Talent, first. An ocean of coin to follow.
That’s the price tag hanging around Roy Halladay’s neck as the small collection of teams that can afford him hatch their plans to acquire arguably the best pitcher in baseball from the Blue Jays.
With question marks behind CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett in the rotation — even if Andy Pettitte returns — the Yankees will monitor what happens to Halladay.
The Yankees have young talent and money. But their major league youth (Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes) is on the hill and the Blue Jays likely will command a position player they can control salary-wise for several years as well as a pitcher in the same position.
Despite fantasizing about keeping the 32-year-old right-hander, after talking to Halladay, the Blue Jays understand that’s not happening because of Halladay’s strong desire to win now. In a dozen years, Halladay has never been to the postseason.
“We would like to sign him, he is an original Blue Jay and we have never had a pitcher as good as him,” Toronto president and CEO Paul Beeston told The Post yesterday, the day free agency opened. “But he is not inclined to sign with us.”
This figures to be a slow-moving process, which plays into the Yankees’ patient approach to the offseason. They are expected to see how the markets — trade and free-agent — develop before jumping in.
And it’s not like there will be a dozen teams in the Halladay hunt. Very few clubs will be willing to give major league ready talent and meet Halladay’s eventual price tag.
Of course, the Yankees are among the short list of teams — Boston is another — who qualify on both counts.
Because the rebuilding Blue Jays, who have enough money to mollify Halladay’s financial wishes no matter how high, aren’t going to let him walk at the end of next season as a free agent and get nothing in return, he will be dealt before the July 31 trading deadline — and more likely in the offseason.
There are several scenarios for teams interested in Halladay, 148-76 with a career 3.43 ERA and 17-10 with a glittering 2.79 ERA this past year when he led the league with nine complete games, to chew on.
Do you rent him for six months, knowing you aren’t going to sign him? If that’s the case, a team might not be inclined to part with top-shelf talent.
Do you only trade for him if Halladay, who has a complete no-trade clause, agrees to a contract extension before the trade is finalized? Then, in addition to giving the Blue Jays a major league ready performer, that team faces the prospect of paying him in the area of $20 million a year.
People who know Halladay say he has never desired to be the highest-paid pitcher in baseball, but logic dictates he isn’t going to work under market value because the next contract he signs likely will be the final mega-deal of his career.
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Top prospect Austin Jackson was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster yesterday.
Jackson was the International League (Triple-A) Rookie of the Year. He hit .300 with four homers and 65 RBIs and stole 24 bases for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Jackson, who turned down a basketball scholarship to Georgia Tech, was the Yankees’ eighth-round pick in the 2005 draft.
Others added were pitchers Hector Noesi, Ivan Nova and Romulo Sanchez and infielders Reegie Corona, Eduardo Nunez and Kevin Russo.