The Blue Jays have acquired Esmil Rogers from the Indians for Mike Aviles and Yan Gomes, both teams announced. The move fills a hole for each club, as Toronto gets pitching depth while Cleveland gets infield depth.
Rogers, 27, pitched to a 3.06 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 53 innings for the Tribe this year. He was acquired from the Rockies for cash in mid-June after being designated for assignment. Rogers throws very hard — averaged 95.7 mph with the fastball in 2012 — and remains under team control through 2016. He fell just short of the Super Two cutoff this offseason.
Toronto had just acquired Aviles from the Red Sox as compensation for manager John Farrell late last month. The 31-year-old infielder hit .250/.282/.381 with 13 homers for Boston last year and is capable of playing the three non-first base infield spots. Aviles is projected to make $2.3MM through arbitration this winter and will remain under team control in 2014 as well. He played for new Indians manager Terry Francona briefly with the Red Sox in 2011.
Gomes, 25, hit .204/.264/.367 with four homers in 111 plate appearances for the Jays this season, his first taste of the big leagues. He hit .328/.380/.557 with 13 homers in 335 plate appearances at hitter-friendly Triple-A Las Vegas this summer, and has experience at both infield corners and well as behind the plate. Gomes is the first Brazilian-born player in MLB history and remains under team control through 2018.
And Rogers was good of course
wow aviles was a jay as long as napoli hope we have better luck with rogers than we did fransisco
AA strikes again!
Weird that he was beast at Coors, and brutal on the road. I like the pickup for the Jays though.
EDIT: Looking at his 2012 season. Those numbers could be skewed by playing with the Indians, however.
Hate that we moved Gomes
Why? He isn’t any good.
The only ting the guy was good for was his awesome batting stance. He must have had some big hit somewhere to have people fall in love with him.
Saw him tie a game on a homer in the 9th with 2 outs…not enough to keep the guy around though.
Ok………………..
What’s Aviles going to do on the Indians? 2B/SS/3B are all pretty established for them. Are they thinking of trying him in LF? Terry used him in the outfield (usually right) in Boston and he enjoyed some success there…
Asdrubal could very easily be traded…..the free agent SS market is terrible, he could fetch a mighty fine prize…
That’s exactly what I was thinking
Tor could use him lol. I wonder if the trade with Clevaland was just a warm-up? People aren’t going to be loving Yunel in Toronto, and although I love his potential to bounce back he needs to go.
I actually liked Yan Gomes. He was the only one on the team with a Japanese stance
I liked how one baseball commentator described it as a stance with a Jackie Gleason kick. He has since shortened his kick, but before it was something to see…
And the first Brazilian born player.?
Rogers communications Esmil ROGERS? Coincidence i think not
Rogers finally made it happen: On-jersey advertising.
Of course! Now the Argonauts need to acquire Aaron Rodgers, and pay him to drop the “D”…
Why go through that trouble when you can sign Charles Rogers for cheap?
I thought it was Rogres
More Dan O’Dowd incompetence. It’s just stunning that man still has a job.
I agree. Bullpens are the BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY. They are the last piece you add when you have good hitting, good D and a good rotation. AA once again wasting money and resources on the stupid pen. That fool has to go.
You do realize that he’s saving money by getting a low-cost, high potential arm for his bullpen in Rogers, right? That instead of going out and spending a few million on a reliever to replace Frasor/Lyon, he’s traded a utility player and a AAAA depth /guy for an arm that may have just put the whole “pitching well” thing together?
It’s a move that is not unlike how Baltimore is designed.
Baltimore won 93 games and made the playoffs due in large part to the bullpen. Their best starter (Chen) was 12-11 and the only one with more than 9 wins and 134 IP. They had a better HR and 2B count than the Jays but their BA and OBP was only 0.002 points better than the Jays.
It will be difficult for the Jays to land a true Ace via FA or trade setting up the usual rotation of an Ace, solid #2, good #3 and a couple of replaceable, roster filling, guys in the #4 and #5 slots. This is looking more like AA is setting up a “Plan B” gameplan of having a starting rotation of two or three #2 guys (Morrow, Romero & TBD FA) and two or three #3 guys that can keep the game tight then turn it over to a strong pen so they can lock the game down or give the offense a real chance to comeback.
AA loves those relievers.
Toronto’s bullpen has been a huge weakness since AA he took over as GM. I can see why AA is investing so much time to grab young relief pitchers, with many years of control.
The only reason why Toronto had Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch, Kevin Gregg, Octavio Dotel, Scott Downs, and Jason Frasor was to turn them into first round supplemental draft picks.
These relievers netted Toronto Matt Smoral, Daniel Norris and others. Smoral and Norris have more upside than Sanchez and Syndergaard. Both were signed to $2mil signing bonuses. The highest signing bonus Blue Jays have ever paid to high school draft prospects. By the way, Sanchez was signed for $775k and Syndergaard for $600k.
Gomes is terrible. This still seems like a weird move since the bullpen seemed fairly set. AA is obsessed with relievers I think.
More pieces, more trades.
I think he is preparing for the loss of Oliver, Frasor, Lyon…some combo of the 3.
I was thinking the same thing. Do you really want to spend another $4mil to $6mil to get an additional 0.2 to 0.4 fWAR on a RP?
Oliver is the only one that I would want back
Nepotism?
haha. no, just a good pitcher and one that could be part of a package for a starter
Or he’s setting up another trade. How many multi-team trades or flips has AA done?
That excuse is overrated amongst Jays fans…you don’t trade for a middle reliever to set up another trade.
How’d we get that haul last year from the Astros? I wasn’t using it as an excuse, there’s a track record of AA doing moves like that.
We didn’t trade for Cordero and then flip him to the Astros. I was under the impression you were saying trading for Rogers was setting up another trade where we flip him for someone else.
No we traded Cordero. Just saying AA seems to love relievers. I’m hoping we keep Rogers to be honest. Outside of Col. he did decent and I’d love to see something along the lines of what we did with Morrow happen to Rogers. He was a starter, stretch him out this Spring and see if he can fill a hole.
So we essentially traded John Farrell, Yan Gomes, and that Carpenter fellow for this Rogers guy whom I’ve never heard of before and has less than inspiring numbers in the majors. I suppose striking out 9.5 / 9 innings last year is a decent stat but he’ll have to be a damn good ground ball pitcher. The guy has a 1.66 career WHIP and posted 9.5 hits / 9 innings last year! What’s the deal? How is this a good trade? Do we get Sandy Alomar JR in the deal? I don’t get it.
Sure, but look at his numbers once he got out of Colorado. Only 53 innnigs, but they were pretty damn good.
3.48 FIP is good for a reliever. In fact, it is above average for a middle reliever.
Two problems in your analysis:
1) He pitched in Colorado for the majority of his career thus far
2) He use to be a starter and is now a reliever.
Esmil’s improved dramatically once he got out of Colorado and was put into full-time relief pitching.
Could he turn back into a starter with the right development? Maybe have him pitch every 6th day (our staff is hurt lol, it’d be a believable scenario). Maybe have him go a steady 6? I was looking at his numbers also and he was a totally different pitcher outside of CO
jason not to be contrite but just because you dont get it doesnt mean it doesnt make sense. jays got a young controllable pitcher with an avg. fastball of 96mph and who put up fantastic numbers for cleveland after he was traded from colorado. im not all that familiar with his entire arsenal but clearly the jays braintrust like what they see…were you in love with steve delabar before we traded for him? i trust that we didnt just pull his name out of a hat. PLUS…we save a few million on a guy like aviles that hopefully will be put toward other impact players…aviles and gomes are not horrendous but they’re sure as hell not impact pieces. if you think this guy has the stuff to be a back of the bullpen arm u swing this deal every day of the week and twice on sunday.
Watched every inning Rodgers threw for the Indians.. He has an outstanding fastball even though has very little deception.. He brings it in the mid to upper 90’s and challenges hitters to hit it. He was forced out of Rockies plans as he appeared to be in a numbers crunch (I think Jeff Frances was coming off the DL..again. Who knows with the Rockies. That is one screwed up organization as it relates to pitchers..) No doubt about it..in Colorado, he had all kinds of issues with command. His mechanics were nurtured and simplified in Cleveland giving him a helluva shot of confidence, especially his secondary offerings (which he still throws less than 15 % of the time) His slider and split/change are good enough with the threat of his riding FB. He can pitch more than a single inning for each outing and had a great attitude. He just missed super 2 status, so the Jays will have him for quite some time. He is a fine pickup for the cost of Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles..
It’s actually a very shrewd move. Controllable relievers are the new market efficiency.
hope this doesn’t mean he’s bringing johnson back…
If it does, that will be the last straw for me.
