Who's deal is it???

Point; counter point. 

And now for the best Blue Jays trades of all time.   I have to say, finding 5 was a struggle.  It’s not that I’m down on the club, but in their 33 years they have had a GM who didn’t make many trades for huge chunks of time (Gillick), a guy who I liked but made some bad deals (Ash) and an idiot (you need the name?).  It’s far too early to critique any of Alex Anthopoulos’s moves yet, so the overall body of work is far too small. 

Here is what I’ve got. 

#5 Leon Roberts for Cecil Fielder

February 5^th, 1983

GM:       Pat Gillick

This was a ridiculous steal, and is only ranked as number 5 because the Blue Jays were not the beneficiaries of their own good fortune. 

Leon Roberts played for 6 teams over parts of 11 years.  In four of those years he played over 100 games, but primarily was a platoon outfielder.  He was so low on the totem pole that he was traded straight up for a 19 year old guy playing “A” ball in the pioneer league in Butte Montana.

Of course, it’s so easy to say that the Jays blew it with Cecil, but they did have a log jam at 1^st base with McGriff.  A little vision of having one of them as the DH or converting them into a position of need through a trade would have been nice.  But again, hind-sight remains 20/20. 

Fielder, in parts of four years in Toronto would only hit .243 with 31 home runs.  Regular playing time was an issue and he was ultimately ‘sold’ to the Hanshin Tigers in Japan.  He went there as Cecil Fielder and came out two years later as “Big Daddy” and signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.  He would lead the league in home runs in 1990 and 1991.  He led the league in RBIs in 1990, 1991 and 1992.  He was an all star three times, won two silver sluggers and finished second in MVP voting twice. 

Sadly, none of that for Jays.  But still, good trade....sort of. 

#4 Bubbie Buzzchero for Brian Tallet

January 17^th, 2006

GM:       JP Ricciardi

Being in the minors has to suck.  But, I suppose you keep your eye on the prize and work your tail off trying to get to The Show.  Bubbie Buzzchero, isn’t just in the minors, he’s been there for 9 years.  AND he’s a middle reliever.  That can’t be fun. 

Tallet had been in 9 major league games over 3 years with Cleveland, so this swap was essentially a swap of minor league pitchers. 

While Tallet isn’t going to be in the running for a Cy Young or start any World Series games, his time in Toronto has been extremely valuable for the club.  In 5 years he has started 31 games and appeared in relief another 183 times.  Of those 183 relief appearances he’s been the last pitcher on the mound in 42 of them (about 25% of the time).  Considering that he has no career saves, it’s not a huge jump to project these games being finished by him as saving other arms by mopping up disasters or working with large leads. 

Swing men (pitchers who start and relieve) are pretty rare.  You’ll see it with a young guy from time to time, but for someone to do it over this time span is exceptional in this era of finite skills and specialization.  He offers a lot of flexibility to a manager and its especially true with a young starting staff.  Is he replaceable?  For sure.  Has he been valuable?  You bet.  And we paid what?  I think he’ll be missed more than people think.

By the way, Bubbie Buzzchero is back in the Jays minor league system.  The dream is still alive!

#3 Mike Brady and Jeff Musselman for Mookie Wilson

July 31^th, 1989

GM:       PAT GILLICK

Well, now it starts to get interesting.  Mike Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own,
they were four men, living all together, yet they were all alone.  Oops, wrong Mike Brady.  This particular Mike Brady never made it past A-ball.  Jeff Musselman pitched 58 innings for the Mets and then spent the next 2 years in the minors before calling it a career and falling back on his Harvard degree. 

Mookie was an odd duck.  Not in a bad way, he was just tough to explain.  The city loved him and the team did great while he was here and the things he did can’t really be tracked statistically.  If fact, if the game was ONLY about stats, Mookie would have had a short career. 

As you know the Jays won the division in 85.  The finished 4^th in ’86, 2^nd in ’87 and 4^th in ’88.  All seasons were over .500, but there were something missing.  The Jays were actually favorites in all those years, but they were looked at as prima-donnas.  And in hind-sight, maybe rightfully so.  The just didn’t seem to be willing to give what it took to win on a consistent basis.

The Blue Jays started the 1989 season with a 12-24 record and manager Jimy Williams was fired.  Cito Gaston was named the interim manager and the club reversed its record going 24-12 to sit at 36-36 and .500 through 72 games.  Things looked great, right? Cito was then named as the full time manager.  However in the next 33 games the Jays were a game under .500 at 52-53 and in third place. 

Enter Mookie Wilson as a trade deadline deal.  The Blue Jays would have the best record in the American League, playing .649 ball (37-20) from the arrival of Mookie ‘til the end of the season.  Wilson hit 2 home runs, scored 32, hit .298, drove in 17, stole 12 bases.  None of it is remarkable.  Yet he was the catalyst.

Mookie had 2 things that were absent from the Jays until he got there.  He had a visible joy for playing ball that was unparalleled and he had hustle.  In Wilson’s second game with the Jays, he got his first hit - a routine single up the middle.  Actually it was a little hump-backed liner just to the second base side of the bag.  Willie Wilson jogged in for it and he really should have hustled.  Mookie was safe in a cloud of dust at second.  He would subsequently score the 1^st run of the Jay’s 8 that night and was instantly a fan favourite.  I’d love to give you a litany of stats for Mookie, but that wasn’t his game.        

