Halladay and Wells? Never…

From George King (NY Post):

The buzz around MLB scouts is that if a team is interested in acquiring Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays it better be ready to accept center fielder Vernon Wells, too. Since Wells has $107 million remaining starting next year, that’s going to be hard to swallow. Especially because Halladay will likely seek a long-term deal in Sabathia’s $161 million range to waive his no-trade clause. Halladay is signed through next year at $15.75 million.

I often wonder if King reads what’s on the blogosphere and passes it off as “buzz” from “MLB scouts.” For instance, yesterday over at WasWatching, Steve actually proposed this Wells-Halladay idea and labeled it as a “wild thought.” Also, the other day I noted that the Yankees could look into acquiring  John Grabow since he was deemed available and then, the next day, George King claimed that there were Pirates’ scouts at the Yankees’ game and that it had “fueled speculation” that the Yankees were interested in Grabow, despite the fact that King never mentioned what speculation he was referring to, exactly (who speculated this?). While I’m not claiming anything here, I just think it’s kind of strange how that all worked out.

Anyway, there was a reason Steve labeled his Wells-Halladay idea as a “wild thought.” Wells has deteriorated offensively and has fallen apart defensively yet is so expensive it’s amusing. It was a “wild thought,” though, and as bloggers we’re in the business of entertaining such ideas for our readers for they spark discussion on our sites. However, here we are today with King claiming that MLB scouts believe a Halladay suitor would actually have to take on Wells’ ridiculous contract in order to get Halladay. It’s simply nonsensical when you think of how poor of a player Wells has become. In fact, just moments ago Dave Cameron at FanGraphs wrote that the Wells extension may be the “worst contract in baseball” and that he’s giving “Barry Zito a run for his money.” That’s how terrible Wells’ contract is and to think that any team would be willing to take on such a financial commitment while agreeing to another extension with the 32-year old Halladay—who you just traded quality prospects for—is absurd (which is why I wonder about King’s report—do MLB scouts actually believe this?).

If Brian Cashman, or any GM for that matter, were to agree to such a trade, he’d look like the dumbest GM in baseball.