Today in Blue Jays History: Jays Sign Morales

One Year Ago Today:

Blue Jays sign Kendrys Morales to a 3-year, $33 million contract. I remember, at the time, it surprised me. I didn’t think we’ll be signing a DH only guy, or, at least, not until after Edwin Encarncion and Jose Bautista had signed somewhere else.

It seemed, at the time, that the Jays had decided they wouldn’t be able to sign Edwin and wanted to move fast. Moving fast turned out to be a bit of mistake. The market for sluggers turned out to be a lot softer than we figured it would be. Had they waited a bit, they likely would have been able to sign Kendrys to a shorter contract. Or, they might have had a spot at Edwin.

At the time, the trade got generally good reviews:

Let’s see what we think a year later.

I think it is fair to say that his season was somewhat disappointing. A late surge brought his bWAR up to -0.2. He hit .250/.308/.455, with 28 home runs, roughly in line with what he had done the last couple of years. Just a slight decline.

Also a year ago today:

The Jays signed Lourdes Gurriel, Jr to a seven year, $22 million contract. Lourdes is the younger brother of Yulieski Gurriel, who plays for the World Series winning Astros.

Lourdes had a tough first season in our minor league system, hitting .229/.268/.339 with 5 homers, in 64 games, split between Dunedin and New Hampshire. He played mostly short. He made 8 errors in 84 innings in Dunedin, but just 2 in 146.2 in New Hampshire. Maybe there is a difference between official scorers.

He’s had a better time in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .299/.319/.522.

I’m curious how things go for him this year. If he gets off to a good start, he’d be in line to come up to the team if we have some injuries.