MLB.com's Carrie Muskat reported Friday that the Blue Jays initiated contact with the Cubs on a potential Roy Halladay deal.
Muskat doesn't believe anything will happen with the Cubs in that regard, but, if true, it's still awfully interesting that the Jays are calling around to discuss Halladay with other teams. That suggests a deal is a lot more likely to take place than if they were just sitting back and waiting for the Yankees, Red Sox and others to come to them.
Chicago wouldn't work for Halladay given the team's needs. The Cubs already employ three starting pitchers making eight figures per year in Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly, and the team is primarily interested in upgrading the offense.
The Jays will not trade Roy Halladay to any team in the American League.
Well, the Cubs could trade Mark Grace and Ryne Sandburg to the Jays for Halliday, so that the Jays could stock up on rule 5 players ahead of the draft. If I'm not mistaken, just before the draft last year, Hank Steinbrenner offered Thurman Munson's contract to the Pirates in return for the fishing rights to Roberto Clemente. This time of year, all sorts of strange moves occur. The rule 5 draft is MLB's answer to Walpurgisnacht.