Trading Shaun Marcum for 2B Brett Lawrie is a good deal and it could be just the beginning for Jays.
With holes at the corners of its infield and in the bullpen, Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos and his front office posse hasn’t exactly arrived quietly in Orlando as the annual Winter Meetings started in earnest on Monday.
Having already swung deals for speedy outfielder Rajai Davis and reliever Carlos Villanueva before heading off to these meetings, Anthopoulos wasted no time grabbing some headlines by trading 2010 Opening Day starter Shaun Marcum to the Milwaukee Brewers for their top prospect, Canadian 2B Brett Lawrie. The Blue Jays had coveted Lawrie in the 2008 June draft, but missed out by one pick, settling instead for 1B David Cooper.
The 20-year old native of Langley, B.C., was drafted as a catcher but has since been converted to second base and is coming off a season at double-A that saw him post a .285 average with 36 doubles, 13 triples, 8 HRs, 63 RBIs and 30 steals. Lawrie has also spent time with the Canadian Olympic team in 2008 and with Team Canada at the 2009 World Baseball Classic. And to warm the cockles of your cold hearts on this snowy Monday around the Great Lakes, the Jays are receiving, in the words of former Jays’ front office assistant Keith Law, now with ESPN and Scouts Inc., the "owner of one of the best right-handed swings in the minors."
Unfortunately, he was blocked at second base with the Brewers by Rickie Weeks, and talk of him being switched to a corner outfield position ends with Ryan Braun and Corey Hart both locked up in long-term contracts. What the Brewers -- run by Canadians Doug Melvin and Gord Ash -- do need is starting pitchers. Now they have 13-game winner Marcum, fresh off his first full season after Tommy John surgery.
- Brett Lawrie, 20, is a native of Langley, B.C.
- He hit .285 with 8 HRs, 63 RBIs & 30 steals last year in double-A
- Jays linked to talks on Greinke, Fielder and Martin, among others
After reading your comments on various reports throughout the blogosphere, and listening to the call-in segment of Jeff Blair’s mid-morning radio show on the Fan 590 in Toronto, I must say that I applaud your passion regarding this deal, despite the fact that a good young Canadian prospect will likely find his way to the majors in a Blue Jays uniform. That’s something that hasn’t happened in the history of the franchise. Not for a Canuck of this skill set. No, a lot of you weren’t giving this deal a full thumbs up.
This is a good trade for the Blue Jays, as Anthopoulos continues to stockpile highly drafted prospects. What they got out of Marcum this season is probably about as good as it’s going to get. He’s, at best, a solid No. 2, but never an ace. To get another franchise’s top prospect for a pitcher of Marcum’s stuff is quite a get. And in the process, added another piece to the impressive rebuild of the farm system.
And that’s going to be important. By not going after top-level free agents and overspending, which ultimately did in the previous front-office regime, trading from strength (see prospects and players with low major-league service time) will allow them to push towards contention quicker. I think what the Beeston/Anthopoulos tandem learned during the 2010 season is that attendance will remain low until the Jays return to the post-season. While the team played far better than anyone expected, the fans remained apathetic towards the product. This is where Anthopoulos’ next move will be key.
The Jays have been mentioned in each and every rumour that the Kansas City Royals are dangling 2009 AL Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke as they, too, try to rebuild a once-proud franchise. The Jays are one of the teams to which Greinke’s current contract allows him to veto a trade. But he came out over the last couple of days to say that he’d not get in the way of a trade.
That puts the Jays back in play, with the franchise depth to start their end of the trade negotiations with Travis Snider and Kyle Drabek on the table. That should be enough to at least "whelm" Royals GM Dayton Moore, who has said he needed to be overwhelmed to consider trading his ace. I’m thinking those two players, both first-round picks and with substantial ceilings, will probably be better than any other proposal that Moore might have to consider.
Most of you might complain that dealing that much future is foolish, but I beg to differ. I’ve seen Snider since he first arrived as a 20-year-old after just 305 games of minor-league experience. I was wowed by his line drive home run power, an above-average arm and okay foot speed for a "thick bodied" youngster. But I also became leery of his average baseball IQ and the fact that he had trouble with the in-game coaching he was receiving from Cito Gaston and Gene Tenace. That raised some red flags from members of the Sportsnet broadcast booth who once played this game.
As for Drabek, I’ve only seen him pitch three times in the majors, but I won’t say that I was blown away at any time. Average height (6-foot-1), he certainly won’t intimidate opponents from six feet, six inches away. And I saw nothing that screamed out "ace" (though it was a small sample I admit.)
And for those of you who fret over the optics of the original Halladay trade, if Anthopoulos in less than a year trades two of three players from that original deal, so what? The deal then turns out to, ultimately, be Halladay (no need to list his accomplishments) for fellow Cy Young winner Greinke, catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud and speedy outfielder Anthony Gose. Methinks that’s a pretty good return on the original deal that most thought wasn’t enough a year ago.
BEFORE I GO
First of all, let’s consider what the Nationals did by signing Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126-million deal. The former Blue Jay, sent away to the Dodgers for reliever Jason Frasor back in 2004, has never hit .300 or driven in 100 runs in a season, yet is deemed to be worth $18 million a season until he’s 38 years old. I guess I’m going to have to put Scott Boras’ book "Powers of Persuasion" on my Amazon.com wish list...
As usual, the American League East is where most of the off-season action is. As mentioned earlier in this column, the Blue Jays have made three trades so far, the Red Sox sent three prospects to the Padres, picking up all-star and Gold Glove 1B Adrian Gonzalez, the Yankees were able to keep Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera in the fold while trying to land Cliff Lee, and the Orioles filled their hole at third base by trading two "average" relievers for slugger Mark Reynolds, who averaged almost 35 HRs over the last three seasons but has led the world with 638 Ks (almost 100 more than No. 2 Ryan Howard) over that time span...
I will give Anthopoulos this: he talking to everyone to try and get the Blue Jays better. In the span of six hours on Monday afternoon, I saw the Blue Jays linked to conversations on Greinke, Prince Fielder, Russell Martin, Justin Upton, Carlos Pena, Orlando Hudson and Matt Diaz. Hopefully it’s a case of where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Scott Carson has joined the Twitterverse. Follow his tweets here.
