FanHouse JP Ricciardi

J.P. Ricciardi, fired Saturday morning as general manager of the Blue Jays, will be remembered for spending plenty and not winning enough.

Hired in 2001, Ricciardi was charged with trying to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East. To do it, he splurged on free-agent signings such as A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan and long-term deals for Toronto players Vernon Wells and Alex Rios.

OAKLAND -- The Blue Jays have the best pitcher in baseball on their roster, yet they still came up as losers at the trading deadline.

The players in the clubhouse didn't feel that way. The manager didn't feel that way. The general manager didn't.

We don't know how Roy Halladay feels about it, because he chose not to talk to reporters. Therein lies the clue to what happened here. When Halladay was talking about his status on the trading block at the All-Star Game, he said over and over and over that he was willing to do whatever gave him the best chance to win.

As the trading deadline passed on Friday, with him still wearing a Blue Jays uniform, perhaps he knew that opportunity had passed for him and the Blue Jays.

Perhaps with three managers and a GM getting the axe in one week, JP Ricciardi feels a little bit of heat. He probably should because barring a miraculous second half, he's probably going to be looking for a new job come October. Whatever the reason, he's rethought his stance on Adam Dunn just a bit and decided to apologize to the Reds' slugger today.

"It's my fault, I take full responsibility for it," Ricciardi told The Globe and Mail newspaper of Toronto on Thursday. "I tried to get Adam's phone number from the Reds ... and if he wants to talk to me, I'll talk to him and apologize personally. But I apologize to him and the Reds. I need to be better than that. I let my guard down".

I love that the apology is, "I need to be better than that," and not, "I was wrong." So, basically what JP is saying is, "I still think you suck, but I shouldn't have said it out loud." Now that Ricciardi's put all this behind him, he can help focus on what's really important: hiring retread managers and trading for awful relievers that were probably about to be released anyways.

There's no love lost between the Blue Jays and Frank Thomas, who was released last week after struggling in his first 60 at-bats. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for Thomas to find work, signing with the A's earlier today. So went wrong in Toronto? Hearing J.P. Ricciardi tell it, they were worried he wasn't a team player. From the National Post:

After being benched, Frank Thomas told the GM all he needed to know by refusing to go on the field with his teammates after Saturday's victory. "You're either part of the team or you're not," Ricciardi said. "It's not real hard to go out there and shake hands. I don't think that's a tough thing to do. I think that was probably the start of letting us really realize this is not going to work with Frank here and not playing, because obviously we were going to be 24 guys instead of 25 and it was probably going to alienate the clubhouse a little bit. That's why everybody reacted the way we reacted."

Oh, okay, This makes sense. The team cut loose a guy they still have to pay $8 million this year no matter what because he was a little grumpy after being benched. That $10 million option for 2009 that would've become guaranteed had Thomas tallied 316 more at-bats this year? I'm sure that had nothing to do with it. No sir, nothing at all.

One team already had him, another desperately needs him, the team that has him probably doesn't want to get rid of him, and all three could use him. Such is the triangle of love for Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Troy Glaus. But like most trade rumors, this has no real-life foundations -- that we know of. It is just a bunch of suggestions by the media, most strongly pushed by Bill Shaikin of the LA Times over the weekend. While there is no doubt that both the Angels and Dodgers could use Glaus' bat in the lineup, I highly question the foundations for this push.

Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi has given no indications that Glaus is on the market. Nor should he. The Blue Jays have an extremely solid team that is only out of contention in '07 because of a streak of injuries that would make Cleveland Browns fans feel sympathetic. They have an excellent lineup when healthy, and Glaus is a big part of it. Simply put, there aren't many 35+ home run hitting third baseman in baseball, why would the Jays be so quick to let one go? But when you do realize that the Jays have such a strong lineup, you wonder if they could withstand losing Glaus' bat in exchange for some needed pitching behind Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett. I think they could, as long as they got some good pitching in return. Which brings me to what the Angels and Dodgers have to offer.

Both LA teams could provide not only a starting pitching prospect, but also a replacement third baseman in exchange for Glaus. If the Dodgers presented a package of say Andy LaRoche or Wilson Betemit and Chad Billingsley, or the Angels offered Erick Aybar or Chone Figgins and Joe Saunders or Ervin Santana, I think Mr. Ricciardi would definitely be all ears. So while there haven't been any signs that Glaus is going anywhere, the Dodgers and Angels certainly have the goods to make such a deal happen.

Previously at FanHouse:
Blue Jays' Luck Goes From "Bad" to "Code Red"