chicago – nori aoki doesn’t really count. The japanese outfielder is a nice player who puts up a pesky at-bat and runs a little bit with some control, but is most likely a candidate to be non-tendered when arbitration time comes next fall, sure to be expensive for what he is. it’s teoscar hernandez who is the first substantial piece of the toronto blue jays’ retooling for 2018, a 24-year-old outfielder with an array of tools and the ability, gm ross atkins believes, to contribute as an everyday player relatively soon.
The two other players acquired ahead of the non-waiver trade deadline – double-a left-hander thomas pannone and short-season rookie ball infielder taylor samad – are much further away on the horizon, for now nothing more than organizational assets with upside.
Against the framework of a buyers’ market for rental relievers, that’s a pretty solid return for lefty swingman francisco liriano, sent to the houston astros with cash for hernandez and aoki, and joe smith, the set-up man sent to cleveland for the two minor-leaguers.
still, the heavy lifting in refreshing a roster decimated by injury and plagued by underperformance is to come, aided somewhat by a partial sell-off of their few expendable assets able to fetch a reasonable return.
"it’s always about, first and foremost, what’s the best asset-value for this organization. If that’s in future, or if that’s in now, or if that’s somewhere in between, in a vacuum it’s always going to be about what makes us better," atkins said on a conference call monday evening. "in executing these two deals today, we feel we’ve accomplished both."
“more and more, teams are able to assess the difference in value of, in this case, an a-ball middle infielder and a double-a pitcher versus a triple-a outfielder to determine which one is more valuable. We’re glad that we got all of those today."
