When I first saw the pre-Thanksgiving report that the Boston Red Sox were putting on the full court press of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay, all I could say is why.
You have a potential rotation of Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz and Tim Wakefield in 2010. Of course if the Red Sox did trade for Halladay obviously Buchholz would be a center piece and no longer in the rotation.
But the question remains, do the Red Sox really need Halladay?
They can use him sure but what happens if the Red Sox lose Jason Bay to free agency. They’d be losing a power bat in the middle of their lineup. Wouldn’t you rather use Buchholz and the other prospects you’re going to give up for a bat such as Adrian Gonzalez of the San Diego Padres or even Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers.
The Red Sox could go after Matt Holliday in free agency to replace Bay should he sign elsewhere. But they would need to hope that Holliday would replicate his NL numbers and not the ones he put up his brief stay in the AL with the Oakland A’s.
If the Red Sox did get Holliday or even got Bay back, they could seemingly step up their pursuit of Halladay and bolster their rotation. But is that really the answer?
Even if they couldn’t get Gonzalez this season from the Padres, there’s the potential of going after him after the 2010 season. With former Red Sox assistant GM Jed Hoyer in San Diego now, he’s going to now what he wants and if you trade for Halladay, you’re losing valuable poker chips.
But we live in the now and the Red Sox want to win in 2010 which means that a trade for Halladay could happen. But let’s hope that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein makes sure the other parts of the puzzle are fixed first before losing some pieces.
