Anatomy of a truly bizarre series of trades

Post #1 » by **Schad** » Fri Nov 4, 2011 10:45 pm

On November 17, 2010, the Jays traded relief pitchers Trystan Magnuson and Danny Farquhar to Oakland, for Rajai Davis.

Except, a year later, they didn't, kinda. The Jays now have Davis, Farquhar and Magnuson, who today was sent back to Toronto for cash. That follows the trade of David Purcey, who had been DFA'd, to Oakland in exchange for Farquhar, and the trade of Purcey to Detroit for Scott Sizemore. So in the end, you have:

Rajai Davis to Toronto, for David Purcey and cash.
David Purcey to Detroit, for Scott Sizemore.
Scott Sizemore and cash to Oakland, for Rajai Davis.

What makes this truly insane is not the fact that Toronto ended up with their prospects back within the year, giving up virtually nothing...it's the fact that Oakland comes out of it the definite winner despite failing on the first two moves. They turned two prospects into Rajai Davis, and then decided that they needed neither. They then turned one of those prospects into David Purcey, who was likely to be released if they did not swoop, and who is pure awful. Then then turned David Purcey into a fairly young 2B/3B who proceeded to post a 2+ WAR rookie season.

Nothing about that sequence of events makes sense.

Randle McMurphy · Post #2 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Fri Nov 4, 2011 11:02 pm

The film Moneyball did teach us that Billy Beane and his fat sidekick are always one step ahead.

Homer Jay · Post #3 » by **Homer Jay** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 12:03 am

We're also the team that traded Johnny Mac for Johnny Mac

NeverGoingToWin · Post #4 » by **NeverGoingToWin** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 12:33 am

Homer Jay wrote:We're also the team that traded Johnny Mac for Johnny Mac

For people who did not know this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McDon ... fielder%29

He was traded to the Detroit Tigers on July 22 for future considerations. During the remainder of the season with Detroit, McDonald hit .260 with a .308 on-base percentage in 31 games.

On November 10, 2005, the Tigers sent him back to the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations, in effect completing the earlier trade by trading John McDonald for himself. The only other player to be traded for "himself" in this manner was Harry Chiti in 1962.

Michael Bradley · Post #5 » by **Michael Bradley** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 1:14 am

Oakland getting Sizemore for Purcey still baffles me.

Avenger · Post #6 » by **Avenger** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 2:18 am

can they take Rajai back and give us Sizemore? He'd be perfect as a super utility player at 2B/3B/OF

LBJSeizedMyID · Post #7 » by **LBJSeizedMyID** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 1:56 pm

Wasn't Sizemore out of options hence the trade taking place? A failed prospect for a failed prospect doesn't seem all that baffling considering he was a lefty reliever that had fairly good stuff. I'm not saying it wasn't one sided, but not "baffling" either.

Michael Bradley · Post #8 » by **Michael Bradley** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 3:45 pm

LBJSeizedMyID wrote:Wasn't Sizemore out of options hence the trade taking place? A failed prospect for a failed prospect doesn't seem all that baffling considering he was a lefty reliever that had fairly good stuff. I'm not saying it wasn't one sided, but not "baffling" either.

Dave Purcey sucks, though. He had exactly one good professional season above A-ball in his entire career and that was at age 26 in AAA. Every other time he has been absolute trash. No command, hittable, and unspectacular strike out numbers. He is the dictionary definition of a guy who still has a career because of the arm he throws with, otherwise I can't think of one redeeming quality attached to him.

Sizemore is not great or anything, don't get me wrong, but the equivalent to that trade would have been trading Jo Jo Reyes a few months ago for an MLB player who can play all over the diamond and put up league average or better offense. We would have been thrilled to get that type of return for a pitcher who couldn't get MLB hitters out.

Baffling was too strong a word, maybe, but definitely a poor move by the Tigers from an asset standpoint. Trading useful for unusable is never a good thing.

Post #9 » by **Schad** » Sat Nov 5, 2011 5:03 pm

LBJSeizedMyID wrote:Wasn't Sizemore out of options hence the trade taking place? A failed prospect for a failed prospect doesn't seem all that baffling considering he was a lefty reliever that had fairly good stuff. I'm not saying it wasn't one sided, but not "baffling" either.

He was out of options...but the incumbent at third was Brandon Inge, who was hitting .205/.265/.285 at the time and only got worse from there; he shouldn't have been surplus to requirements. Two months later, they ended up trading a decent pitching prospect to rent Wilson Betemit for the remainder of the season to fill the void created when they traded Sizemore.