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Blue Jays Trade for Sergio Santos

Our new closer. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
Our new closer. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
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The Blue Jays traded pitching prospect Nestor Molina to the White Sox for Sergio Santos. Santos will fill the open closer spot for the Jays. Here his numbers:

Year Age Tm W L W-L% ERA G SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
2010 26 CHW 2 2 .500 2.96 56 1 51.2 53 18 17 2 26 3 56 3 145 1.529 9.2 0.3 4.5 9.8 2.15
2011 27 CHW 4 5 .444 3.55 63 30 63.1 41 25 25 6 29 5 92 3 119 1.105 5.8 0.9 4.1 13.1 3.17
2 Seasons 6 7 .462 3.29 119 31 115.0 94 43 42 8 55 8 148 6 130 1.296 7.4 0.6 4.3 11.6 2.69
162 Game Avg. 3 4 .462 3.29 68 18 66 54 25 24 5 31 5 85 3 130 1.296 7.4 0.6 4.3 11.6 2.69
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/6/2011.

I liked Nestor a lot but this looks like a good deal to me. Santos is signed for the next 3 years, at $1 million, $2.75 million and $3.75 million and there are three team option years at $6 million, $8 million and $8.75 million. He is just 28, making him younger (and cheaper) than the free agent options out there. We owned him once before, when he was a minor league infielder.

Molina is a very good prospect, but I figured he was going to end up in the bullpen anyway, so I'm not to upset that we traded him for a reliever. I think he'll be good, but I'm happy to trade someone that might be a good reliever in the future for someone that is a good closer now.

This falls into the 99% of AA moves that come out of no where. Just when I was thinking it was going to be a boring week.

What do you think of the deal?