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	<title>Toronto &#187; Francisco Liriano</title>
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		<title>Blue Jays Trade Liriano to Astros for Aoki &amp; Hernández</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/31/francisco-liriano-astros/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jul 2017 17:27:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[BP Toronto Team]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Francisco Liriano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Houston Astros]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trade Deadline]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=12669</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Blue Jays are on the verge of trading Fransisco Liriano to the Houston Astros according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The deal is not yet office, and the return is not yet known. It is expected that the Blue Jays will pick up Liriano&#8217;s salary in order to get a bigger return from Houston. [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Blue Jays are on the verge of trading Fransisco Liriano to the Houston Astros according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The deal is not yet office, and the return is not yet known. It is expected that the Blue Jays will pick up Liriano&#8217;s salary in order to get a bigger return from Houston.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> are on verge of acquiring Francisco Liriano from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bluejays?src=hash">#Bluejays</a>, but deal not yet complete. <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal">@Ken_Rosenthal</a> 1st mentioned in talks</p>
<p>&mdash; Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/892071059700232192">July 31, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Liriano, 33, has struggled in 2017, posting a 5.88 ERA across 82 2/3 innings pitched. He has posted his lowest K% since 2011 with a mark of 19.8%, although his BB% of 11.5% is right in the area he has been recently. Those baserunners have allowed more runs to score when he gives up big hits, including the 1.20 home runs per nine innings he has suffered this season. As such, Houston plans on using Liriano as a reliever, as first mentioned by <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/892068882961371138" target="_blank">Ken Rosenthal</a>. He is still holding lefties to a .230/.254.361 line and a 26.9% strikeout rate. More importantly, he has walked just one lefthanded batter in 63 plate appearances. That will play in any major league bullpen.</p>
<p>Jays fans, of course, will remember his shut down performance in last year&#8217;s wild card game after coming over as a deadline acquisition along with Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez for Drew Hutchison. Without his performance down the stretch and the 1 2/3 innings in that fateful game against Baltimore, we likely never experience the Edwin walkoff or the sweep of Texas. So while his time here was short, his impact was very large indeed.</p>
<p>Robert Murray of FanRag Sports was the <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertMurrayFRS/status/892039375059595265" target="_blank">first to report</a> Houston had interest.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong></p>
<p>Shi Davidi is now reporting that the piece is done, pending physicals.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> deal for Francisco Liriano is pending a physical. Sounds like an outfielder in coming back in return</p>
<p>&mdash; Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/892073473559990272">July 31, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>We&#8217;ll continue to update this post as soon as we know more about this trade.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE #2:</strong></p>
<p>Astros reporter Brian McTaggart is reporting that the deal is indeed done.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Can confirm Astros have acquired LHP Liriano from Jays.</p>
<p>&mdash; Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/892077284873654272">July 31, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><strong>UPDATE #3: </strong></p>
<p>McTaggart is now reporting that the Jays are getting Nori Aoki and a minor leaguer in return. The 35-year old Aoki is currently hitting .272/.323/.371 (though his career OBP is .350) and has been an average to below average outfielder in his career. Whil he <em>is</em> controllable through 2018 through arbitration, Aoki is very much a non-tender candidate with a 2017 salary of $5.5M. The real return is likely the minor leaguer, with Aoki more that Jays taking on more salary to increase the value of the prospect.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source: Astros are sending OF Nori Aoki and a Minor League player to the Blue Jays.</p>
<p>&mdash; Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/892079904690507776">July 31, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><strong>UPDATE #4:</strong></p>
<p>Well, this is why you take back Nori Aoki and his $5.5 million salary. According to Shi Davidi, the Blue Jays are getting Teoscar Hernández from the Astros, their ninth best prospect according to MLB Pipeline.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Minor-leaguer <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> getting from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> is OF Teoscar Hernandez, per source</p>
