Remember this? It may be relevant to the Rios claim

MLBTR:

Rogers Communications, the company that owns the Blue Jays, wants to bring its costs under control. The Blue Jays have said they don’t have to deal Halladay, who has over $20MM left on his contract, for financial reasons.

Halladay wasn’t traded so his contract is still on Toronto’s budget. The same is true for the Vernon Wells contract.

Who claimed Alex Rios? (UPDATE #2)

Robothal:

Among the teams that may have claimed Rios: The Red Sox, who have tremendous financial flexibility; the White Sox, who have long liked Rios but just made a major investment in Jake Peavy; and the Giants, who turned down the Jays’ offer of Rios for Tim Lincecum after the 2007 season.

CP:

During the all-star break, some insiders suggested the San Francisco Giants – who turned down a Blue Jays offer of Rios for Tim Lincecum two winters ago-and the Chicago White Sox might have interest in the outfielder.

MLBTR‘s info says it’s not the Giants, Red Sox, Mets, Mariners, or Reds. And BTB has a nice article on Rios’ trade value.

I don’t see how it can be Kenny Williams looking at Rios‘ contract:

2009:$5.9M
2010:$9.7M
2011:$12M
2012:$12M
2013:$12.5M
2014:$12.5M
2015:$13.5M club option ($1M buyout)

Jerry Reinsdorf will smack Kenny when he sees that!