In the short term I now think this trade does help the team. starting with the throw in: Rivera has been shopped for some time by the Angels with no takers. He is a poor defensive OF with low OB skills. From an outfielder perspective give me Wells any day over Rivera.
Hopefully we will sign Chavez or Lawrie will be able to make the transition to 3B quicker. As if these things come to pass, we can move Jose back to RF and Rivera becomes our 4th OF.

Napoli on the other hand is a fairly valuable commodity as a DH/1B/C. I hope we don’t see him at C more than once or twice a week as his defensive catching skills are questionable at best and definitely not any sort of defensive upgrade over JPA.
What Napster really provides the Jays is piece of mind for 2011. He can step up if Lind is a disaster at 1B and he can catch if JPA doesn’t focus on getting his pitchers ready for game day (This I think is the Jays biggest concern with JPA). His presence will also ensure EE actually hustles on every play.

Combined with EE, they also gives us a potentially better line up against LHP’s. Our largest weakness in 2010. Prior to last year, Napoli has also had excellent OB skills. With the smaller confines of the SkyDome, he could hit 30+ hrs with 550 AB. So his production should mostly offset what we lost in Wells.

It feels like there are still several unknowns:
1 – will the Jays and Bautista reach a 3 – 4 year deal? We almost need him more than now than before the trade
2 – Will we sign Chavez/ trade for another 3B/ will Lawrie be ready this year? Then we won’t have to see Rivera’s butchery all season long in LF. We can move Bautista to RF, Snider to LF with Davis in CF.

I would see the 2011 line up like this:
1 – Davis (CF)
2 – Escobar (SS)
3 – Lind (1B)
4 – Bautista (RF)
5 – Napoli (DH)
6 – Snider (LF)
7 – Hill (2B)
8 – Arencibia (C)
9 – Lawrie (3B)

In this configuration, your 3 – 8 hitters all have 30+hr potential

According to AA the Greinke/Gordon trade didn’t even get to the point of exchanging names, as Greinke said from the get go he wouldn’t come to Toronto there was no point in beginning negotiations.

Alex Anthopoulos never ceases to amaze me. It’s one thing to find a realistic taker for this contract (few teams would qualify), and then ACTUALLY move it. Getting back Juan Rivera, who could definitely bounce back in 2011, and a useful MLB piece in Mike Napoli (who I am also a big fan of), is just flabbergasting.

Mylegacy beat me to the punch by pointing out Napoli being unbelievable against LHP, just take a look:

Vernon vs. LHP:
2009 – .206/.279/.323 in 155 AB
2010 – .195/.289/.354 in 113 AB

Napoli vs. LHP:
2009 – .337/.422/.611 in 95 AB
2010 – .305/.399/.567 in 141 AB

Barring any moves, and with AA it’s fair to say you never really know what he’s brewing, it seems as though Napoli will move into the C/1B/DH setup along with EE, Lind, and JPA.

When there’s a lefty on the hill, it’s virtually guaranteed EE and Napoli will be in the lineup, and one of either Lind or JPA. The insurance Napoli provides at C/1B is quite valuable, with 2011 being an experimental year really at both positions regarding the players.

I really hope this trade opens up the chance for Mastroianni to get a shot as well.

As if there weren’t already hundreds of reasons why it’s exciting to be a Jays fan and to be excited for the 2011 season, this trade is a BIG one!

Our only (other) APPALLING weakness has been the 800 pound, $86 MILLION dollar, gorilla contract tied around the Jay’s finances – along came AA!

As an atheist I do not say this lightly – AA IS GOD!

I’m a massive fan of his, always have been, and he’s my favorite for the CF job if he gets a fair shake. However, if you’ll recall, he was used as trade bait (reportedly) when the Jays were looking for Alex Gordon or Zack Greinke from the Royals. If that is a fact, then it’s more likely that the Jays will bring on Scott Podsednik and use him in tandem with Rajai Davis.

Either way, the Jays now have the cash to sign Bautista and will still have very good options at CF which will include the appropriate SB skills for the position.