Blue Jay rumors: Greg Holland

Bob Elliot gives us our rumor of the morning, for the first day of the winter meetings. He tells us the Jays are pursuing Royals closer Greg Holland.

Holland is great, he's had ERAs in the low 1's the last couple of seasons, and his career ERA is 2.19. He's just 29, has 381 strikeouts in 275 career innings, an average of 12.5 per 9 innings, with just 99 walks. He would be great, but then the Royals aren't likely to give him up for nothing.

Kansas City is looking for starting pitching in return after James Shields hit the open market.

Would you part with one of R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Drew Hutchison, Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez for a closer such as Holland?

Let me answer that, yes, yes, no, not a chance, and are you kidding. And I don't imagine the Royals will want to take Dickey or Buehrle, since they won't want to take on a lot of salary.

I really don't see enough depth for the Blue Jays to want to get rid of another starter, unless they plan on going after a free agent starter. If they did send say Hutchison to the Royals for Holland, that would put Aaron Sanchez and Daniel Norris into the rotation, and I'm thinking the Jays wouldn't want to go into the season with two rookies in the rotation.

I think I'd file this under 'yes we'd like him, no I don't see it happening'.