<p>&mdash; Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/892087202448068608">July 31, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Hernández is a speedy 24-year-old with average tools across the board otherwise. He was<a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=30867" target="_blank"> #9 on BP&#8217;s preseason top 10</a> Astros list, <a href="http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017-houston-astros-midseason-top-10-prospects/#s5AtsFG3Fw8WgVWj.97" target="_blank">#8 on BA&#8217;s midseason list</a>, and <a href="http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017?list=hou" target="_blank">MLB Pipeline grades him out</a> as  &#8220;Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run: 60 | Arm: 55 | Field: 55 | Overall: 50.&#8221; <a href="http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/astros-add-francisco-liriano-as-reliever/#uz2qe5Gx9eK6w4LH.97" target="_blank">Baseball America also says</a> that &#8220;Hernandez is a versatile outfielder who has the speed and range to play above-average defense center field and the arm to be a plus defender in right&#8221; who &#8220;with a vastly improved two-strike approach and pitch recognition in 2016, Hernandez remade himself as a prospect, showing a significantly improved hit tool while losing little of his power.&#8221;</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a fine combination for a return on a Francisco Liriano deal. This season, Hernández is playing in AAA with the Fresno Grizzlies, and has hit .279/.369/.485 with 12 home runs and 12 stolen bases. The downside to Hernández is that he does strike out a bit, at 20.7% in 2017, but in today&#8217;s game, that is becoming more normalized. He can also play all three outfield spots (though is only passable in CF), making him a valuable piece to a big league roster. He appeared in 41 games for the Astros in 2016, batting .230/.304/.420 in 112 plate appearances.</p>
<p>This trade is a fantastic one for the Blue Jays in the end. Similarly to how they acquired Liriano last season, they have flexed their financial might and taken on (or retained) the salaries on a couple of players to acquire better assets in return. Hernández is a legitimate prospect and the Blue Jays did well in acquiring a player who can contribute in the future for a guy with only two months left on his contract.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Francisco Liriano is Almost Back to Peak Form</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/06/05/francisco-liriano-is-almost-back-to-peak-form/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/06/05/francisco-liriano-is-almost-back-to-peak-form/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jun 2017 11:55:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joshua Howsam]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Francisco Liriano]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=11421</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Blue Jays beleaguered starting rotation got some reinforcement this week with the returns of J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano. Happ made it through five innings against the Reds and Liriano lasted into the sixth against New York. Happ wasn’t exactly sharp, but with just one rehab outing under his belt, that wasn’t overly surprising. [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Blue Jays beleaguered starting rotation got some reinforcement this week with the returns of J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano. Happ made it through five innings against the Reds and Liriano lasted into the sixth against New York.</p>
<p>Happ wasn’t exactly sharp, but with just one rehab outing under his belt, that wasn’t overly surprising. In particular, however, it was a welcome return to form for Liriano. He allowed just two runs against the very powerful, very righthanded Yankees offense. He also struck out five and only walked two while allowing two runs. All in all, it was a very good outing.</p>
<p>In his two starts before going on the DL, Liriano struggled rather heavily, allowing ten runs and eight walks across just 5 2/3 innings. That left him with three starts in which he didn’t make it past the fourth inning, allowing 15 runs. In his other four pre-DL starts, he allowed a total of five runs.</p>
<p>That’s somewhat par for the course when looking at Liriano’s career. The mercurial lefty has always mixed in the sublime with the maddening. It’s what you get when you have a pitcher whose stuff is as tough to hit as Liriano’s, but who struggles mightily with control; when he’s on he’s unhittable. When he’s not, it’s like he belongs in the low minors.</p>
<p>So the question — posed to me on a recent <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=31903" target="_blank">episode of the Flags Fly Forever</a> podcast — becomes: what do we expect from Liriano going forward? How much of his recent struggles were due to his being hurt and how much of it was Francisco being Francisco?</p>
