Blue Jays fans can stop arguing over whether Mike Jacobs would be an asset to the team. The Marlins traded their young first baseman to the Kansas City Royals for reliever Leo Nunez. We speculated that Jacobs would come cheap, and trading an everyday position player for a reliever would seem to fit that bill, though Nunez is a good arm.
Some Jays fans were looking forward to Jacobs, who they believed would represent an infusion of some badly needed power. Others pointed to his horrid OBP last season and his poor hitting over his career against left-handed pitching, an area in which the Jays struggled mightily (and inexplicably) last season.
I think Jacobs could have been useful in a platoon role, and he certainly would have come cheaper than the free agent options the Jays are looking at (though he is due a raise this season as he is eligible for arbitration and hit a lot of homers last year), but either the Jays weren't really interested, or didn't offer (or didn't have) a live bullpen arm Florida liked as much as Nunez. He's a traditional late-inning reliever, a righty with a good fastball and sharp slider. He's done a nice job for KC over 100 innings in the past two seasons, and he did flirt with starting at one point, albeit unsuccessfully. We had also talked about Dallas McPherson and it is unclear whether Florida would still want to part with him, they may want to move Jose Cantu over to first and use McPherson at third base. They also have a solid minor-leage, possibly-MLB ready option at first in Gaby Sanchez, but he might start in AAA since he played AA ball last season.
Well, let's move on to the next idea, then