#2 Mike Sharperson for Juan Guzman

September 22^th, 1987

GM:       Pat Gillick

Now before I slam Mike Sharperson TOO badly – let’s remember that he was an all-star for the Dodgers in 1992!  Sharperson was that classic 4^th outfielder.  He was good enough and certainly athletic enough but he didn’t really have a lot of ‘game’.  Ten career homeruns, .280 average 61 career doubles in 8 years.  You can see he didn’t play a lot. 

Guzman was great!  Especially in relation to the deal.  His two best years were 92 and 93 when he was 16-5 and 14-3 respectively. 

Best of all, he was 5-1 in post season.   In game 3 1992 against Atlanta, with the series tied at two games each – Guzman pitched a gem.  He struck out 7 and walked one through 8 complete innings holding the Braves to one earned run.  The Jays would win in the bottom of the 9^th on single to centre by Candy Maldonado - scoring Robbie Alomar and giving the Jays the lead in the series.

#1 Junior Felix and Luis Sojo for Willie Fraser, Marcus Moore and Devon White

December 2^nd, 1990

GM:       GORD ASH

The thing about history is that everyone remembers it differently.  Junior Felix had the potential to be awesome.  Junior Felix was a whack job.  I think both statements are true.  Why else would a guy with a ridiculous combination of speed and power be out of baseball before he turned  27?  He played two years with the Jays, two more with the Angels, one with the Marlins and one with the Tigers.  Last seen (2002) he was playing minor league ball in Mexico with Kenny Freakin’ Powers hitting 27 home runs. 

Now Luis Sojo is the anti-Felix.  He made the most out of a little.  In 13 years in the show he had roughly the same number of at bats that Felix did in 6 years.  He never had 20 doubles, never had 10 homers, never drove in 40 runs, never scored 40 runs.  However he went to the post season on 6 occasion. He participated in 13 separate series and was on the winning side 11 times.  He won a World Series in 1996, 1999 and 2000.  In World Series play he was a career .400 hitter.  You have to be good to be lucky and you’ve got to be lucky to be good. 

Now, Mookie Wilson was the guy that brought the Jays back to winning the division.  Devon White was the guy that made them World Series winners.  Yes, a lot of people point to the Alomar/Carter for Fernandez/McGriff deal as the ‘over the top’ move, but I really think it was this one.  In 1992 Fernandez was an All Star with the Padres as was Alomar with Toronto.  The same year McGriff was an All Star, won a silver slugger and finished 6^th in MVP voting.  Carter won the same awards and finished 3^rd in MVP voting.  Ostensibly that deal was a wash. 

In 1992 Devo won his second gold glove.  His WAR (Wins Above Replacement – it measures how much better you are against the average person at your position and then rationalizes that against the complexity of other positions…it’s a 3 page formula but it kind of works) was #1 defensively in the entire American League.  He led his position in put outs and was third in assists.  He hit 17 home runs out of the leadoff spot while swiping 37 bags.  He scored 98 runs and drove in 60.  The best part is that 1992 was his worst year in Toronto.

Devo was a game changer.  Offensively or defensively he had the ability to take over.  Two quick White memories.  He hits a sharp single to right.  The right field comes in a couple of steps and fields it quickly.  White turns 1^st and gets a 1/3 of the way to second with the right fielder watching in disbielf.  Just as the fielder is about to throw to 2^nd, White stops and faces him.  He takes a step to first.  The fielder now fires to 1^st base throwing behind the runner.  White jogs to 2^nd without a throw.  Single and an error, but it was Whites speed that did it.  The second one everyone remembers:

Game 3, 1992 World Series.  The series is tied 1-1, it the top of the 4^th and the Jays are being out played although score remains 0-0.  In the first inning White grounded out, Alomar struck out and Carter flied out.  In second Winfield singled, Olerud struck out and Maldonado hit into a double play.  In the third Gruber grounded out, Borders singled, Manny Lee grounded out and White stuck out.  Steve Avery had faced one over the minimum through 3.  Guzman had given up only a hit himself, but the mood of the game was very tense. 

It got worse.  Leading off the fourth Dieon Sanders singled up the middle on a ball that Guzman maybe should have had.  Pendleton then hits a ball to right center field for a single.  Had he hit it a little softer it would have moved Sanders to 3^rd base but it turned out to be 1^st and 2^nd, nobody out and Dave “there is no” Justice coming to the plate.  Mr Halle Berry himself. 

Justice of course hits the 1^st pitch.  Actually he clobbered it.  Personally, I never thought the ball was catchable.  In the time it was in the air, I didn’t see any better outcome than the two runs scoring, Justice on 2^nd and the Jays giving up home field advantage.  The fact that Devo caught up to that rocket isn’t amazing defence, it was truly magical.  He had no right catching that ball.  I won’t go into all the talk about the missed triple play because it doesn’t matter.  It was a double play and the Jays got out of the inning when Guzman struck out Lonnie Smith. 

In baseball lore there are two “The Catch” moments.  First was Willie Mays’ catch off a Vic Wertz drive in the 1954 world series against Cleveland.  The second is Devon White’s catch off Dave Justice.  As I’m obviously biased and just a tad young to have witnessed the Say Hey Kid’s catch, here is a quote from someone who saw them both.  Vin Scully:  “I saw Mays’ catch,” Scully said. “And this one, to me, was better.  “The big thing with Mays,” Scully went on, “was that he had a wide-open area. He didn’t have to be concerned with the wall. And that’s a major concern. So I’m inclined to think that White’s catch might have been better than Mays’.”