A lot of people thought that J.P. Ricciardi — or whoever it was that was calling the shots in Toronto back in July — screwed up royal by not taking the Red Sox’ generous offer for Roy Halladay. As I wrote at the time, however, no one was on record actually confirming that the Sox had made such a generous offer. Turns out that they didn’t: when asked in an email if the Sox had offered Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Daniel Bard, Michael Bowden, Felix Doubront, and Nick Hagadone for Halladay — as the Toronto Sun had reported — Theo Epstein said “nope.”
It always seemed like way too much for Boston to be offering when (a) they were still in the mix for Cliff Lee; and (b) Buchholz was pitching so well at Pawtucket. In hindsight, obviously, it was one of the better moves the Red Sox didn’t make.