How to Completely Botch A Possible Trade

The MLB trade deadline has came and passed with many deals getting done to help the teams in contention, and many deals done that help the teams out of the race gather prospects. It's a very exciting time, as teams try to bolster their rosters to get in position to win a World Series. It is fun to listen to the positing and the game of poker between the GM's of each team. Every GM wants to make it so they have the leverage in the negotiations, that way they can get exactly what they want. However, it's just as fun to see a GM left with egg on their face, like Toronto Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi was at the end of this trade deadline. He clearly overplayed his hand.

One thing that is proven throughout sports is negotiations through the media does not work. That is exactly where the talks were heading when Ricciardi announced that he was "listening" to offers for Roy Halladay. Saying that you are fielding offers for one of the best pitchers in baseball, and still asking for an extremely high, premium price is negotiation suicide. It is unfair to the player involved, and is unfair to the team involved. Every start that Roy Halladay had between the time Ricciardi announcement and the trade deadline became a circus. His last home start against the Rays was a perfect example. After the start, he had to answer question after question regarding the potential of a trade. Also, it wasn't fair to the Blue Jays. It wasn't even about baseball anymore, and the team had to deal with this distraction fueled by their own GM.

If J.P. Ricciardi was bold enough to publicly put Halladay on the block, he had to be prepared to lower his price when the time insisted. Instead, Ricciardi did the opposite and reportedly raised his price for Halladay from the Phillies. Not only does that defy business sense, that also defies logic. Raising the price after you already set the price does not help you get closer to a deal. One other thing that completely defies logic is the "self-imposed deadline" that Ricciardi placed to trade Halladay that was 3 days before the actual trade deadline. This made no sense whatsoever. You're telling me that if a team made an overwhelming offer on July 31st, the Jays wouldn't even listen? Please.

Clearly, the arrogance that Ricciardi had in these discussions was through the roof. He thought he had a monopoly of the elite pitchers on the market, therefore any team with a pitching need would have to go through Toronto. That is why he initially set such a high price. Once again, Ricciardi was mistaken, there happened to be another Cy Young Award winner on the market. His name was Cliff Lee, and he could be had for a lower price. Therefore, the Phillies moved to acquiring him once the Jays raised their price for Halladay. Once the Phillies finalized that deal, it eliminated the team with the highest need for an elite starting pitcher. That means, the team that was most prepared to offer the highest package for the Jays was taken off the board. No other team was willing to meet that steep price. Case closed, no deal, the Jays are stuck with Halladay for the rest of the season.

Not only are the Jays on the hook to pay the rest of Roy Halladay's salary for the rest of the season, but also his value took a huge hit for a possible trade this off-season. Now, if he's traded, he will only affect one postseason race, instead of two. Buster Olney of ESPN is on record of saying that his value might be cut in half now that he didn't get traded. A similar thing happened to the Twins, when they tried to deal Johan Santana. They tried to deal him at the trade deadline, just like the Jays tried to with Halladay. However, no deal was reached at that time. Although Santana ended up being traded to the Mets, it was during the following offseason, and the Twins did not get the value that they could have if they traded him a half season earlier.

J.P. Ricciardi was the number one loser of this year's trade deadline. He did everything wrong in these trade talks. He lost his chance to get maximum value for his team's best player. He will likely try to trade him this offseason, but he will always know that he let a great opportunity go away. A classic case of a GM over-playing his hand. Ricciardi lost this game of poker.