Friday Night Bantering: More on the Trade

It was nice of the Jays to wait until I got home after a day out of the house to make the big trade. We have a considerate front office.

In other news, the Cubs picked up Anthony Kay. I’m slightly sad to see him go. If circumstances were different, we might have given him a longer, better shot at being part of the rotation, but the team picked up more established pitchers in trades and free agency. But an alternate universe where Kay got one of the starting jobs given to Tanner Roark or Chase Anderson would be interesting to watch. I can’t imagine that Kay would have been worse than Anderson and his 7.22 ERA.

And Blue Jays PR man Richard Griffin is leaving the club. He took over the job when Jay Stenhouse was let go. Congratulations Richard. Enjoy retirement.

Getting to think about the Varsho trade a bit, I’m pretty happy with it. I mean, like any trade, it might not work out, but....

• We were thinking about Michael Conforto, but a 30-year-old coming back after missing a full season. He’s not anywhere close to as good defensively. He might have a better bat (not all that much better), but who knows how he will do in his 30s.
• Bryan Reynolds doesn’t look as good on defense as Varsho, but he would likely have a better bat. But then there didn’t seem like there was a match-up for a trade (unless the Jays were willing to give up Ricky Tiedemann (and I would have been very unhappy if they traded him).
• Brandon Nimmo? Well, I don’t think there was any way the Jays could outbid the Mets (let’s face it, no one can outbid the Mets this year, I think the Mets are great for baseball. They will make the owners share some of their money). But I’d rather have a 26-year-old Varsho than a 30 to 37-year-old Nimmo (as much as keeping Moreno would tip the scales some.

So I kind of think Varsho is as good a pickup as we could have hoped. Andrew Benintendi might have been interesting.

I’m sad to see Gabriel Moreno go, I was looking forward to having a front-row seat to his career. But I’m pretty sure offering Danny Jansen wouldn’t have gotten the trade done. And I still get to watch Alejandro Kirk.

Lourdes? I’ll miss him too, but we only had a year of control left, and his defense was making my hair turn gray. If he could have been consistent with the bat, maybe I’d overlook his defense? He’s fun to watch, but maybe not a guy who gets us many wins.

We do have a different team to watch. They have better defense, better baserunning, and likely fewer runs. Some are making a big deal about a culture change, but I doubt it will be all that much different on the bench. Most teams seem to be having fun on the bench these days, and I’m happy to see that. They playing a kids' game, not digging ditches. Being happy isn’t a bad thing. It is a long season. If you don't have fun, it is a lot longer.

What’s next? I’m not expecting too much. Maybe another relief arm and likely some depth arms for the rotation. And maybe an outfielder or two on minor-league contracts.