How much for Halladay?

The Blue Jays made their offer, the Phillies made their counter-offer, and at the end of the day, the sides are no closer to an agreement than they were before. Tomorrow is J.P. Ricciardi's self-imposed deadline for trading Roy Halladay, but it looks like things will continue to escalate up until Friday's trade deadline. A week ago, I was telling people that there was no way the Blue Jays would move Halladay until the off-season. Now, I firmly believe that Toronto will send the ace for a price less than that of their opening offer to the Phils.

In essence, there's no reason for the Jays to not move Halladay. He said he's not going to sign back with Toronto after next year, and the Blue Jays have no realistic shot at winning anything. His trade value is higher now than it will be come December, and Ricciardi would be foolish to not take a deal before Friday. The Phillies are the only club that has enough bait and enough interest to land the star pitcher; they will most likely outduel the Red Sox (who have little desire to move Clay Buchholz and don't necessarily need Halladay to help win a title) and Angels (low on prospects, but have plenty of cash to send across the border) in any bidding war for Halladay.

The question is, who will the Phillies move to get this deal done? They seem a lot less reluctant to move Drabek than they once did, but Amaro insists on not sending him along with J.A. Happ. Dominic Brown will most likely not get sent anywhere, but Michael Taylor (above) could easily go. Jason Donald was thrown into the Phils' counter-offer, so he's obviously available, and Carlos Carrasco will more than likely find his way out in a trade. The Jays should be more desparate to move Halladay than the Phillies should be to take him; so far, that hasn't been the case.

Unfortunately, this is just my opinion about what should happen in the next few days. What will be the outcome is that the Phillies and Jays will both stand strong with their demands, and no move will be made. The Phillies will look to Jarrod Washburn or Cliff Lee while the Jays wait until winter meetings to get a much smaller package of prospects for Halladay. And if I'm the Phillies, that's fine with me.