Sweet smell of pre-season acquires odour of rotten Fish
Bonifacio, Johnson bomb, Jays GM gets nowhere with Marlins blockbuster
The Blue Jays once believed that Emilio Bonifacio would be the answer to their second-base situation. Now they have given him away to the Royals, for what is likely a small chunk of cash.
The Jays once believed Josh Johnson could be a solid No. 2 starter as he headed towards his free agency. Now he is on the disabled list and questionable for the remainder of 2013.
Did the Jays misread the AL East? Did GM Alex Anthopoulos mess up his mandate to bring a winner to Toronto?
“I mean, you always look back and when guys don’t have success it’s human nature to say, ‘Well did we miss something?’ ” Anthopoulos said Wednesday. “Your evaluation of a player and so on. I think you always look through your process overall. I think the thought process behind everything was correct. Sometimes guys don’t perform, in the same way that sometimes you sign guys to contracts and whether they’re your own players or free agents, they don’t always pan out.”
The giddy player acquisitions by the Jays in late 2012 were greeted at the time with enthusiasm from fans and media alike. Current attendance still reflects that feeling, which is the only residual positive. The feeling was that the Jays had bought the pennant just the way the hated Yankees and Red Sox always did. The division was wide open and the Jays had stepped up to the payroll plate to take over.
Over the course of 28 days leading up to the 2012 holiday season, Anthopoulos laid down the biggest bet of his career and rolled the dice — three times.
The young GM was gambling the immediate future of a burgeoning Jays farm system against the chance to win a 2013 AL East title — or at the very least a wild-card berth. Now, following Wednesday’s trade of Bonifacio and Johnson’s quiet fade to black, it looks like Anthopoulos crapped out.
“I think we expected him to be a better player, a better player overall,” Anthopoulos said of Bonifacio. “We thought we’d get more out of him offensively, defensively, all of it. That didn’t happen. I don’t want to diminish his talent or take away his work ethic. Sometimes guys have down years.”
The 12-player trade with the Marlins in November opened the floodgates of optimism. It led next to the signing of Melky Cabrera as a free agent two days later, which led to the seven-player deal with the Mets in December that landed Cy guy R.A. Dickey to head a championship rotation. Without the first trade, the others don’t happen. It became the same roll of the dice.
With Bonifacio now departed, the Jays are left with four active players from that winter of work on a major-league roster that entering Wednesday had won just 54 games, nine more than the muchreviled and much-ridiculed Marlins. The Jays still have Dickey and catcher Josh Thole from the Mets deal. They still have shortstop Jose Reyes and starter Mark Buehrle from the Marlins deal. On the DL are Johnson, the most disappointing newcomer of the bunch, and Cabrera.
Meanwhile, the upper levels of the Jays’ farm system are struggling and the average age of the pitching staff at Triple-A Buffalo is more than 30 years old. The Jays’ top three farm teams in terms of win percentage are Class-A Vancouver, Class-A Bluefield and the Dominican Summer League squad, all short-season teams with players at least three to four years away from helping at the majorleague level.
Here is a list of the major-league players and prospects, with their ages, that the Jays gave up to the Marlins and Mets: Pitchers: RH Noah Syndergaard (20), LH Justin Nicolino (21), RH Henderson Alvarez (23) and RH Anthony Desclafani (23). Outfielders: Jake Marisnick (22) and Wuilmer Becerra (18). Catchers: Travis D’Arnaud (24) and Jeff Mathis (30). Shortstops: Adeiny Hechavarria (24) and Yunel Escobar, whom the Fish traded to the Rays for 23-year-old infielder Derek Dietrich.
The good news for Jays fans was that with the departure of Bonifacio came the return of Munenori Kawasaki and the admission by Anthopoulos that the fan favourite has a chance to be the Jays’ backup middle infielder in 2014. The Jays haven’t given up on winning in 2014, but to do that they must hope that Anthopoulos’ learning curve isn’t leading to the edge of a cliff.
“Sure, we were really excited about (Bonifacio) and obviously it didn’t work out with respect to his performance,” the GM said. “He’s a tremendous guy — everything that we heard about him from that respect was certainly there — but whether it’s just offensively or even stolen base percentage, he just couldn’t seem to put it together. Hard to explain. It happens.”
In 2013, it seems nothing has worked out for the Jays. As early as Thursday, fans will likely get another look at Anthony Gose as the team conducts 2014 tryouts for the rest of this lost year.