Toronto Blue Jays: The Josh Donaldson Trade Tree

The Trade Tree

As the trade tree goes for Merryweather, he is but a small branch right now as he is still unknown.  Merryweather was acquired when he was coming off of Tommy John surgery and was only able to make two minor league appearances in 2019.  This season was going to be a big year for Merryweather as the now 28-year old is basically at a make or break time.

So who did the Blue Jays give up for Donaldson when they acquired him back in 2014?  Initially, Anthopoulos wanted to do an all prospects deal for the “Bringer of Rain”, however, Oakland GM Billy Beane told the Blue Jays GM that he still wanted the Athletics to compete in 2015, so he couldn’t move Donaldson without getting a MLB player back in return.  Canadian kid Brett Lawrie would be the player that had to be included in the deal, although Anthopoulos tried to keep him too, as he wanted him to shift over to second base.  Joining Lawrie were a couple of pitching prospects in Sean Nolin and Kendall Graveman, along with an 18-year old middle infielder by the name of Franklin Barreto.

Lawrie went on to have a productive season with the Athletics playing both second and third base, and at the plate he hit .260 with 29 doubles and 16 home runs. After just one season in Oakland Lawrie was traded again, this time to the Chicago White Sox.  Chicago decided to move Lawrie to be a full-time second basemen and leading up to the trade deadline he was having arguably his best power hitting season as he had 22 doubles and 12 home runs.  However, on July 21, 2016 he left a game midway through with a hamstring injury, which was later revealed to also include his hip, knee and quad.

Lawrie would end up trying to come back from the injury, but in Spring Training of 2017 the White Sox released him of his contract.  He sat out all of 2017 and 2018 before trying to make a comeback in 2019 with the team that first drafted him the Milwaukee Brewers, however, before getting into any minor league games he was released and he has hung up his cleats since.

The Prospects

Kendall Graveman was a former eighth round pick of the Blue Jays in 2013 and was coming off a season that had him climb all the way from Single-A baseball to making five appearances for the Blue Jays late in the season.  In the minor leagues that year through four levels, he posted a 14-6 record and 1.83 ERA.

Gravemen put in a few good seasons as a solid middle to back of the rotation starter for the Athletics. From 2015-2018, Graveman started 78 games and collected 23 wins.  He was forced into reconstructive elbow surgery in 2018 and he did not return to the Athletics.  The right-hander signed on with the Chicago Cubs for the 2019 season, however he was able to only pitch in six innings in their minor league system as he continued to recover. This past winter Graveman signed a one year deal with the Seattle Mariners with a club option for a second year where he will hope to get his career going again.

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Sean Nolin was a former sixth round pick of the Blue Jays in 2010 and had continually progressed and gotten better through their minor league system.  Nolin had a couple sips of coffee in the majors in 2013 and 2014, but just one appearance each year. He made his Oakland debut as a September call-up in 2015 and started six games, but struggled a bit with base runners.  Nolin was placed on waivers that off season and was picked up by the Milwaukee Brewers, however it was determined in Spring Training he had a significant injury in his left elbow that led to Tommy John surgery.  Nolin was completely out of baseball for the next two seasons and has tried to make a comeback over the last couple of years, but he has bounced around a few minor league systems. This past December he signed a deal with Saitama in the Japan Pacific League.

Franklin Barreto was the youngest of the players’ traded and is still just 24 years of age.  The Blue Jays signed him as a 16-year old out of Venezuela and he had played just two seasons in Toronto’s minor league system.  He was an 18-year old infielder that had just come off a season where he hit .311 with 23 doubles and 29 stolen bases with the Vancouver Canadians.  Barreto is still in the Oakland Athletics system and has been up and down with the major league club over the last three seasons. Over 80 career games Barreto has a .189 batting average with an 85-7 strikeout to walk rate.  Oakland still has another five years of control before Barreto becomes free agent.

I remember when the trade came down I was disappointed that Lawire had to be included in the deal, as I still saw a lot of potential in him and also thought Nolin was going to be a really good pitcher.  But getting a player about to hit their prime and win you an MVP award, you make that trade. Over the years of the Blue Jays organization there have only been a handful of times where Toronto has acquired a player that was going into their prime, and this was one of the times.  Donaldson brought back to Toronto a love of baseball for a generation.