12/21/24
November 29, 2014
Toronto Blue Jays trade Brett Lawrie, 3 others to Oakland A’s for Josh Donaldson: It was a four-for-one trade. The Jays gave up Lawrie and three minor-leaguers: pitchers Sean Nolin and Kendall Graveman and shortstop Franklin Barreto.
They got Donaldson, one of the best third basemen in the majors, whose 15.4 WAR over the past two years was second only to Mike Trout’s 16.7.
posted by tommytrump to baseball at 12:50 PM - 4 comments
Especially with team control for years, totally. The Blue Jays built a stable of young arms and Nolin was buried for the foreseeable future behind other guys.
posted by dfleming at 05:02 PM on November 29, 2014
If the Jays window of opportunity closes in two years with no playoff/pennant/World Series to show for it, then I think Anthopolous is probably going to be fired.
At least it won't be for inaction, as he's pretty much stepped up and made every move he can to try to bring a winner to Toronto.
The interesting thing will be to see how the Blue Jays fans react to this. Lawrie jerseys were the easy #1 seller in Toronto, and he was a BIG hit with the younger/hipper crowd (being Canadian, heavily tattooed, and wearing his heart on his sleeve).
Hopefully the smarter ones will realize that he was slowly turning into the Canadian version of Nick Johnson; tons of potential, flashes of greatness, a body made of balsa wood. Over the last three seasons, Lawrie has played 125, 107, and 70 games. He just can't be counted on to stay healthy.
posted by grum@work at 10:27 PM on November 29, 2014
I think Lawrie might be one of those guys who gets healthy once he's out of Toronto - he plays the game hard, hits the deck often, and on the turf in Toronto that's a recipe for being continually banged up.
posted by dfleming at 08:23 AM on November 30, 2014
I think I'd rather have Donaldson. Is this a sign of a money squeeze in Oakland?