Blue Jays: Marco Estrada inks one year deal with A’s

Former Blue Jay Marco Estrada signed up to join the Oakland A’s for the 2019 season, agreeing to a one year, four million dollar deal.

Marco Estrada becomes most recent Blue Jay who played a key role in the teams postseason runs to join another club this offseason as he heads to Oakland on a one-year deal worth $4M, according to Jeff Passan.

He joins Russell Martin, Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson who will all open the 2019 season without a blue bird on their jersey.

Estrada spent the past four seasons in Toronto after allowing a league high 29 home runs in Milwaukee and quickly changed his fortune in Toronto, leading the AL in lowest hits per nine innings during his first two seasons.

More from Jays Journal

• Blue Jays: Snapping cold streaks at the right time
• Who Should the Blue Jays Extend First: Guerrero, Bichette or Manoah?
• Blue Jays now hold the top Wild Card spot, and yes that’s a good thing
• Blue Jays may have the tools to use a Bullpen Day
• Blue Jays win important first game after Bichette’s late inning heroics

The 35 year-old right-hander will most be remembered for using that changeup of his so effectively throughout the 2015 and 2016 postseason. In six postseason starts with Toronto, he had an ERA of 2.18 with 34 strikeouts to just two walks over 41.2 innings, not allowing more than three in any start.

The Jays took to Twitter after the news was announced to reflect on his playoff mastery.

When he was shipped to Toronto in 2014 for long-time Blue Jay, Adam Lind, there were very few fans praising the trade. They had just moved a homegrown player who spent parts of nine seasons with the big league club for a player in his thirties who just led the league in home runs allowed.

Jays fans would get no shortage of chances to be reminded of how the trade worked out for Alex Anthopoulos and crew as he pitched over 150 more innings in the uniform than any other player during his tenure. It wasn’t just his reliability over the years, or the All-Star appearance in 2016, but rather the way Estrada went about his work with a calm, humble demeanour, something he credits to his mother, that brought Blue Jays fans to adore him.

He joins a long line-up of pitchers in their thirties only being able to settle on a one-year deal but it looks like Estrada will join the rotation. It is also somewhat of a homecoming for Estrada as was born in Mexico before moving at a young age and growing up in California before attending Cal State University, Long Beach.