Wednesday, August 3, 2011
BLUE JAYS FUTURE
For the Blue Jays the future is next year. They are on the cusp of breaking into the lofty heights of the playoffs.Their lineup with next year's addition of Brent Lawrie and their pitching, possibly tweaked by the addition of a starter ,will bring them to the position of beating out the Yankees for the wildcard.
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Speaking of the BJs, they made a trade after the non-waiver trading deadline but before the final trading deadline (that's a topic for another time), which reveals a lot about the current state of the team.
As Alex Anthopoulos said, he traded away two of the team's most tenured players (granted, heavily underachieving) and potential free agents at years end, for a similarly underachieving player who will also be a free agent at year end.
First, I'll look at Kelly Johnson. A 1st round pick of the Braves, plays 2B and had a allstar year last year before busting this year. Being that he is a free agent at the end and with Brett Lawrie, Yunel Escobar and even possibly Hill and McDonald in the infield next year (Alex, Aaron and James all said publicly that they had discussions of re-uniting in the off-season), there seems that there will be no room for Kelly next year. As such, this move was a clear message that Toronto is still playing for this year and that Management believe they are on the cusp of reaching the playoffs going forward - something TO fans should recognize and appreciate.
Now, who did they give up? Hill, a 1st round pick in 2003 had a allstar year in 2009 but seems to have lost it since. He publicly said that he had talks of returning as a free agent at the end of the year so you have to think that Alex knew very well what he was doing when he shipped him off.
All in all, I'm sad to see Aaron go but he simply couldn't get things done here so see you later. Welcome Kelly, but don't get too excited about house shopping as you are only here for a cup of tea.
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