Blue Jays Add Offense, Trade Reyes For Tulowitzki
The team that’s scored the most runs in baseball this year just made their offense better by trading Jose Reyes and minor leaguers to the Rockies for Troy Tulowitzki. Ken Rosenthal broke the news, but the full details are not yet available.
Because of the fit, there will be the inevitable questions about further moves — Toronto had been rumored in on most pitchers, and scores more than a half run more than the second-best offense in baseball, and Reyes now seems a poor fit on a rebuilding squad in Colorado — but a second move isn’t required to like this for the Blue Jays.
The game is about getting better, on the run scoring or run prevention side. And if the Jays score six runs a game, they should win more than if they score five and a half. Given that the difference between the yearly outlay for Reyes actually trumps Tulowitzki’s, this deal is even budget neutral. Maybe that’s why Dave Cameron thought it up a while back when he dreamt up some Tulowitzki trades:
Toronto Blue Jays
The Jays don’t really need another right-handed slugger, and with Jose Reyes on the books and Devon Travis playing well at second base, they probably don’t need another middle infielder either. But they do have the kind of young arms that Colorado would likely be interested in. Of the Rockies took Reyes back with some of those pitching prospects, maybe there’s a deal to be struck here, as the monetary differences wouldn’t be all that large anymore. In reality, the Blue Jays path of least resistance is to find another starting pitcher or two to upgrade their own rotation, rather than trading young arms for another big bat, but it’s not impossible to see Alex Anthopolous getting involved if he sees this as the best addition he can make to a team that needs a short-term boost to help an aging core make a push to the postseason.
The rest of the pieces are starting to come through — LaTroy Hawkins is going to Toronto! — and they may change the analysis of the deal going forward. Too many young pitchers going to the Rockies, and you hurt your chances of acquiring other pitchers to help your win-now team on the other side of the ledger. JP Morosi had the first news of the prospects in the deal when he said 22-year-old lefty Daniel Norris was not in the trade, and that has to be a good sign for Jays fans. He was the top prospect in Toronto according to Kiley McDaniel earlier this year.
But the thirty-year-old Tulowitzki is no creation of his home park. His away offense has been 19% better than league average over his career, and that would be the third-best offensive shortstop in baseball this year. Add in a top-five glove at his position since he entered the league, and there’s no way the Blue Jays didn’t get better tonight.
The Rockies? It might depend on what they do going forward with their new 32-year-old shortstop.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Is there a better 1,2,3,4 in the game than Donaldson, Tulo, Bautista, and EE?
Yes. Donaldson, Tulo, Bautista, and Martin.
http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=rfangraphsdc&team=0&lg=all&players=0&sort=24,d
There wasn’t a better 4 before Tulo and that’s with Edwin and Jose not performing at typical levels for the year
Aoki, Panik, Duffy, Posey.
lol
AA is secretly playing MLB The Show and has “Force Trade” turned on.
And he still hasn’t made the playoffs!
Does this mean full blow-up time in Colorado? Sell basically anything and everything except Arenado and maybe Dickerson?
No. Sell expensive assets, keep young and cheap one’s, acquire some pitchers, call up guys, sign a pitcher this offseason.
Trade Reyes for some pitchers. Call up Story.
Let the Trevor Story Era begin. He’s really looking like a solid MLB regular waiting to happen.
And if they trade Reyes to the Mets for pitchers, at least their young guys have some experience pitching in an elevated, dry-air environment (Las Vegas in the PCL is the Coors Field of AAA).
Reyes going to the Mets apparently now, possibly for Wheeler or something?
Castro (Jays ML pitcher who was on the team at the start of the season) is apparently part of the deal
Other Jays MLers Norris, Hoffman and Pentecost are NOT part of the deal
Not going to bother with sources, this is all just coming in. If it doesn’t happen, you can tar and feather me.
Looks like Hoffman is part of the deal! Let the tar and feathering commence!
Donaldson/Tulowitzki is one hell of a left side!
Steamer has Reyes worth 1 win the rest of the way and Tulo worth 1.7. Is it that big of an upgrade? Also, steamer seems to be pretty bullish on Tulo’s hitting
If you’re looking at production for this year alone, then maybe it isn’t make or break, but if you consider how this looks going forward it’s a different story. Reyes’ defense is in serious decline and his contract had the potential to turn into a millstone. Tulo is slightly more expensive and his contract is longer, but his upside is so much higher than Reyes.
And, I can’t help but think that this isn’t just an improvement over Reyes, but also a hedge against declines by Bautista and Encarnacion. They could now afford to not resign one of the two, where as before this season their offense was dependent on them.
I’m clearly in the minority here but I don’t think this is a great move for Toronto. I see very little in terms of real value increase for 2015. And while I wouldn’t mind Tulo for the next few years that extra $50m is going to really hurt down the road.
So they gave up castro and hoffman for a future upgrade? If this move was about the future wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep those guys?
I’m fairly certain the Blue Jays are quite literally selling the farm in order to win now. I wouldn’t doubt it if they land Hamels, Ross, Shields, or Price at this point. I think they’ll retain Norris and Pentecost but Stroman is gone for sure.
You said yourself that Tulo was projected to be 70% than Reyes. This helps now, and it follows on with the move they made for Donaldson to keep the team competitive in the future, when all of those young pitchers they’ve got mature (Osuna? Sanchez? Stroman coming back? There’s supposedly more with upside in the lower minors, too).
When I said this isn’t make or break I just meant that Tulo vs. Reyes on it’s own probably isn’t going to get the Jays into the playoffs if they weren’t already going to make it. Hawkins coming along doesn’t hurt, though.
So Reyes is surely on his way back to the Mets, no?
This is the same Tulo that only plays 100 games a year due to injury, correct?
Yeah I’m sure he will age well playing on concrete.
How much of that is related to knees and/or back?
Seriously, I don’t recall, and that would make all the difference. I don’t think his injury history is fluky (like Ellsbury’s was), but if a lot of this was arm/wrist/shoulder related it might not matter as much.
Duh – left hip surgery last year.
Yikes.
Tulo’s going to need to give his body lots of rest when he’s not playing. Maybe he should give Bo Jackson a call in the offseason and get some archery lessons lol.
Why is nobody talking about LaTroy Hawkins?
Honestly, Reyes, this is what you get for signing a FA contract with the Marlins.