Ricciardi looks like a lame duck after botching Halladay talks (cont.)

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Some baseball people were surprised to begin with that the Jays were giving Ricciardi the go-ahead to make the deal. One competing exec said, "GMs don't usually get the chance to rebuild twice, not without making the playoffs once." But he was indeed given the OK to make a deal. This was no sham. He tried to make a trade. He just shot too high (and may have shot off his mouth once too often).

Ricciardi is having an interesting tenure in Toronto. A longtime scout, he fired much of the scouting staff at the start. He will tell you he believes in a combination of scouts and stats, like all the good ones. In any case, he's run though a few plans. He's hired and fired Bill Livesey, Keith Law and Bart Given. He's won a lot of games, produced several talented teams, been hurt by injuries and been killed by being in the wrong division. He has yet to make the playoffs, and today he looks a lot like a lame duck.

Ricciardi has maybe baseball's most difficult job. But at this point, one has to wonder how much longer he'll stay in that job.

Around the majors

• Padres GM Kevin Towers was well within his right to ask for a haul for superstar first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, and he did just that. It's believed Boston was talking about a package of Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson and Jed Lowrie. But Towers wanted slugging prospect Lars Anderson and outfield prospect Ryan Westmoreland, too. "He had the leverage" in that negotiation, one competing exec noted.

• According to the Seattle Times, there was talk of a three-way blockbuster trade between the Mariners, Red Sox and Padres involving Felix Hernandez, Gonzalez and many, many moving parts. Nice try, guys.

• The Seattle Times also had Boston handing Seattle a long list of prospects from which Seattle could choose five for King Felix. The Mariners declined.

• That list apparently didn't include Westmoreland, and some believe the multi-talented outfielder from neighboring Rhode Island was given a promise to stay along with a $2 million bonus (not bad for a fifth rounder) to forego a scholarship to Vanderbilt.

• Some teams talked about trying for both Gonzalez and Heath Bell. But Towers said on WFAN that the Padres determined it was better to separate the two stars if they were to trade them.

• The Angels, Rangers, Dodgers, Marlins and Yankees were among many, many others to inquire about the cost-efficient Bell ($1.255 million salary in 2009).

• Towers revealed in the WFAN interview that the Padres had a deal basically ready to go with the Braves involving Jake Peavy over the winter before Peavy declined to go to Atlanta. Towers said he was told that Peavy decided he didn't want to go to play close to home (he's from Alabama). His original list of five teams that he would consider meant just that -- that he would consider them. Well, apparently he considered Atlanta and declined. But ultimately he accepted a team that was not on the list.

• Coincidentally, Atlanta is the one team that has a policy of no no-trade clauses. Towers said he may propose to his new owner Jeff Moorad that they consider adapting such a policy in the wake of the Peavy ordeal.

• The White Sox are saying they expect Peavy back pitching at the end of the month. But privately, they are hoping it's even a little sooner than that.

• David Ortiz seems to believe he was done in by a tainted supplement, and may try to get the name of the substance released. But Ortiz knew he was on the list. So that was no surprise.

• Hard to believe K-Rod was given a contract for only $1 million more than Ollie Perez ($37 million to $36 million). One regret the Mets have is signing Perez over Randy Wolf. They don't regret missing out on Derek Lowe, since he was so expensive ($60 million for four years).

• This is a nice sendoff for Ken Griffey Jr., who's being treated like a king in King County, Wash. It's been a terrific career. But it does now appear to be winding down.

• CC Sabathia hasn't tweeted once since April 30, yet he's still beating me by more than 10,000 followers (25,000 to 15,000) to hold second place in the MLB category (I am still third, behind also Nick Swisher). Let's do something about that. Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman.