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November 14, 2012

Overthinking It

The Moves Alex Anthopoulos Made Before the Blockbuster

by Ben Lindbergh

In last week’s Lineup Card, we identified 13 areas of need facing selected teams this winter. One of those teams—the only team with two entries in the article—was the Toronto Blue Jays. One Toronto entry was about how the starting rotation would need help.  (Evidently, Alex Anthopoulos agreed.) The other entry, by Colin Wyers was a bit more broad. What the Blue Jays needed, according to Colin, was “something other than a reliever.”

Look at Toronto’s transaction logs leading up to that Lineup Card, and you’ll see what Colin meant:

10/17: Claimed RHP Cory Wade off waivers from the New York Yankees
10/18: Claimed RHP Tyson Brummett off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies
10/23: Claimed RHP David Herndon off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies
10/31: Claimed LHP Scott Maine off waivers from the Cleveland Indians
11/3: Traded Mike Aviles and Yan Gomes to Cleveland Indians for RHP Esmil Rogers

To make matters—well, not worse, necessarily, but certainly more confusing—some of these relievers had less staying power on Toronto’s roster than Yunel Escobar after a bad eye-black day. When Maine was claimed, Herndon was designated for assignment (and later claimed by the Yankees). Two days later, Maine went the way of Herndon. It was as if Anthopoulous had to have each right-handed reliever on whom he received a report.

Undeterred by our article, Anthopolous added two more relievers in the next two days:

11/8: Traded cash to the Kansas City Royals for RHP Jeremy Jeffress
11/9: Signed free agent RHP Justin Germano