Today in Blue Jays History: David Price Trade

Four years ago today:

The Blue Jays traded Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt to the Tigers for David Price.

At the time of the trade, the Jays were 52-51 tied for second place 6 games back of the Yankees.

We would go 41-18 the rest of the way and finish first in the AL East and, well you remember the rest.

Price would go 9-1, in 11 starts for the Jays (kind of amazing that would get 10 decisions in 11 starts), with a 2.30 ERA. He had a rough time in the playoffs.

And he was great fun, being head cheerleader when he wasn’t pitching, being a fan of Rogers Centre popcorn and just looking like he was enjoying every moment. Alex Anthopoulos talked about his ‘clubhouse presence’ saying he was the best teammate he had seen.

And then, in the off-season, he signed with the Red Sox, which made us sad, but since he’s getting $217 million over 7 years, I’m glad the Jays didn’t beat that. With the Red Sox he has a 3.73 ERA in 100 games, 95 starts with a 46-23 record. He’s looking pretty good this year. 3.66 ERA.

They don’t talk about his clubhouse presence so much anymore. He’s had a ongoing feud with Dennis Eckersley (which only makes him seem better in my mind).

The players we traded?

• Boyd has a 4.70 ERA in 110 games, 106 starts and a 28-41 record over the 5 seasons as a Tiger. He’s having his best season, so far, in his career this year. 3.94 ERA in 22 starts and a 3.3 bWAR.
• Norris has a 4.69 ERA in 76 games, 65 starts and a 13-24 record over the 5 seasons with the Tigers. This year he has a 4.89 ERA in 106.2 innings. He started the season in the bullpen but has made 18 starts now. He has a 1.2 bWAR this year.
• Labourt pitched in 4 game back for the Tigers in 2017, but has spent most of the time in the minors. He was in the White Sox system last year but was released.

We liked the trade at the time. 54% of us ‘loved it’ and 31% liked it with just 8% disliking it or hating it. And we made the playoffs so it worked.

One Year Ago

We traded Roberto Osuna to the Astros for Ken Giles, Hector Perez and David Paulino. Considering we pretty much needed to trade Roberto, it turned out to be a pretty good deal.

Hector Perez hasn’t been great in AA. He has a 4.53 ERA in 21 games, 19 starts. He’s been better lately, 2.87 ERA in hit last 7 games, 5 starts, but he’s giving up too man walks, 20 in the 37.2 innings with 36 strikeouts.

David Paulino is on the IL at the moment, for the second time this season. He’s only made 7 starts for the Bisons, with a 3.45 ERA in 28.2 innings, with 11 walks and 27 strikeouts. If he had been able to stay healthy, I’d imagine we’d have seen him in Toronto this year.

And, well, we’ve seen what Giles has done. He’s dealing with some ‘elbow inflammation’. In his year with the Jays he has a 2.47 ERA with 28 saves.

Osuna has been terrific for the Astros, 2.44 ERA with 35 saves.

Seven Years Ago

We made two trades.

Travis Snider went to the Pirates for RHP Brad Lincoln. Lincoln appeared in 22 games with a 3.98 ERA for us and, after the season, was traded to the Phillies for Erik Kratz and Rob Rasmussen. Snider has bounced around and never become the player we hoped he would. He’s having a pretty terrific AAA season in the Diamondbacks system, with a .294/.402/.497 line. But, at age 31, that’s not been enough to get him up to the majors.

Eric Thames went to the Mariners for RHP Steve Delabar. Delabar was very good for us for about a year. He finished the 2012 season with a 3.38 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 29.1 innings. Then 2013 started well, he had a 1.71 ERA at the break and made the All-Star team, but things went downhill from there. 7.02 ERA in the second half. And ERAs of 4.91 and 5.22 the next two seasons, while going up and down to the minors a bunch. On the plus side he became the first Blue Jays pitcher to throw an immaculate inning, also on this day, back in 2013. He was released in March of 2016 and signed with the Reds, where he pitched a total of 8 innings. He tested positive for PEDs in 2017. He’s been a coaching a high school team the last couple of years.

Thames didn’t do well in Seattle, then went to Korean Baseball League. In three seasons he played in 390 games, hit .349/.451/.721 with 124 homers in 390 games. Numbers like that will get someone to bring you back to the majors. He’s been with the Brewers the last 3 seasons hitting .241/.347/.502 with 61 home runs in 331 games. This year he’s hitting .251/.363/.494 with 14 home runs, playing mostly first base.