TORONTO, Ont. – So it turns out the Toronto Blue Jays did have something up their sleeve after all when they decided to non-tender outfielders Andy Dirks and John Mayberry Jr., plus first baseman Justin Smoak ahead of Monday’s midnight deadline.
Smoak was a free agent for less than 18 hours before the Blue Jays brought him back on a one-year, $1 million deal (about a third of what he was projected to get in arbitration had he been tendered), and then Alex Anthopoulos traded for a starting left fielder, picking up Canadian Michael Saunders from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for lefty starter J.A. Happ.
The 28 year-old Saunders takes over for Melky Cabrera, who has apparently priced himself out of the Blue Jays’ plans, and will provide better speed and defence. As far as offence, the Blue Jays certainly drop off there (though Saunders’ OPS in 2014 was only 17 points lower than Cabrera’s), but not by nearly as much as they gained in swapping out Brett Lawrie for Josh Donaldson. They also get back to having three Canadians in the starting lineup, with Saunders joining catcher Russell Martin and likely starting centre fielder Dalton Pompey, which is nice.
But it’s not Saunders’ birth certificate that got the Blue Jays to make this trade. Any time you can trade your fifth starter for an everyday position player, that’s a deal you have to make. Happ had a swell 2014 for the Blue Jays but overall, he’s just a guy. Nothing special, and there have been too many times where we’ve seen him struggle through three innings of work with a pitch count approaching 70.
In my mind, it was a foregone conclusion that Happ would be traded this winter. He was coming off a good season and was still only the fifth starter, and Aaron Sanchez was coming up behind him like a freight train with Daniel Norris hot on his heels. Sanchez will now be given every opportunity to join R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Marcus Stroman and Drew Hutchison in the Jays’ rotation, with Marco Estrada and Norris waiting in the wings in case they’re needed.
In Saunders, the Blue Jays get a player who has yet to put it all together at the major-league level. He’s played parts of six seasons with the Mariners, breaking in as a 22-year-old back in 2009, but has had only one 500 at-bat season, missing time over the years with various injuries. This past season, he played in only 78 games due to knee, shoulder and oblique problems but had his best year in the bigs, hitting .273/.341/.450 (all career highs) with eight home runs, well off his career high of 19 set in 2012. It seems the Mariners grew tired of waiting for him to fulfill his potential.
Saunders has had some pretty big moments in front of his home country’s fans, though. On April 27, 2012, he homered off Francisco Cordero at Rogers Centre as part of a game-tying Mariners’ rally in the top of the 9th inning, then hit a Grand Slam off of lefty Luis Perez in the 10th to win it. In 2013, Saunders’ ruined Dickey’s Star Wars Day by taking the knuckleballist deep twice.
And of course, the lefty swinger came up huge for Team Canada in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, earning a tournament all-star nod despite his team being eliminated in the first round. In three games, Saunders went 8-for-11 with three doubles and a homer, hitting .727/.769/1.273.
There’s definite potential in Saunders’ bat, and he has youth on his side. He hasn’t shown a massive platoon split in his career, with an OPS only 73 points better against righties than lefties, but he has not hit left-handed pitching well in his career – just .223/.279/.357. Still, the Blue Jays are pretty stacked against southpaws as things currently stand, and now their outfield as a whole goes from average to below-average, as it was last season, to well above-average defensively with Saunders, Pompey and Jose Bautista.
Unlike Cabrera, who was a key cog at the top of the Blue Jays’ batting order, Saunders won’t have to carry a heavy load, likely starting the season as the seventh-hole hitter, depending on what (if any) improvements the Jays make at second base and centre field over the remainder of the off-season. Of course, Saunders could very well wind up hitting his way into the two-spot that Cabrera held this past season. Getting out of the horrible offensive environment of Safeco Field should help him out a ton if he can stay healthy as he moves into his prime years. Overall, Saunders has hit .248/.320/.423 the last three seasons, but away from Seattle, that changes to .259/.330/.450.
The Blue Jays have spent this winter making moves that haven’t really addressed position needs the way a lot of people expected. They’ve improved immensely behind the plate and at third base and have now found a left fielder they hope is ready to blossom. Next stop (one would think), the bullpen.