Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi said today he's already received "several calls" from interested teams for pitching ace Roy Halladay, but he also said hold your horses.

"It would take a lot for us to part with him," Ricciardi said. "We've gotten a lot of calls from teams but none of them are telling us at this point what they're willing to give up. If you're coming at us with a 'B" list of young players, don't bother. This is one of the five best players in baseball. It's going to take a significant package of players for us to even listen. So as the teams call we'll go through the ones we feel are the serious ones and then we'll start scouting their farm systems to see if there's anything we can do."

Boston, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, and surely others would all covet Halladay. Ricciardi would probably like to avoid trading him within the division but he appears open to anything.

Does he think he'll make a trade before the July 31 deadline?

"My gut feeling is no we won't because there aren't too many teams out there who are willing to give us the significant package of prospects we would need to make this go. Teams protect their prospects," he said.

Ricciardi said he doesn't think making Halladay available will send any message to his own team. The Jays are 43-42 and eight games behind first place starting the day. In other divisions the Jays would be in the race. Ricciardi said the one thing the Jays have is good young pitching with Halladay at the front. Ricciardi said if Halladay stayed through 2010, the Jays would receive two top draft picks compensation. The Jays could also be a very good team in 2010 if Halladay is at the top of the rotation along with the younger pitchers.