Lost in the shuffle in all of this Roy Halladay to the Mets nonsense, is the fact that Roy Halladay has a no trade clause. Even though there seems to be no life for this deal anymore, I can't help but wonder if Halladay would have actually waived his no trade clause to come to the Mets.On one hand, these are the Mets. This team just opened up a brand new ballpark, has a huge payroll, has Johan Santana/David Wright/Jose Reyes/Carlos Beltran, has an owner who is willing to spend money (we hope), and is located in a huge market in New York City. Even though the team is struggling right now, the benefit of playing in a big market with a team that has the pieces for a legitimate title contender would have been very appealing for Halladay.
However, on the other hand, these are still the Mets. It's looking more and more like 2009 is going to be a wash for this team in large part because of the injuries to Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, JJ Putz, John Maine, and more. Would Halladay have been willing to accept going to a team that probably will not compete in 2009? Hard to say.
This situation would have presented a very interesting dilemma for Halladay if the trade went down because he would have been banking that the Mets were almost guaranteed to win it all in 2010.
If Halladay was indeed traded to the Mets, I think he would have been completely torn about waiving the no trade. But in the end, I bet he would do it especially if the Mets gave him some kind of extension. Money talks. However, it would be difficult to fault him for turning the deal down because of how bad the Mets are right now.
But for now and probably forever, we will not have to worry about this scenario playing itself out and we can still with all the hypotheticals and what ifs.
