The Blue Jays weren’t involved, and sure, eight player trades are more of a rarity nowadays, but why should Jays fans care about this deal?

Image courtesy of Bleacher Report

Reason #1

The first reason is the most obvious one: Matt Garza is no longer in the American League. Jays fans should be rejoicing and partying in the streets over this one, because Garza was one of the Jays’ biggest headaches on the Rays’ roster.

Outside of James Shields, no starting pitcher on the Rays’ staff had faced the Jays more. In Garza’s 13 starts against Toronto, the Jays mustered just a .294 on base percentage and .320 slugging percentage against him, good for a .615 OPS. The Jays posted their lowest OPS against Garza in his career over any of Garza’s teammates that included James Shields (.783 OPS), David Price (.663 OPS),  Wade Davis (.667 OPS), and Jeff Niemann (.688 OPS). Garza had faced the Jays more than any other team aside from the Boston Red Sox, and to make matters worse, excluding his one appearance against the Phillies and Padres, the Jays had the lowest OPS against Garza out of all the teams he had faced in his career. (more…)

“We’re getting a little more intrigued by it. We’re not ready to commit to it right now, but we would like to have a scenario where at least we can continue to find out about Adam at first. The upside for us long term in finding out about Adam, there’s huge value to that.”

Even though he is inclined to having Adam Lind as the Jays’ Opening Day first baseman, Anthopoulos still hinted towards signing a DH/1B option to complement Lind when he said:

“Just for the roster construction going forward. So, to find someone that can be a little bit more of a hybrid role — whether they’re DH and play some first — that’s the ideal scenario for us.”

“To go sign a bona fide first baseman that you’re going to have to promise everyday at-bats … we can sit here the following year and say: ‘You know what, we still haven’t truly found out about Adam Lind because we had an established first baseman that needed to play the position.’”

The concept of bringing in a possible veteran to platoon with and mentor Lind at first, but DH when needed as well, makes total sense. That being said though, the current state of the 1B/DH free agent market is not exactly overwhelming.

Below is a look at the remaining left-handed hitting 1B/DH options that are available on the free agent market. Add your comments in the section below, and I’ll have a post on the remaining right-handed hitting options tomorrow. (more…)