Merry Rasmus?

Early this morning (2 AM EST), I read the following rumour: Jason Frasor and prospect for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen. I thought, another rumour, and why do we need those two guys. Fast-forward 10 hours when I roll out of bed from a tweet on my phone. It all made sense why. The Blue Jays were working on the framework that would send Edwin Jackson to the St. Louis Cardinals for Colby Rasmus. The Blue Jays were eying Rasmus for a while and earlier this week the Cardinals talked to the White Sox about a possibility of acquiring Edwin Jackson for their young centerfielder. The White Sox already have Alex Rios in centerfield, and that’s when I assume Anthopoulos decided to jump in and facilitate the trade. 

Trade:

Chicago White Sox acquire: Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart
St. Louis Cardinals acquire: Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Corey Patterson and 3 players to be named later or cash
Toronto Blue Jays acquire: Colby Rasmus, P.J. Walters, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and Mark Teahen

Thoughts on White Sox – Blue Jays trade

The Blue Jays sent RP Jason Frasor and SP/RP Zach Stewart to the White Sox for IF/OF Mark Teahen and SP Edwin Jackson. I will address the Edwin Jackson part of the deal in the Thoughts on the Cardinals – Blue Jays trade section. Toronto was forced to take Mark Teahen from the White Sox to relieve the money issues that the White Sox have put themselves into by signing Adam Dunn and oh yeah, taking Alex Rios from the Jays. Now the Blue Jays did give up Zach Stewart here, but remember its not Deck McGuire or Henderson Alvarez. People need to remember that Stewart is 25 years old and is having a mediocre year at AA New Hampshire. I can see the White Sox converting him to a reliever and adding him to their struggling bullpen. I do believe that Stewart would have eventually wound up in the bullpen, potentially as a setup man. Teahen, the other piece has struggled mightily since 2007 and is under contract until the end of the 2012. He will replace Patterson on the bench for the remainder of the year, and can be used sparingly as a pinch-hitter and as a backup third baseman and outfielder (and in a real emergency, a backup second baseman). In essence, the Blue Jays gave up two relievers for Jackson and Teahen. It is possible that the White Sox were financially restraint and this deal could allow them to make another move, now that Teahen (~ $ 5M) has been moved.

Thoughts on Cardinals – Blue Jays trade

Now this is the most important part of the deal. I am absolutely stunned to what the Jays gave up to get Colby Rasmus. The Blue Jays traded the recently acquired SP Edwin Jackson, RP Octavio Dotel, RP Marc Rzepczynski and OF Corey Patterson for CF Colby Rasmus, RP PJ Walters RP Brian Tallet (I guess Gaston was working with Anthopoulos) and RP Trever Miller. For those of you who are not aware, Rasmus was a top 10 MLB prospect pre-2009 (along with Snider). Snider and Rasmus are really similar, both are young outfielders with 5-tool potentials. Unlike Snider who has struggled in the majors, Rasmus posted some great numbers last year: .276/.361/.498 (OPS: .859) with 23 HRs and 28 doubles. In addition, Rasmus is a player who is not in AA or AAA but is a major league talent. It looks like the Cardinals are really thinking in the short-term with this deal. They acquire Edwin Jackson, a pitcher that might walk at the end of the year, Octavio Dotel, another pitcher that can walk at the end of the year along with Corey Patterson aka Clown360. In fact, five years down the road, the only name that might be remembered in this deal would be Marc Rzepczynski and Colby Rasmus. All the Cardinals did here, is acquire a right-handed specialist, a left-handed specialist, a fifth outfielder and a No. 3 starter.

What the Blue Jays got?

Along with Colby Rasmus, the Blue Jays acquired P.J. Walters, along with Trever Miller and Brian Tallet. Even if the Blue Jays go ahead and release the latter two guys, they still won this deal. It is expected that Miller would be flipped to the White Sox and Brad Mills will be promoted to the majors as a reliever. I honestly do not mind Brad Mills as a member of the bullpen and to be used as a LOOGY (left-handed specialist). I am not sold on Brad Mills as a starter, but I can see him having success against left-handed hitters. I believe that Tallet might be blocking a roster spot for a pitcher like Danny Farquhar (replacing Dotel) or Luis Perez (replacing Rzepczynski). Farquhar is a side-arm right-handed reliever with the Las Vegas 51s, who I think can replace Octavio Dotel’s role. Most of Blue Jays fans are familiar with Luis Perez, though I would rather see him as situational left-hander. The third pitcher, PJ Walters is a reliever who was used as a starter in the minors. He doesn’t have over-powering stuff, but he has put up some decent numbers in the minors and he will now be given a shot in the bullpen. Although, Zach Stewart was ranked as a top prospect coming into the year, I think the biggest lost for the Blue Jays is Marc Rzepczynski. Like I said before, I think Stewart could have been a setup man for the Blue Jays, though the Jays have plenty of arms that one day, might fill that role. Marc Rzepczynski did a fabulous job this year as late-inning setup man and situational lefthander. It is difficult to find pitchers like him, but maybe Luis Perez can fill that role, given the opportunity. One cannot complain here, as the Blue Jays essentially traded 4 relievers, 2 that are free agents at the end of the year for a star like Colby Rasmus. Imagine if the Blue Jays traded away Travis Snider for Jesse Crain, Matt Thornton, Brian Bruney, Sergio Santos and Juan Pierre. I don’t believe Anthopoulos is done dealing, I think he might look into adding a piece for the bullpen, move Encarnacion and/or Teahen or even trade Frank Francisco, Jo-Jo Reyes, Shawn Camp and Jon Rauch for Ubaldo Jimenez (Chill guys, I’m joking with the last one!).

I did promise a blog about Kyle Drabek and what our bullpen might look like next year. Anthopoulos has obviously forced me to re-think about how the bullpen will look like, but those blogs are coming. He also took a different approach with the relievers than I thought (Click here for What I thought would happen), though I did mention that he might ‘prove me wrong’. Feel free to chime in and share your thoughts, I can be reached at salamathematician@gmail.com and followed at @ShakeelSalamath on twitter.