Still no official confirmation, but at this point, it seems the return is almost certainly going to be Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and J.C. Ramirez. That's the package that's being reported. Aumont/Gillies/Ramirez means no Saunders, Morrow, or Triunfel, and no Saunders, Morrow, or Triunfel means that we win. Gloating is unbecoming, but so is false modesty, so with that in mind, ha ha, baseball, we're better than you. There is no way to spin this as a bad trade for the Mariners. No way. Even if you think they have a long way to go before they're legitimate World Series contenders, they just took a significant step forward, and all it cost them was a reliever, a probable reliever, and a deafer Tom Goodwin. All three are quality prospects who could end up having long Major League careers, but these aren't high-end guys - they're replaceable ones, and they brought us a year of one of the best pitchers in baseball. Jack Zduriencik is so far ahead of the world that I think he's the cat from Early Edition.
Despite all the excitement, though, those of you hoping the trade will be finalized today are probably going to be disappointed, as most reports have tomorrow as being more likely. Halladay and the Phillies appear to have agreed on an extension, but Halladay still needs to take a physical, and at this level of complexity, there's a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out and turned in. So that little shred of anxiety that everything's going to fall apart at the last second isn't going away just yet. Still, at this point it would take something unthinkable to blow this deal apart, and in that event we're going to have bigger things to worry about than baseball anyway, like how to build and launch a new sun really really fast.