<p>To answer the second question first, it appears as though the injury was taking a rather dramatic toll on Liriano. While he is always wild at times, it also looks to have caused some changes in his profile. As someone who normally posts excellent groundball rates (52.5 percent over the previous three years), Liriano was actually giving up more balls in the air in the early going this year (47.4 percent groundball rate). His strikeout rate (21.6 percent) was also the lowest it has been since 2011 with the Twins (19 percent). That suggests some change in his pitching that was beyond the norm:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-22.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-11422" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-22-1024x683.png" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (22)" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>As you can see above, Liriano had a rather dramatic dip in his velocity over his last few starts before going on the DL (<em>Note: sinker is isolated because Liriano throws only 5% four seamers</em>). He went from averaging 92.7 mph to 91.8 in his first start against Tampa. He got back up to 92.3 mph in his last pre-DL outing, but even that was something of a mirage. He wasn’t throwing harder than the previous two starts, he was just showing less variance in his speed. The better indicator is actually peak velocity:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-23.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-11423" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-23-1024x683.png" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (23)" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>That last start where his fastball appeared to rebound actually had the <em>lowest </em>peak velocity Liriano has shown all season. At 93.46 mph, Liriano was over one mile per hour slower than his first few outings of the year. This is showing up in the results as well, as batters are slugging .673 against his fastball. That&#8217;s a career worst and <a href="http://www.brooksbaseball.net/outcome.php?player=434538&amp;b_hand=-1&amp;gFilt=&amp;pFilt=FA|SI|FC|CU|SL|CS|KN|CH|FS|SB&amp;time=year&amp;minmax=ci&amp;var=slg&amp;s_type=2&amp;startDate=03/30/2007&amp;endDate=06/04/2017" target="_blank">easily the highest since 2010.</a></p>
<p>Liriano’s fastball was clearly diminished, but that wasn’t the only issue. While the velocity on the sinker fell, the changeup velocity stayed basically the same. With the loss of separation between the two offerings, any deception pretty much vanished. All of this shows up in Mike Sonne’s <a title="The STUFF report – Vol. 2, Issue 3" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/18/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-3/" target="_blank">third stuff metric of the season</a> (the metric looks not just at velocity and movement, but also at pitch separation):</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Graph1.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-10975" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Graph1-1024x742.png" alt="Starters - Graph" width="500" height="362" /></a></p>
<p>Liriano went from a STUFF rating of around 0.3 in his first couple of weeks down to -0.06 just before going on the DL. Dr. Sonne has often said that a drastic fall in a pitcher&#8217;s stuff can suggest that an injury has either already occurred or is on the horizon and it certainly seemed to apply here. To make it short, Liriano wasn’t himself and he paid for it in his performance.</p>
<p>So again, what do we expect going forward? Well Liriano certainly gave us some positives on that front in his last outing:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-19.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11424" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-19.png" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (19)" width="1003" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>Against the Yankees on Friday, Liriano’s average and peak velocities were the highest they’ve been all season. That alone suggests that his arm is clearly feeling better than it was before. This also may have aided in the reduction of walks. Not only does a healthy arm make it much easier to throw strikes (as your body is not fighting itself on the delivery), but the improved fastball also lowers reaction time for hitters.</p>
<p>The stuff was better and Liriano held down a great lineup. Heck, he even gave up his two runs only once some fatigue had set in and his velocity started to fall:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/IMG_0139.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11436" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/IMG_0139.gif" alt="IMG_0139" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>All of that is clearly very encouraging, but Liriano isn’t out of the woods yet. Like Happ, Liriano just had the one minor league rehab outing. He wasn’t out nearly as long as Happ (Liriano last started May 10, Happ April 16) so the sharpness wasn’t as much of a concern, but some arm strength issues still remain. While Liriano was at his season peak velocities in his return, he’s still well off the pace for his career numbers:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-25.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-11425" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/Brooksbaseball-Chart-25-1024x683.png" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (25)" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>The 93.15 mph average velocity from Liriano’s last outing is reasonably close to the 93.21 from 2015 (he was at 93.53 in 2014 and 93.47 in 2016), but the max velocity is still <em>way</em><strong><em> </em></strong>down from what he could do the past few years.</p>
