3. Trading away Gabriel Moreno
Many Jays’ fans have expressed their frustration and their displeasure during the offseason when the Jays traded away their top prospect Gabriel Moreno to the Arizona Diamondbacks, as many believed he could be the next Pudge Rodriguez or Salvador Perez, providing that rare strong offensive impact from the catching position. However, many have failed to also recognize his strong defensive side of his game, which can be at times even more impressive than his offensive potential.
For the season, Moreno has provided strong and steady defence for the Diamondbacks, having thrown out 14 of 30 potential basestealers (47% success rate), to go along with committing only one passed ball and one error all season, in addition to allowing ZERO wild pitches to date in 56 games played behind the plate. Opposing runners definitely haven’t had the freedom to roam the bases with Moreno at the guard. On the other hand for the Jays, the tandem of Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk have combined together to throw out only 12 of 77 baserunners (15.6% success rate), with seven errors, one passed ball, and 17 wild pitches over 72 games started behind the plate. Their difference in defensive abilities was expected, but it wasn’t expected to be that big of a difference.
By allowing this many baserunners to patrol the bases and advancing at will does not bode well for the Jays, and who knows how many games they have lost because of it without going even deeper into the stats. It doesn’t matter how much Jansen and Kirk can provide offensively to help make up for the difference, but by having runners constantly getting into prime scoring positions, it will not be a recipe for success in the long run, making the loss of Moreno potentially an even harder pill to swallow.