Blue Jays: Acquire Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar- 30 Years Later

Roberto Alomar was just two months shy of turning 23 years old when the Blue Jays acquired him, and he was already coming off his first All-Star Appearance.  Alomar’s career didn’t start quite as well as Carter’s, as Alomar was just 1 for his first 10 at bats, however he had collected five walks and two sacrifice hits during his start.  Alomar would finish that season with 61 extra base hits which included 41 doubles, and his batting average would be .295, which was the lowest of his Blue Jays tenure.

Alomar would play five seasons in Toronto and win the Gold Glove in every year, as well as taking home one Silver Slugger and being selected to the All-Star Game in each season.  His top season was 1993 when he hit 17 home runs to go with 93 RBI and 55 stolen bases with a slash line of .326/.408/.492.

The playoffs is where he elevated his game even more, in five playoff series he hit at least .423 in three of them.  In the 1992 ALCS against Athletics he took home the series MVP and helped the Blue Jays finally climbed over the hump to get to their first World Series.  In that series, Alomar went 11 for 26 and was a perfect 5 for 5 in stolen bases.  In fact, in his Blue Jays postseason career he was 18 for 20 in stolen bases.

At the end of the 1995 season, Alomar hit free agency and signed a three-year deal worth $18 million with the Baltimore Orioles.  It is hard to think that with everything Alomar did for the Toronto organization, it was all done in just five seasons.  In comparison, Jose Bautista was in Toronto for a decade, even Josh Donaldson played just one season less than Alomar and his feels like just a quick stop over.

Many forget Alomar played for almost one full decade after leaving Toronto and had some of his best seasons.  In Baltimore, Alomar would win two Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger in the three years before joining the Cleveland Indians and having arguably his best seasons.  In three years in Cleveland, Alomar averaged 21 home runs, 103 RBI and a .323 batting average, while playing in the All Star Game in each of those seasons, collecting two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers.

After his time in Cleveland, Alomar would bounce around to the Mets, White Sox and Diamondbacks before calling it a career at the end of 2004.  Alomar would retire a 12-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner, 4-time Silver Slugger and most importantly a two-time World Series winner with the Toronto Blue Jays.  Alomar is currently the only Hall of Fame player to go into Cooperstown wearing a Blue Jays hat (although I consider Roy Halladay a Blue Jay).

By the end of the deal, the San Diego Padres could look at it as they had Alomar, Carter, McGriff and Fernandez to which they spoiled it on a couple of replacement level players.  The Blue Jays will never complain about the trade as everything you want out of any move is what happened in this deal.