Blue Jays Trade Casper Wells to A’s

September 28, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Seattle Mariners left fielder Casper Wells (33) during the sixth inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY SportsThe Casper Wells era in Toronto has officially come to an end, with the Blue Jays announcing that they have traded the outfielder to the Oakland Athletics on Monday. The team announced the move via their official Twitter account.

In exchange, the Blue Jays will receive cash considerations from the Athletics, which isn’t such a bad turn of investment for bringing Wells in for a barely a handshake.

The 28-year-old Wells was claimed off of waivers by the Blue Jays on April 10th, but was not activated until April 12th. However, the team ultimately designated him Wells for assignment on April 16th in order to make room on the roster for Ramon Ortiz.

Wells would not appear in a single game during his time in Toronto. That is somewhat unfortunate, as Wells has averaged a bWAR of 1 or more in each of his four seasons in the Major Leagues. By comparison, Rajai Davis, has been worth exactly 0.1 bWAR over the course of his three seasons in Toronto. If Wins Above Replacement is the true measure of a player, then the statistics show that Wells would have been a more valuable reserve outfielder than would the incumbent Davis.

Oh, and in case you missed it, Wells was one of the prime examples used by Charlie Wilmoth at MLB Trade Rumors in his piece about Toronto’s abuse of the current waiver system. Wilmoth makes a solid argument as to the fact that Toronto is taking advantage of the current system in order to create depth in their system, but his alternative of forcing teams to carry a claimed player on their 40-man roster for a minimum of 30 days lacks foresight as well and would likely cost players like Wells even more playing time.

Regardless, thank you Casper Wells. We hardly knew you, but it was a good time nonetheless.