Poll Time: What do you think of the Ben Revere trade?

I'll admit, I wasn't all that excited about getting Ben Revere. LFers who OPS about .700 don't excite me. I'm not a fan of slap hitters, especially ones that don't walk. And I really didn't like the idea of him leading off.

But....he didn't cost the Blue Jays as much as I feared he would. Alberto Tirado I like, but they moved him to a relief role in the minors, not really a sign that they thought a lot of him, and he's walking too many, though, since he's just 20 he has time to figure out where the strike zone is. All in all, I don't think he's a huge loss. He was 16 on our preseason prospect list.

Jimmy Cordero is a 23 year old who has split time between A and AA, and has also been used as a reliever. He's been a strikeout an inning guy, better control than Tirado, but older. He wasn't on our prospect list.

Add in that Gibby has said he's going to leave Tulo at the top of the order, thank you Gibby and that Ben will bat 9th (a good spot for him, in my mind, other than I hate the idea of Ryan Goins batting in front of anyone), I'm a little happier with the trade.

Revere is an upgrade over Ezequiel Carrera and Chris Colabello in LF, better defensively, though far short of a Gold Glove type. I wouldn't be surprised if his batter line didn't look all that much better than Carrera's does (Ezequiel was hitting .279/.327/.374 for us) but he does steal more and better in the outfield.

I liked the trade better when I thought they were going to platoon Revere with Danny Valencia. I thought that was a natural. Even if Revere doesn't have much for batting splits career, Valencia would be better vs LHP. If you add the loss of Valencia to the trade pieces given up, it make the trade look a little worse, in my mind.

I don't think it is a trade that really moves the needle on the Jays season, but I don't hate it.

I'll put up a Mark Lowe trade poll (I really should have had that poll up before yesterday's game) after the game today.