After the summer that Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays went through from trade to no trade, did you really think this deal would be made so easily?

It took two full days and four teams, but Halladay was finally traded from Toronto to the Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, Cliff Lee was still a part of this trade – as he was traded from the Phils to the Seattle Mariners. The new team involved from the initial reports of this trade is the Oakland Athletics, who traded one prospect for another.

Ok, well I don’t want to confuse you anymore than I already have, so let’s take a look at the high level breakdown of this trade, followed by MLBtoday.net’s grades for each team:

Phillies Receive:
P Roy Halladay (from Blue Jays) ———->
P Phillippe Aumont (from Mariners)
OF Tyson Gillies (from Mariners)
P Juan Ramirez (from Mariners)
$6 million cash money (from Blue Jays)

Mariners Receive:
P Cliff Lee (from Phillies) ———>

Blue Jays Receive:
C Travis d’Arnaud (from Phillies)
P Kyle Drabek (from Phillies)
IF Brett Wallace (from Athletics) ——->

Athletics Receive:
OF Michael Taylor (from Phillies via TOR) —–>

Phew! That was a mouthful! Now, there are a lot of prospects being traded here, but of the 7 minor leaguers traded in this deal, I could EASILY see four of them being very, very good major league players within the next 5 years. But these grades are made based on the major league roster today, so feel free to disagree…

Grade for Phillies: A-; No, this grade is not because they replaced Lee with Halladay. This grade is based on the fact that they were able to pull off a trade that they wanted to make for 5 months. Those prospects that they traded to get Lee back in July, they now have replenished the farm system with a bunch of Seattle’s prospects. Also, they were able to extend Halladay for three more years (which happened to be a must to make the deal done), although they did get some cash from the Jays. Now, they did give up Taylor and Drabek, but I feel they would have been traded at some point before making the majors.

Grade for Mariners: A+; The Mariners are trying to be for real, and they just got a real pitcher. I was skeptical of Lee when he won the Cy Young in 2008, wondering if he was just a flash in the pan, but after seeing him in the World Series, I know he’s for real. Now, they did have to give up a bunch of minor leaguers, but again, they got a legit starter to complement King Felix Hernandez. Now THAT’S a 1-2 punch!

Grade for Blue Jays: A; It was obvious that the Roy Halladay/Toronto relationship was not going to last going into the 2010 season. Also, the Jays wanted to save money and get good talent, which isn’t easy in big trades like this. But that’s why it took so many teams, and it did work. Toronto got a future catcher (d’Arnaud), future 2^nd or 3^rd starting pitcher (Drabek) and a future corner infielder (Wallace). Sounds pretty dang good to me!

Grade for Athletics: B; How do the A’s always seem to jump into deals like this? Beats me, but here they go again. Oakland traded Wallace (the centerpiece of the Matt Holliday to Cardinals trade) for Taylor. I think Wallace is going to be a beast of a hitter in the AL, but Taylor will help them out since he has a more specific position. Wallace may have to play first base because of his size and lack of range, so he is replaceable in a sense.

So there you have it, what a wild deal! I can’t wait to see how this one pans out in 5 years. I’ll bet the Blue Jays will be more than satisfied in trading Halladay for 3 future major leaguers. But that’s what’s so great about sports – we’ll just have to wait and see!