The trading away of Roy Halladay -- if it comes to that -- will mark an historical point in the history of the Blue Jays.
It could represent a new beginning or, in fact, a crashing ending.
It has the potential to be that dramatic, that impactful, and that polarizing for a franchise forever on a tight-rope walk. It can be positive or negative: And that's what makes this talk so difficult, so interesting, so emotional and so divisive.
The Jays can't afford to blow this deal. They can't trade away a David Cone and bring in a Marty Janzen this time. They don't have the kind of team or that kind of relationship with their paying customers to recover from that kind of mistake.
They can't trade away the most respected Blue Jays player, maybe in team history, without winning this deal -- and winning it large.
The way Seattle ended up with Randy Johnson after dealing away Mark Langston.
The way Cleveland ended up with Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Lee Stevens in the shipping of Bartolo Colon to Montreal.
The way the Jays are hoping to come away with Doug Drabek's kid, Kyle, and a whole lot more than that from the Philadelphia Phillies.
The odd part of this expected deal, with whatever team, is the place Ricciardi plays in all of this. This is his eighth season running the Blue Jays, eighth season going nowhere. The assumption is, a new president of the club will bring with him a new general manager, which makes these trade talks all the more confounding.
FUTURE AT STAKE
Ricciardi is dealing for the Jays future without knowing he has any part of it. He is dealing for the future with the ability, upon making the trade, to sell himself as the franchise-builder of kids coming in.
It may be too little too late for all of that -- his excuses and his annual spin have gone missing long before his team did. But that won't stop him from making his case should he make this deal.
We can hear Ricciardi now, telling the next president that he brought in Adam Lind and he brought in Aaron Hill and that the kid pitchers like Ricky Romero and Brett Cecil and Mark Rzepczynski are all his too.
Leaving out a few details along the way, no doubt. but if you add all that to the package that Halladay could bring, it should supply an encouraging start for the new franchise builder here, assuming nobody buys what Ricciardi is selling.
The strange part about this Blue Jays summer -- and about every Ricciardi summer -- is how it never goes as directed. This year, the strength of the team was supposed to be the bullpen.
But the Jays are last in all of baseball in saves, and first in blown saves by percentage. When you break down that singular number, that's the basic difference between the Yankees and the Blue Jays. They hit about the same statistically.
The Yankees have 32 saves and have blown nine. The Jays have 15 saves and have blown 13.
The kid starters who were supposed to make us wince haven't. Heading into last night, Romero had 11 quality starts out of 15, the Jays have won nine of those. Cecil has thrown six quality starts of his 10. Rzepczynski is three-for-four. Even Brian Tallet has tossed quality in nine of his 18 starts. And the injured Scott Richmond has been 8-for-13 supplying quality.
Even the supposedly anemic Jays offence isn't that anemic statistically. Which makes their record all the more confounding.
And it makes a deal or no deal for Halladay the centrepoint of this club, heading toward another unknown future.
