Report: Angels offer Aybar, Saunders for Halladay

The Toronto Sun is reporting that the Angels have offered up Erick Aybar, Joe Saunders and Peter Bourjos in exchange for Jays ace Roy Halladay. The Aybar inclusion is big, given the complete lack of any other quality young shortstops on the market and Toronto’s intense desire for a long-term option at the position. A big issue with the offer, though, is that both of the big pieces have three years of service time in, meaning they’re already set to make considerably more than the minimum. Both Aybar and Saunders are arbitration eligible this winter. They’re each due to reach free agency after 2012. Bourjos is pretty much the best position player prospect the Angels can offer, but it’s pretty iffy whether he’ll make it as a regular. He hit .281/.354/.423 with 32 steals as a 22-year-old in Double-A last season. He can go get it in center field, but the offensive ability probably won’t be there to make him a top-of-the-order threat in the majors. If the Angels made the deal, they’d get themselves an ace, but they’d open up a big hole at shortstop and they’d still be short a legitimate fifth starter. Using Brandon Wood at short and Maicer Izturis at third base is an option, but it’d leave the Angels with a much weaker infield defense than they possessed last season. They might well have a better chance of winning the AL West with their current team and the extra $10 million in cash. Halladay, though, would seem to make them a much bigger threat in the postseason.