Despite reports to the contrary last night, it appears the Blue Jays will be kicking in some money into the Wells to Anaheim deal. According to SI's Jon Heyman, the Blue Jays will be sending $5M to the Angels to help cover Wells's contract--or as Heyman eloquently puts it, "about a month and a half" of the remaining four years. Yikes!
This is a major coup for the Blue Jays and their GM Alex Anthopolous as they somehow managed to spin one of the most untradable contracts in baseball history into a power hitting catcher and league average starting corner outfielder. Usually when a team has the opportunity to trade away a bad contract, it's usually for another bad contract. (Think Milton Bradley for Carlos Silva) Not so in this case. Rather than face the next four years of having to pay Wells $86M, Blue Jays instead get two relatively cheap players both of whom are one year away from free agency. To say that the Angels and GM Tony Reaggins got fleeced would be like saying Bernie Madoff accidentally misplaced the $40B he received from investors. The Angels got flat out robbed by the Blue Jays.
By the way, did anyone else realize that the AL East is absolutely stacked with great GMs? When you can make a case that Orioles President/GM Andy McPhail is your weakest link, you know you're living in a world with titans. It's almost unfair to the rest of the league.
No comments:
Post a Comment