Jays' Trade Deadline Duds

The Jays made two trades at (or near) the trade deadline: Travis Snider to the Pittsburgh Pirates for  Brad Lincoln and Eric Thames to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Steve Delabar.

No, neither of these players coming the other way are going to vault the Blue Jays into a playoff spot (or wild card spot or whatever).

The Eric Thames deal is of little-to-no concern to me, because he is a nearly 26-year-old left fielder who plays terrible defense, runs the bases passably, and might provide a league-average bat if he can cut way down on the strikeouts and hit fewer ground balls. Steve Delabar is almost certainly not going to have an easier time keeping the ball in the park in Toronto than he did in Seattle, given the park differences and the general competition level of the AL East.

The Travis Snider trade is somewhat more intriguing, but I don't like it. Snider is only 24 years old and has mashed AAA pitching. He's been about 6% worse than an average major league hitter in 917 sporadic MLB plate appearances, but given the injuries, his young age, and the back-and-forth between the minors and the majors, that's not that bad. In only 40 plate appearances this season, he's shown the power that entices (.556 SLG) along with the whiffs that frustrate (35% K rate, or 14 strikeouts in 40 plate appearances compared to 4 walks). Still, he's only 24.

In Brad Lincoln, the Jays are getting back a guy who went 10 spots earlier than Snider in the 2006 entry draft (and 1 spot ahead of current Jay DL member Brandon Morrow). But Lincoln is 27 years old, and despite doing fairly well in AAA as a starter, he's only enjoyed success in the majors this season after being converted to a relief pitcher. Relief pitchers, no matter how good, have far less upside that power hitters who play good defense and run the bases well (and are 3 years younger). His K/9 is a solid 9.1, but that isn't very well-supported, considering his swinging strike rate is only 8.7%. A lot of his success has come from stranding runners at an unsustainable rate, and he seems susceptible to the long ball, which as mentioned earlier is a bad omen for the American League East. Now that he's in the bullpen, Lincoln is throwing 93.1mph (up from 91.8 as a starter) but that isn't crazy speed or anything. In fact, it seems to be his curveball that fools most hitters, and his fastball really doesn't grade out as anything other than mediocre.

The Jays were probably fed up with Travis Snider's lack of development, and they do have a surplus of outfielders, and they do need help with their pitching staff, but this was still a weird way to go about it. In fact, the Jays won't even try to get Lincoln to start, at least not this season.

Trading a character guy who many would still consider a solid prospect for a guy who is firmly in his prime without much to show for it and can't start at the major league level is just not something that I would have done.