Ross Atkins, Mark Shapiro and the Toronto Blue Jays front office: A mid-term grade
By Bill Felber
Acquired or traded
From the Jays’ standpoint, the swap of Moreno (and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) for Varsho can be counted a marginal draw. Granted, Moreno looks like he’s developing into a front line catcher, and granted also that front-line catchers are rare commodities.
But statistically Moreno delivered +0.8 WAA to Arizona through the season’s first half, while Gurriel has added +0.5. Balance that against Varsho’s +1.1 contribution to Toronto and the value of the trade really comes down to who’s most likely to influence the Jays’ ability to compete right away.
Arguably, anyway, that’s Varsho.
There was actually a second transaction of significance. In November, Atkins and Shapiro shipped outfielder Teoscar Hernandez packing for Seattle, in return getting pitcher Erik Swanson and a minor leaguer. So far, this one’s a winner (although not a decisive one) for Toronto.
Hernandez has been mediocre in Seattle, producing a .250 average and league-leading 107 strikeouts good for a flat 0.0 WAA. In Toronto, Swanson has been a contributor. In 37 relief appearances, he’s 2-2 with a 2.89 ERA and one save, that working out to +0.5 WAA.
Varsho and Swanson were the two most prominent of only four players Atkins and Shapiro obtained in transactions with other teams, the net gain to the Jays being just short of one full game of WAA. Those four cost Toronto six players, the most distinguished of whom aside from Hernandez, Gurriel and Moreno was reliever Julien Merrywether. He went to Chicago’s North Side as a waiver claim.