The scary thing is that this deal doesn't actually seem that unbalanced when you assess how much money and risk the Blue Jays took on...but an entire team was just traded. Also how can any free agent sign in Miami without a no-trade clause while this ownership group is in place?

You're being too generous to the Marlins. I don't believe for one second they thought they were able to contend last year. They just bought a few players and a manager to hype up their new ballpark then promptly ditched them. Even if the Marlins got to the playoffs, even if they got to the World Series, I still think they still would've sold off Bell/Buehrle/Reyes etc well before their contracts were up.

As an aside, I'm a little tired of my AL Scoresheet Keeper rookies getting traded to the NL now that Marisnick's joined the fray... and he's the type the Marlins will promote before he's ready to whiff away at breaking balls.

But, for some laughs, there are some gems in ESPN's reactions to the trade. http://espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove12/story/_/id/8629232/twitter-reaction-blue-jays-marlins-blockbuster-mlb

My favorite:

"Hey Lakers. That's not how you alienate a fan base. THIS is how you alienate a fan base - love, the Marlins" - Matthew Berry

How long before Marlins season ticket holders file a lawsuit?

From a financial standpoint, I'm not sure it makes sense for the Blue Jays to take on all those deals in terms of years and money. Of course, it makes them better for 2013, but at what cost? Perhaps they are expanding financially and this means nothing. But this does seem to be a change of pace for them.

And oh yeah, Loria is an awful owner. He needs to go.

To add a bit of PR insult to injury, the Marlins should've targeted a player who wasn't banned for writing Spanish homophobic slurs on his eyeblack since, from what I understand, there is a pretty thriving homosexual community in Miami...

getting double taxed in Toronto isn't going to be fun.

By the way, I am calling it here first. The Jays next manager will be Joe Torre. There is no way they are going into the season with a greenhorn with all the money that was just spent.

Please do not interpret my comment to mean that I actually think the manager is important.

If Baltimore can come within a game of winning the AL East with the below average talent they had last season: The time is now for Toronto to Load the Gun and Fire. Joey Bats isn't getting any younger and the Blue Jay pieces past, present and future are there.

If d'Arnaud becomes the AL version of Buster Posey it gets exciting. The Jays made solid trades to shore up their staff full of power arms in the last couple of years .... This will be the fastest team in Baseball but with the capability to hit 150 Home Runs.

The Stars are aligning.... good trade for both sides - it makes no sense for Miami to pay major leaguers millions to play on a quadruple A team - and they add a couple of future pieces.

I wonder how much of the Jays spending more and going for it has to do with the new 2 wild cards which must greatly increase their odds of making the playoffs (even if only for 1 game).

Hmmm. What if Johnson is cooked? What if Buehrle isn't more than a one win pitcher? What if Reyes misses half the season? I'm excited about this deal too, but Miami isn't stupid about talent. This was an ok deal for them.

Buehrle pitched in the AL Central for how many years? I think he'll handle the Jr. Circuit juuuuust fine.

If you're going to actually rebuild, then don't you get as much talent as possible? Escobar might in theory be pretty good but he's 29 and sucked out loud last year, not to mention his various off-field concerns. Alvarez is a crummy back-end guy, Mathis is Mathis, and the rest... maybe I'm wildly misreading the industry appraisal of these guys, but are any of them even MLB Top 50 material? Nicolino is the only one who even strikes me as a likely Top 100 guy. Honestly, I'm not even sure I'd take this return over what the Brewers got for Greinke, and that was for two months of one guy.

Instead they opt for "salary relief", which seems like a wasted opportunity. Johnson and Reyes have health issues of course, but they're both among the best in MLB when they play and they're both in their primes. I just think you *have* to turn that into an elite prospect or two.

And that's before considering that it's the Marlins and they're less likely to sign top free agents than I am. Or maybe Loria got word that the SEC's going to come down hard and he's saving up for some lawyers.....

The fact they didn't get d'Arnaud makes the deal a huge loss for Miami. That team is out of Miami within five years. No one is going to show up now.

Because we don't like him, we underestimate the cunning and tenacity of Mr. Loria. He won't go until he's damn ready, and he will keep pulling stuff like this until he's gone. At the end of the day, this is a salary dump, in tune with Marlins history. Ho hum. Whenever we think we have Mr. Loria figured out, he pulls something like this out of his bag. Season ticketholders who DONT sue are the yokels he took them for. And MLB will do nothing, nothing.

Sadly, the presented analysis lacks a deep dive into The Mathis Impact. Mathis is coming off his best offensive season ever, where he more than doubled his total career's bWAR. Plus, his career 1.150 postseason OPS shows his clutchy, gritty #want.

I've had Marlins weekend season tickets since 2007 and was on the fence about renewing, but now they have pushed me off. When I renewed last fall, they made it sound like I had better act fast because with the new stadium (which to their and Miami taxpayers' credit is a great place to watch a game) and free agent signings (we are serious about going after Pujols), getting shutout was a real possiblity.

It turned out that in my section (upper deck, 15 rows up, directly behind home plate) there was almost no one within 10 rows of me at just about every game after April. Beyond being a team that became increasingly joyless to watch as the season progressed, the team's promotional items and postgame concerts were a joke. And now it turns out that the commitment to being competitive was also a lie. Even when they traded Cabrera, at least Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller were (wrongly) projected as potential stars - I just don't see that here, short- or long-term. This is potentially a 110-loss team. I'll go to five or six games, buying deeply discounted tickets off Stubhub.

This is what I love about BP, having just read through 42 comments. From where I sit, Loria has stuck it to Marlins fans once again. Yes, some of the traded players don't have great health histories, but the Marlins got nothing to speak of. Any chance Loria gets a call from the commish (yeah right)? On a separate topic, I still want to know what it is about Florida that makes MLB such a tough sell. Too many other options for the public's entertainment dollars?

I think the Jays improved themselves for 2013 by 8 wins with this trade.

I would be wary of Yunel Escobar's OBP, as well. He had the lowest walk rate of his career this year, and it doesn't even seem that close. With what projects to be an extremely weak lineup surrounding him, I can't imagine pitchers are going to be too afraid to pitch to him.

Looking at the contracts page for the Marlins, they have 1 arb-eligible player going into 2013 (Ryan Webb). The only player signed past 2013 is newly-acquired Jeff Mathis at $1.5 million. Giancarlo Stanton and several others will be arb-eligible for the first time in 2014.

Enjoy Stanton in 2013 Marlin fan - he could be gone before he gets paid. I can already see the 2014 Marlins with a total payroll of $12.5 million.

Remember when Bowie Kuhn vetoed the selling off of A's players back in the 70's under the best interests of baseball clause? (I am not a fan of Kuhn, BTW). Beelzebud? You're kidding, right?

I am really glad Loria wasn't serious about moving here to San Antonio.

Why blame a losing team without good prospects for the next season to sell off all their bloated contracts they can for as many promising young players they can? Marisnick, Nicolino, Hechavarria, and even the social ignoramus Escobar have some promise.

What the Marlins need to do, however, is put that money into player development. I talked to a pitcher breaking through in another organization who came through the Marlins' system. They gave him almost no instruction or guidance at all compared to his new club.

I can't believe that BP is actually evaluating the micro aspects of this trade with a straight face.
It's an absolute travesty - corporate welfare at it's worst.