<p>The good news is that even in those other years, Liriano had some outings where his fastball was never as hard as the 94.76 mph from this past Friday. So we’re going to have to watch how Liriano’s velocity looks over the next few starts. If he starts hitting the occasional 96-97 on the gun, then we can probably expect much of what the league has seen from Liriano since 2013: an ERA in the mid 3.00s, a DRA even better than that, a bunch of strikeouts and bunch of groundballs, and just the occasional blowup start. Basically, a very capable number three starter.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t, Liriano still has the weapons to succeed but he may just look more like a four or five than someone who should be starting over Joe Biagini.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo © John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Assessing the Trade Deadline: The Upgrades We Haven&#8217;t Talked About</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/04/assessing-the-trade-deadline-the-upgrades-we-havent-talked-about/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2016 19:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nick Dika]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drew Storen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Francisco Liriano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jose Bautista]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Melvin Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russell Martin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Feldman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wade Miley]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=5162</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This week marked the passing of the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline. With the Blue Jays a year removed from the trade deadline to end all trade deadlines, this season’s transactional activity lacked the same excitement as 2015. While this year’s moves may not be as sexy, that doesn’t mean the Blue Jays’ front [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This week marked the passing of the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline. With the Blue Jays a year removed from the trade deadline to end all trade deadlines, this season’s transactional activity lacked the same excitement as 2015. While this year’s moves may not be as sexy, that doesn’t mean the Blue Jays’ front office did nothing to improve their already strong ball club.</p>
<p>Lost in this year&#8217;s trade analysis however, were many of the intangible improvements the Blue Jays made at this year&#8217;s deadline, which, according to Chris &#8216;Mad Dog&#8217; Russo, are key ingredients in the championship elixir. With this in mind, here is an assessment of the under-reported upgrades that the Blue Jays did and didn’t make at the 2016 deadline.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Melvin Upton and AL East Experience</h3>
<p>While many note that Upton amounts to a solid depth acquisition – a defensive replacement who can hit against left-handed pitching and play all three outfield positions, they are underselling one important part of Upton’s portfolio: AL East Experience. Long heralded as baseball’s toughest division, the AL East is presumed in a class of its own when it comes to the caliber of competition (although this can not be verified numerically in recent years).</p>
<p>While Upton may not be able to overtake Michael Saunders or Kevin Pillar in terms of playing time, he will be able to tell you the name of a great steakhouse in Baltimore or the best park to take your wife and kids to near Yankee Stadium. These kinds of intangibles are crucial to any team with its sights set on a division championship or just enjoys eating well on the road.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Bearded Swingman Scott Feldman</h3>
<p>While the Blue Jays were rumored to be in on many of the starting pitchers available, the Scott Feldman acquisition came as a surprise. Feldman, however, provides valuable beard depth on a team that may lose two of its more elite beards (Jose Bautista and Michael Saunders) to free agency this off season.</p>
<p>Despite possessing a strong crop of young pitchers in Roberto Osuna, Marcus Stroman, and Aaron Sanchez, none of the youngsters have demonstrated the ability to grow the facial hair the team may need come 2017. Aside from his ability to pitch in both the rotation and the bullpen, Feldman has long possessed an 80-grade beard that could slot in nicely as the replacement for either Bautista or Saunders, should the team not be able to re-sign them. The Jays were unable to add anyone that could offset the potential loss of Edwin Encarnacion’s chinstrap, however.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Jays Install a Safety Railing in Russell Martin’s Shower</h3>
<p>Catching depth is one of the scarcest commodities in the Major Leagues. Very few teams are lucky enough to have one high-quality player behind the plate let alone two. This is why one of the Blue Jays’ small but important moves at the deadline was to install a safety railing in Russell Martin’s shower.</p>
