Blue Jays: A Look At The Prospects Going To Oakland

Ross Atkins made a huge move on Wednesday morning by acquiring the top defensive third basemen in the American League in Matt Chapman.

The soon to be 29-year old comes with three of the past four American League Gold Gloves for Third Basemen, along with three 20+ home runs seasons, and if you prorate the 2020 COVID season he would have four straight.

The last time the Blue Jays traded for a third basemen it was when they acquired Josh Donaldson before the 2015 season, and he became the best player in the American League. The Blue Jays are not getting the second coming of Donaldson, as he was coming off consecutive seasons receiving MVP votes.  What the team is getting is one of the top defensive third basemen in the game that can chip in with 25 home runs, and with the lineup the club already has, that is all they need.

Whenever you acquire a player of Donaldson or Chapman’s caliber, you will have to pay a price.  When the Blue Jays acquired Donaldson, they also had to give up four players in the deal, and those players were Franklin Barreto, Kendall Graveman, Brett Lawrie and Sean Nolin.  When giving up prospects there is always the fear they could turn out to be All-Stars and change the course of a franchise, but looking back at this deal seven years later, the Blue Jays would do that trade again in a heartbeat.  The same speculation about trading prospects were talked about when the club acquired Jose Berrios, Troy Tulowitzki, David Price, Josh Johnson and R.A. Dickey, among several others.  In more cases than not, the trades have worked out in favour of the team trading the prospects (unless you are Tampa Bay).

The average Blue Jays fan may not know the prospects that the team is giving up in the deal, and some Oakland Athletics fans may be interested in seeing what diamonds in the rough they are getting.  Here is a look at the four players that are going to the Athletics in exchange for Chapman.