According to this post from our friends at RAB, the Yankees offered uber-prospect Jesús Montero straight up for Roy Halladay–and Toronto turned it down.

Oh boy.

I know, I know.  If you have the chance to exchange an unproven prospect for a top-flight starter in his prime, you should do it.

Theoretically.

If the prospect in question isn’t Jesús-freakin’-Montero.

I am generally a conservative person when it comes to trades–you’d really, really have to wow me to get me to sign off on it (the Nady/Marte deal, when it was first done and we were not yet aware of the injurious consequences, was one such deal).

I also happen to be, as I have not bothered to hide, a huge, huge fan of Montero.

While Montero has a lot of work to do before we can brand him a Yankee icon, he is easily the best prospect (from a hitting standpoint, anyway) the Yankees have had for a long, long time–certainly since the uber-days of Bernie and Jeter and Mo and Andy and JoPo.

He’s also only 20 years old–a full 12 years younger (read: a length of time greater than the average MLB career) than Halladay.

If the Yankees had pulled that trade off, the fan base would have probably been divided almost like McCain/Obama country.  Many would have argued that the obvious thing to do is to trade the unproven talent who may not actually stick at catcher for a Cy Young winner and proven Ace; for me the argument would have centered around Halladay’s high cost and (relatively) high age given what it would take to keep him.

We’re two seasons removed now from the Johan Santana trade-of-doom that the Yankees did not make.  The Mets have yet to play a postseason game in that time while the Yankees have a World Series win to their credit.

The Jays kept Halladay and finished in fourth place; the Yankees kept Jesús, and while the Trenton team may not have had a great season, I think we all know what the Yankees did…

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A hat tip to the guys at River Ave Blues, The Yankee Universe and Zell’s Pinstripe Blog:

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