<p>The Jays realize that protecting Martin, who was forced to miss a handful of games in mid-July (due to a sauna-induced slip in in the shower) needed to be a top priority for the club. The cost of the installation is said to be a fraction of what the Blue Jays would pay to keep Eric Kratz on the Major League roster and the team was able to get a great deal on a contractor because Jason Grilli knew a guy.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Jays Exercise Restraint and Don’t Trade Jose Bautista to the Nationals</h3>
<p>Jose Bautista, who’s contract expires after the World Series, may be nearing the end of his Blue Jays’ tenure if management decides they don’t want to pay what it will cost to keep him into his early 40s.</p>
<p>This uncertainty led to the circulation of rumors that Bautista might be headed to the Nationals before the non-waiver trade deadline. While Atkins was no doubt tempted by his hatred of all things connected to the previous management regime, not to mention strong Nationals’ trade packages built around Ryan Zimmerman or Jayson Werth, the Blue Jays’ GM opted to hold on to Bautista. Mike Rizzo’s “it never hurts to ask” policy typically only works when he’s asking about players like Johnathan Papelbon.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Hidden Value in the Francisco Liriano Trade</h3>
<p>The most notable acquisition the Blue Jays made this month was Monday’s trade for Pirates’ lefty Francisco Liriano. In addition to Liriano, the Blue Jays acquired two prospects and three weeks of extra media content in the deal.</p>
<p>While many praised the move as a savvy way to acquire Major League talent and prospects at the same time, the real get is the additional columns, video segments and radio discussions about how the Blue Jays may now replace Aaron Sanchez in the rotation. Excited at the possibility of filling their airwaves with further discussion and analysis of the great Sanchez debate, one Sportsnet big wig was quoted as saying: “the ratings generated when Zauny turns bright red on Tim and Sid alone will justify paying Liriano’s $13 million dollar salary in 2017”.</p>
<p>Rusell Martin’s framing abilities will be counted on to help Liriano turn his season around and to offer a players&#8217; perspective in the Sanchez shutdown debates.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Blue Jays Insist that Orioles Acquire Wade Miley</h3>
<p>With few high level arms available via trade this season, the market demand for starting pitching saw general managers acting like Canadian house hunters in their attempt to secure rotation upgrades.</p>
<p>Understanding that the Blue Jays’ best chance at success lies in having hurlers like Wade Miley pitch against the club rather than start for it, the team wisely decided against acquiring a back of the rotation innings-eater. While Jose Bautista and company may have been actively petitioning the club to acquire pitchers at the deadline in years past, the Jays’ offence is likely asking for more opportunities to face off against this year’s crop of trade targets.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Jays Trade Drew Storen to Seattle for Slightly Older Drew Storen</h3>
<p>The Drew Storen experiment didn’t work out in Toronto. Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, the once-excellent Storen lost enough miles per hour on his fastball that he was unable to pitch effectively.</p>
<p>Instead of waiting until the end of the year to cut ties with Storen, Atkins shipped him to Seattle last week in exchange for Joaquin Benoit , a reliever with a similar record of long term success and short term struggles. The best-case scenario is that Benoit returns to form and the Jays have another reliable bullpen arm. The worst-case is that Blue Jay fans will get to spend a few innings a week wondering the same thing they did when Storen was pitching: Is he really this bad now? And, can he turn things around? Consistency is important.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro skillfully added talent to both their major and minor league teams without subtracting any significant pieces from the current roster. Lost in these upgrades, were a series of intangible improvements that often go unnoticed &#8211; beard depth is just as important as pitching depth. It might not be exciting but it was productive. If you still don’t think the Blue Jays did enough at the deadline, you can always count Darwin Barney and Ryan Goins playing the outfield as new additions too…right???</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Blue Jays Showing Financial Flex</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/03/blue-jays-showing-financial-flex/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/03/blue-jays-showing-financial-flex/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Aug 2016 12:57:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joshua Howsam]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Francisco Liriano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=5122</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Amid all the deadline hysteria and the excitement of following a team that briefly reached first place this past week, people can be forgiven if they’ve forgotten the somber mood that was so prevalent among the Blue Jays fanbase this past offseason. Coming off a year that saw the GM make two huge splashes at the [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Amid all the deadline hysteria and the excitement of following a team that briefly reached first place this past week, people can be forgiven if they’ve forgotten the somber mood that was so prevalent among the Blue Jays fanbase this past offseason. Coming off a year that saw the GM make two huge splashes at the deadline and the team go all the way to the ALCS, people couldn’t have been happier.</p>
