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The Blue Jays and Astros executed one of the least exciting ten-player trades in sports history last night. With Brandon Lyon, J.A. Happ, and Francisco Cordero the biggest names involved, there's a lot of head-scratching going around the baseball world today as to why such a big swap of players was necessary. After giving it some thought, these are the most likely reasons I could come up with for the deal between Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos and Houston GM Jeff Luhnow:

  1. Anthopoulos's rich uncle just died and he's now involved in a "Brewster's Millions"-style plot to unload the entire 40-man roster before the end of the month. He has already turned seven players into three. Soon enough, those three players will be traded to Kansas City for Yuniesky Betancourt, who will then be cut. The Blue Jays will announce it by mailing a letter stamped with the Inverted Jenny.
  2. Anthopoulos was trying to complete his 2012 Topps team set of the Astros, so he called Luhnow to see what cards he had available. The deal was made using their card collection and the latest issue of Beckett. Someone filled out the wrong paperwork, however, and neither GM wanted to admit the mistake.
  3. Luhnow and Anthopoulos are in a secret society that collects employees with the most interesting last names. The trade came about when Anthopoulos realized he was missing an "exotic animal" from his collection while Luhnow valued a little "Co-Co".

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yadenr
7/20
I always wanted to believe #2 was how all deals got done. Isn't there a direct correlation between Beckett values and the Pecota values?
crperry13
7/20
Least exciting for you. As an Astros fan, any time they give up nothing and get youngsters with even a shot at a future in return is a great day.
lgranillo
7/20
Fair point.
crperry13
7/20
Besides, there's no doubt that the other clubs are jealous that the Astros now have a Wojciechowski, a Keuchel, a Kvasnicka, and a Foltynewicz.

SGreenwell
7/20
That would make for a great Polish / Eastern European law firm, although it's a bit wordy for a sign.
Eusebio
7/20
This is funny stuff. But as Mr. CRP13 said, this sort of thing makes for a great day for an Astros fan like me, especially since no one around here has understood the phrase "organizational depth" since 2004.
crperry13
7/20
"organizational depth" in Houston has only applied to how deep the franchise could sink before McLane was able to sell it.
sbnirish77
7/23
How about a serious reason such as creating an opening for Travis Snider and his 1.000 OPS in the minors after the blunder to sign Encarncion to a 3 year deal.

Save the comedy for someplace else.