National Post (National Edition)
Estrada stays put, two others dealt
JAYS SHIP PITCHERS FRANCISCO LIRIANO TO HOUSTON AND JOE SMITH TO CLEVELAND
Jose Bautista bit his tongue and smiled when was asked if he thought the Blue Jays front office did enough in Monday’s trade deadline.
In 2014, the star outfielder let his disappointment be known on trade deadline day. The veteran slugger said that club management didn’t do enough to upgrade the team as they fought for a playoff spot.
This year, the Jays front office got rid of two quality veteran pitchers — left-handed starter Francisco Liriano to the Houston Astros and right-handed reliever Joe Smith to the Cleveland Indians — for basically future prospects ... the message being: A genuine push for a playoff spot in 2017 is not happening, and rightly so.
But even though the Jays were eight games behind the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East heading into Monday’s games and seven out of the second wild card spot, you know some of the veterans in the clubhouse were hoping that the club would be given the old college try and try to acquire some help for a final push.
When approached at his locker at U.S. Cellular Field, Bautista made it clear that he would not comment on anything to do with the trade deadline. When reminded that he had commented before, Bautista replied: “I commented in the past because I was asked. I never tried to go out of my way to insert myself in those conversations.”
Pushed, he was asked if he still likes the look of his club and if it’s a team he’d like to come back to.
“Season’s not over yet,” he said. “There’s still a lot of things that can happen from now until then. I like the makeup of our club as we sit here right now. Eight games out? I wouldn’t count ourselves out. So we’ll see what happens.”
There was talk that the Jays were going to make multiple deals on Monday as general manager Ross Atkins and president Mark Shapiro start rebuilding the aging team. But they only made two deals, starting with Liriano to the Astros for outfielders Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez. Hernandez is the key part of the deal for the Jays. At 24, he has major upside with speed and power. He was recently ranked eighth on Baseball America’s list of top Astros prospects. The Dominican is 6-2, 180 pounds, and signed with the Astros as an international free agent in February 2011.
“Teoscar’s a guy that we’ve liked for a while, someone that we feel can make an impact in the short term and long term,” said Atkins. “If we had a need him to come up tomorrow, he could fill in immediately as an everyday Major League player. He’s a well-rounded player that runs well and throws well, gets on base, has some power, he can play all three outfield positions. It’s extremely difficult to acquire talent that you can say all those things about that you will have five-plus years of control and can potentially be someone you can count on year in and year out.”
The Jays also traded righthanded reliever Smith, an Ohio native, to the Cleveland Indians for prospects Samad Taylor, a second-baseman, and left-handed pitcher Thomas Pannone. The sidearmed Smith, 33, pitched with the Indians from 2009 to 2013 and was having a good year in Toronto. He logged a 3.28 ERA in 38 appearances and totalled 51 strikeouts and only 10 walks in 35 2/3 innings. He held right-handed hitters to a .211/.238/.289 slash line. The Indians had been seeking some bullpen help to ease the burden on Andrew Miller, Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw.
Pannone posted an 8-1 record and 1.96 ERA in 19 starts between High-A Lynchburg and Double-A Akron this season. He tallied 120 strikeouts in 110 innings, while limiting the opposition to a .197 average and a .558 OPS. Taylor, the Indians’ 10th-round draft pick last summer, turned 19 earlier this month. The second baseman was batting .300 with a .795 OPS for short-season Mahoning Valley. Neither minor leaguer is ranked on MLB.com’s list of the Indians’ top 30 prospects but Atkins is high on Pannone and Taylor. Atkins and club president Mark Shapiro drafted Pannone while in Cleveland.
“Taylor is a young middle infielder that is an above average runner and has had some success already who is a very well-rounded athlete that could compliment a Major League team one day,” said Atkins. “Tom has a low-90s fastball with a good breaking ball and a feel for a change-up.”
As for where the new acquisitions land, Hernandez will likely start at Triple-A Buffalo, Aoki will join the Jays on Tuesday and Pannone goes to Double-A New Hampshire.
“(Aoki) complements our team speed and contact and someone who can start a game, he can pinch run, he can pinch D, come in and pinch hit, so he’s someone we feel is a good complement to our team,” said Atkins.
The 5-9 Aoki is 35 and earns US$5.5 million and obviously is not in the Jays’ long-term plans. He is arbitration-eligible one more time this winter.
He played in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and represented Japan in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Aoki has a career MLB batting average of .285 with 92 stolen bases and 29 home runs in 720 Major League games.
Atkins said trade deadline day was a buyer’s market for pitching, relief pitching particularly.
Marco Estrada was reportedly a veteran starter the Jays were looking to move, but suitable trades didn’t present themselves.
“We’re happy to keep Marco Estrada a Toronto Blue Jay and we’ll start thinking about not only how he impacts us now and how he could potentially impact us beyond 2017,” said Atkins.