the National League, where the lineups are not as powerful as in the AL. The Blue Jays would also like to have him move to the NL because they would not have to face him. So, the other obvious landing spot in the NL is in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are a team in a large market without financial restraints. They are also a team that is capable of winning the World Series this season, and adding an arm like Halladay would make their chances that much better. Also, the Dodgers may be more willing to give up some front-line prospects because they think this may be their season to bring home the big trophy.

After all this is said, it is also entirely possible that the Blue Jays may choose to hold on to Halladay - being that he is still under contract - and try and build a strong rotation and bullpen with him as the foundation. In any case, this looks to be the big trade story of the summer, but it may go right down to the trade deadline wire on July 31.

"Regular Season Standings." MLB.com.

Andrew Johnson, "Roy Halladay Bound for 15-day DL." Fanhouse.com.