Heyman: Yanks, Sox chances of landing Roy are slim

From Jon Heyman:

While the Phillies remain almost everyone's favorite to land superstar pitcher Roy Halladay, and the best-in-baseball Dodgers are now believed to be showing interest, two big-market contenders for the summer's big pitching prize -- the Yankees and Red Sox -- recently have been informed by the Blue Jays that their chances to land Halladay are slim.

Executives familiar with the trade talks say Jays people told the Yankees and Red Sox that they prefer to deal Halladay -- if he's dealt at all -- to a team outside their division. Further proving their point, the Jays haven't followed up recently on a Yankees call expressing interest 10 days ago.

Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi won't publicly rule out an intra-divisional blockbuster, but a directive to look elsewhere first may come from above. This is such a big deal, one competing executive said, that acting club president Paul Beeston and ownership are heavily involved.

Heyman did say the Yanks are still interested, though:

While the Yankees remain interested, one more major factor looms as an impediment to a deal. The Yankees are reluctant to "gut their system,'' according to one rival executive. The Yankees could easily form a nice trade package by including one of two young talented right-handers -- Joba Chamberlain and/or Phil Hughes -- plus catching prospect Jesus Montero and outfield prospect Austin Jackson.

And as for the Vernon Wells side of things Heyman says that "At least two GMs from big-market teams say there has been no suggestion the Jays would require, expect or even hope that anyone would take Wells and the $90 million remaining on his bad deal off their hands."

Well, there's your Roy Halladay post of the day. Hopefully this doesn't become a huge soap opera, but we all know it will.