<p>Then, in a flash, the happy moments disappeared. Alex Anthopoulos left town (eventually landing in LA) and the Blue Jays let David Price walk in favour of J.A. Happ. By the time spring training rolled around full of Bautista and Encarnacion contract talk, fans were ready to run Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins out of town. However, by far the biggest thing that had fans upset was the prospect of opening the season with a payroll at the same levels as 2014 and 2015, despite massive surges in season tickets and flex packs, and an increase in ticket prices.</p>
<p>With the success of Happ and the recent tweaks to the roster through trade, much of Shapiro and Atkins’ reputations has been restored, but it is the payroll situation that provides the most intrigue.</p>
<p>As of this writing, the Blue Jays are averaging 40,395 in attendance across 56 home games. For some context, that’s an improvement of nearly six thousand fans over last year’s average (34,504). The Blue Jays lead the American League in attendance for the first time since the early 90&#8217;s, and the crowds are only going to get bigger as the season reaches the heights of the AL East race. When combined with a ten percent hike in ticket prices (on average), the new dynamic pricing system that raises the cost of in-demand games (read: all of them), and the increased concession/memorabilia purchases from the extra fans, the team is pulling in a LOT of new money.</p>
<p>The boosts to the revenue streams aren’t limited to those attending games at the Rogers Centre, either. <a href="https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-game/the-great-canadian-ratings-report--blue-jays-on-a-roll-both-on-field-and-at-box-office-164326382.html" target="_blank">As of July 6</a>, the Blue Jays were averaging 928K viewers per game on their broadcasts, which is a whopping fifty percent increase over last year at this time. They had also seen 30 broadcasts top one million viewers, up from just two at that time last year. Those are <a href="http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2016/07/mlb-ratings-espn-yankees-red-sox-viewership-fs1-tbs-lpga-cbs/" target="_blank">numbers that beat </a>Fox Sports 1’s high for the season (687,000), TBS, and top non-Sunday Night Baseball games on ESPN. As a reminder, the USA is 10x more populated than Canada. People in this country love watching the Blue Jays.</p>
<p>Now, as many are aware, Rogers Communications owns the Blue Jays and they also own Sportsnet, the Blue Jays exclusive television broadcaster. As a result, there is no long term rights deal between the broadcaster and the team, as exists with almost every other club in MLB. Such a situation is almost entirely beneficial to ownership, as they are never at risk of losing big if the product doesn’t draw as expected (as we saw with the Rogers NHL rights purchase). However, it does allow a unique circumstance where increased ratings mean Shapiro could go to the company and ask for some extra budget space due to unforeseen revenues.</p>
<p>It’s impossible to know which of these factors has led to where we are now, but all of a sudden, the Blue Jays are throwing their financial weight around for the first time in a generation. In recent deals, the Blue Jays have decided to take on money as opposed to giving up assets. They absorbed Francisco Liriano’s entire $4.5M this year and $13.667 M next year and it got them two prospects back. They also picked up Scott Feldman’s entire salary ($2.6M left), Jesse Chavez’ remaining money (Approx $1.7M) and $5M of Melvin Upton Jr.’s contract. By paying in money, the Blue Jays have only been forced to deal lottery pick prospects, while getting likely big leaguers, if non-stars in return (McGuire, Ramirez, and Bolsinger). This is a far cry from even a few years ago when rumours existed that Noah Syndergaard was included at part of the R.A. Dickey package to avoid paying Dickey’s $5M salary (removed by sending John Buck to the Mets).</p>
<p>At the end of all those deals, the Blue Jays <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-hope-martin-can-help-liriano-regain-old-form/" target="_blank">payroll actually now sits somewhere in the $150M neighbourhood</a> for the year, which is more than $10M above last year’s final total. With the diminished Canadian Dollar, that is a huge outlay for Rogers, and a reward for the financial success of the club.</p>
<p>None of this will erase the years that Rogers has seemingly underfunded this team, of course. Fans don&#8217;t forgive that easily. And it&#8217;s also still too early to tell what this means for Encarnacion, Bautista, Saunders, and all the other free agents on this club. However, the team is finally starting to spend money to win, instead of spending players, and that’s nothing but a good thing.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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