Report: Anthopoulos Rejected a Deal for Papelbon; Halladay May Have Advised Against Trade

Sometimes, the best trades are the ones which General Managers don’t make.

Alex Anthopoulos has been lauded for all the successful trades that the Blue Jays made this past offseason and at the trade deadline. But there were a few bubbling below the surface which may never have materialized.

The latest report from Bob Nightengale of USA today is that earlier this year, Alex Anthopoulos turned down a deal from the Philadelphia Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon.


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This certainly makes sense as Paul Beeston made it seem like it was a foregone conclusion that Papelbon was coming to the Blue Jays. For one reason or another, the deal never happened. This is probably why:

This all falls in line with the recent philosophy shift by Alex Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays front office. First and foremost, they are putting much more emphasis on great players who are a good fit for this team, not just great players.

There were some rumblings that Alex Anthopoulos didn’t pull the trigger on a trade for Jonathan Papelbon because of some intel from Doc himself: Roy Halladay.

Knowing AA’s personality, he would never outright say that Roy Halladay told him to steer clear, but after Jonathan Papelbon’s altercation with Bryce Harper, this is all beginning to make sense.

Even though the Blue Jays (at the time) were in desperate need of bullpen help, why would they jeopardize all of that to bring in a guy who statistically has been a pretty good closer, but his reputation leaves a lot to be desired.

Ultimately, it proved to be the right move by the Blue Jays, and the the confrontation between Papelbon and Harper only reinforced that notion.

Image via Cole Burston/Toronto Star

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

4 thoughts on “Report: Anthopoulos Rejected a Deal for Papelbon; Halladay May Have Advised Against Trade

  • September 29, 2015 at 6:19 pm
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    Cant agree or disagree but the situation in washington is their lossing the jays are winning so who knows how he would be in Toronto

  • September 30, 2015 at 7:12 pm
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    Sorry, pardon my ignorance, but why exactly are we supposing that Roy Halladay had anything to do with this Papelbon block?

    • September 30, 2015 at 8:48 pm
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      It's just a report – there were rumblings AA called Halladay and asked his opinion of Papelbon.

    • October 1, 2015 at 1:27 pm
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      Right. But whose "rumblings" or "reports" are these? Or am I just baiting myself to click a third time?

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