Mike Napoli dealt to the Blue Jays

[Crazysilver03]

It's one of the worst trades I can recall in recent memory, but I don't see how it widens the gap between Toronto and Baltimore. Toronto just got rid of a very bad contract, got a decent hitter back in return. It only "widens the gap" if the Blue Jays go out and spend that money they were going to have to pay Wells on something better.

If anything, this gives them the money to extend Bautista, which may or may not be a good decision.

[twoBshorty]

With most trades, you can usually find a thread of logic somewhere in them, no matter how twisted. This one leaves me at a loss.

I want to say this is bad for the Orioles in that it shows that the AL East has yet another Boy Wonder GM to be dealing with besides Epstein and Friedman, but honestly, this is just so stupid that Anthopoulos probably feels he got incredibly lucky more than anything else. Pwnage this bad is not the norm.

[Scrat1]

I just don't get it. Maybe the Angels injected Napoli with the bubonic plague.

[Scrat1]

http://twitter.com/ken_rosenthal

Rosenthal just reported that at least some cash is going to the Angels. Thank God. This division is hard enough. We don't need other GMs acting like total idiots to make it even harder.

Edit: Actually not sure if this is true or not. Seems his page isn't updating for me so this could be old news.

[maybenxtyr]

It's one of the worst trades I can recall in recent memory, but I don't see how it widens the gap between Toronto and Baltimore. Toronto just got rid of a very bad contract, got a decent hitter back in return. It only "widens the gap" if the Blue Jays go out and spend that money they were going to have to pay Wells on something better.

If you look at what Toronto has done with trades, and just letting players walk, in addition to saving a bunch of money, they are way ahead of Baltimore. Every move they are doing is looking forward, and as of right now Baltimore is just looking at this season.

Toront just freed up money for Prince if they choose, or any of next years free agents. Plus they have a pretty solid team to work with.

I would say they are light years ahead of Baltimore, and they started to re-tool a lot later than Baltimore.

I am excited about the team we have this year, but after this season Baltimore will be right back in the same position as this off-season.

[skanar]

Usually when there is a trade like this a bunch of posters pop up asking "where were the Orioles? Where was AM?" but I think everybody is in shock. Also, as usual, the response would be that we couldn't match what the Blue Jays gave up, since we don't have a giant albatross of a contract that we're looking to unload.

That said, I'd have loved to get Mike Napoli as the primary backup C/1B/DH, playing every game against LHP (.931 career OPS!) and a few others, maybe 4-5/week.

Finally, the AL East had a .558 winning percentage against the rest of baseball last season. How much higher can that go? .580? .600?

[tennOsfan]

If you look at what Toronto has done with trades, and just letting players walk, in addition to saving a bunch of money, they are way ahead of Baltimore. Every move they are doing is looking forward, and as of right now Baltimore is just looking at this season.

Toront just freed up money for Prince if they choose, or any of next years free agents. Plus they have a pretty solid team to work with.

I would say they are light years ahead of Baltimore, and they started to re-tool a lot later than Baltimore.

I am excited about the team we have this year, but after this season Baltimore will be right back in the same position as this off-season.

Well, I'm just glad the Orioles are looking at ANY season. Feel lucky.

[Sports Guy]

It's one of the worst trades I can recall in recent memory, but I don't see how it widens the gap between Toronto and Baltimore. Toronto just got rid of a very bad contract, got a decent hitter back in return. It only "widens the gap" if the Blue Jays go out and spend that money they were going to have to pay Wells on something better.

It widens the gap because it just gave a smarter team and GM more resources to operate.

[crawjo]

It widens the gap because it just gave a smarter team and GM more resources to operate.

Right, I get that, but it's meaningless until you actually see what they do with those extra resources.

[Crazysilver03]

Right, I get that, but it's meaningless until you actually see what they do with those extra resources.

Exactly. If they use this money to extend Bautista, I think they are wasting their resources again.

[Stotle]

Right, I get that, but it's meaningless until you actually see what they do with those extra resources.

Exactly. If they use this money to extend Bautista, I think they are wasting their resources again.

Flexibility is an improvement, in and of itself. TOR has something like $15 M committed to payroll next year and an option for Hill. They are now positions to go hard after pretty much any FA they want, without concern that 20% of their payroll is going to be taken up by a slightly above-average contributor.

TOR absolutely pushed farther away from BAL, simply because they've pushed themselves much closer to a place where they can build a team to compete with the AL East monsters.

Again, Anthopoulos has completely restructured the landscape for the ML team and completely loaded up the system (from bottom five in all of baseball to top five) and will be adding just under 10% of the top 80 players selected in this year's amateur draft, as well.

He has done all of this in less than two years...

[SilentJames]

It widens the gap because it just gave a smarter team and GM more resources to operate.

That is all potential. You have to see what they do. If anything Vernon was a huge part of their big offensive season last year, now he is gone and replaced with a couple mediocre hitters.

They made their starting rotation worse, they are going nowhere for a couple years.

[Stotle]

That is all potential. You have to see what they do. If anything Vernon was a huge part of their big offensive season last year, now he is gone and replaced with a couple mediocre hitters.

They made their starting rotation worse, they are going nowhere for a couple years.

I think this is going to prove to be a wildly incorrect statement -- we'll have to wait and see...

[Sports Guy]

That is all potential. You have to see what they do. If anything Vernon was a huge part of their big offensive season last year, now he is gone and replaced with a couple mediocre hitters.

They made their starting rotation worse, they are going nowhere for a couple years.

1) The people on this site underrating Toronto and Tampa are going to look very foolish in the years to come.

2) The BJs have PROVEN that they will spend money on amateur talent, scouting, etc...So, we already know they will do well with the money just because they are smart. Plus, this likely allows them to sign everyone of their early picks they have this year, something that may have been harder to do for them without saving this money.

[McNulty]

This trade proves a few things to me.

1. While MacPhail has had, IMO, a great offseason, we still have the worst group of decision makers in the division.

2. Toronto finds arms seemly out of thin air all the time. The one thing that was dragging that franchise down was this contract. I think if the Angels traded me for Wells straight up, the Angels are still getting ripped off. That contract is downright terrible, and Anthopoulos being able to get rid of it AND getting valuable players is just mindboggling. It beats the Bedard deal, hands down. They are going to be a force in this division.

3. Anthopoulos has been doing nothing but setting that franchise up for success since he took over. He's clearly got a plan, and has been executing it very well.

Silent James, remember last year when they dealt away Halladay and everyone thought they would be in last place? How'd that work out? If they can overcome that, they can get past losing Marcum and Vernon Wells. Especially if Lind remembers that he can actually hit, and Snider figures it out like everyone expected him to.