The winter meetings are essentially over. The rule 5 draft is held this morning and then the airport rush begins. The Blue Jays do have an open slot on their 40-man roster but it is uncertain whether they will select anyone. Elsewhere the Halladay rumours are still going strong and the Jays might have added a speedy outfielder. The Jays have also added a pitcher in the rule 5 draft.
Around the meetings:
Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Angels and the Phillies are vying for Halladay. Robo repeats last nights Sun report that the Angels are offering Joe Saunders, Erick Aybar and Peter Bourjos. However Robo adds that the Jays could then spin off Saunders to a third team. Robo also notes that the Angels would back off if Lackey agrees to come back to Anaheim. Phillies would have to clear some payroll to afford Halladay but the names mentoned are JA Happ plus one of Domonic Brown or Michael Taylor.
Jayson Stark discusses Halladay and throws in a local reference. "And the price is still approximately as high as Bay Adelaide Centre. And still nobody, at this point, appears too wild about paying that price." The piece is a general look at the Halladay field but finishes with this interesting quote that impacts timing. It's still so early in the offseason, they have to keep that bar high for now," said one of the officials quoted earlier. "But eventually, they've got to move off it. And I think everybody knows that."
Elsewhere:
The Braves will trade Rafael soriano, who surprised them by acceoting arbitration, to the Rays. In return they will receive the pitcher the Rays received in exchnage for Akinori Iwamura making it a Iwamura for Soriano trade for the Rays.
The Red Sox will trade Mike Lowell to the Rangers for prospect Max Ramirez. Lowell will play first base and DH in Texas. This clears the way for Boston to sign free agent Adrian Beltre who should be a good fit for Fenway Park.
The Astros are signing ex-Jay Brandon Lyon to a three year $15m deal. sounds like a BJ Ryan-esque deal to me.
Finally the Sun is reporting that the Jays have added speedy Joey Gathright. However the club and Gathright's agent say nothing is done yet.
The Jays selected Zech Zinicola in the first round of the rule 5 draft. Any rule 5 selection is a long shot but selecting a pitcher from Washington is a double long shot. Zinicola is a releiver who had a 7.56 ERA in 26 AAA games last season. Zinicola allowed 47 hits in 33.1 innings. Hopefully we will hear what the Jays like about him later today.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20091210084756769