This organization has don’t nothing but tick me off in the last 15 years. AA is starting to out do JPR for dumb movies. This bullpen fetish of him is driving me crazy. Someone needs to tell him that bullpens save games, not win them. You need to have starters and hitters to get into a position to use a pen, and guess what the Blue Jay team just added another hole. They have trash at DH (Lind) nothing for 2B, trash in LF and a very very very weak rotation. Yep, more middle relief!
Lind hit .300 since his callup from AAA. Stop the Lind bashing.
Escobar at SS, Hech at 2B.
What’s wrong with that? Let Escobar re-build some of his value.
Well said. Wait until his value is up and then trade him mid season.
Escobar still has tons of value as a shortstop due to his great on base percentage and above average fielding. Rumor is jays are going to ship him to the Dodgers for a starting pitcher.
if the jays are to contend next year they will need much better offensive producction from 2b a soft hitting slick fielding 2b is not ideal for a playoff run
I’d worry about offense at 1B/DH and LF before worrying about a defense-first position. That’s just me though.
I think the trade was made to add another good arm in case Oliver retires. However, it now leaves essentially three situations for filling our second base need. Either Johnson comes back, hech becomes the second basemen, or they make a trade. I hope we trade for someone. I know texas needs a catcher, so the idea of arencibia+ for kinsler could make sense as they can then keep profar/andrus.
That would have to be one heck of a +
Well ya, presumably. I just know they need a catcher, JP has a good amount of value. Texas would then be able to retain both andrus and profar. To make the deal better, Texas could look to inculde Michael Young (dump salary). Though that doesnt help the jays too much. Just an idea obviously, not really sure what else is available in the second base market that is an upgrade on what we already have. Also, I believe texas would likely be interested in a relief pitcher or two and we clearly have some depth there.
I feel sorry for Esmil. What will he think when he hears all the Blue Jays fans complaining about Rogers?
well done
The Asdrubal Cabrera bidding is now open
Because they acquired Mike Aviles? That’s pretty sad! But I’d love for the Cardinals to make an offer.
Aviles posted a 2.0 bWAR this year. Not an All-Star SS but very capable. Tribe needs pitching in the worst way and have some young SS’s in the minors. Moving Cabrera with 2 years left (signed thru 2014) could net them a stud pitcher. Avilies is obviously a downgrade but a trade off the Tribe may be willing to make.
Think Oakland, Arizona, and Boston are better fits than the Cardinals but there are definately a few guys on the Cards I wouldn’t mind getting…
The Cardinals have quite a few dynamic arms in the upper minors. If pitching is what would be required, the Cardinals should definitely be involved.
wow, our bullpen is gonna be solid. But I thought we got Aviles to play 2B…. now what? We traded John Farrell and Yan Gomes for a middle reliever?
I notice this every once in a while. MLBTR should do a post on these: combine multiple trades as if they were one trade. For example, I remember the Mets traded Kris Benson for John Maine and Jorge Julio. They then traded Julio later in the season for Orlando Hernandez. They ultimately ended up trading a below average pitcher for two contributors to their starting rotation. I would be interested to see other scenarios like this that either make the overall outcome look awful or absolutely genius
Aviles is a utility player, as is Gomes
I personally dislike this trade, Mike Aviles can be a solid .280 hitter for the Jays. First AA Trade I actually hate.
Surprised the Napoli for Francisco trade didn’t come first to hate…
The Jays at the time and still do need an high average hitter not a power hitter. I believe Aviles can be an high average hitter and Napoli is a power hitter.
So if they are using that method they sign someone like Kelly Johnson as they did last season? The Napoli trade was a big mistake (Monday morning quarterbacking aside), and I’m surprised more fans didn’t get off the AA bandwagon when that happened. He did start to lose some after the Snider trade, but unless they start bringing in producers he may end up Ricciardi-ville…
at the time of that trade it made sense. gotta love all the hindsight gm’s out there.
I like the Napoli for Francisco trade. Francisco turned into a high draft pick. Jays used it to pick and sign Matt Smoral. He was ranked as the 6th best high schooler leading up to the 2012 draft. Jays signed him for $2mil. The most given by the Jays to any high school draft pick.
To add to TBJFAN, Napoli was older and how’d he do last year?
Better than Adam Lind…
I think after Lind’s 2 season to late wake up call he did pretty good. What about Cooper, Sierra, or Travis at DH and keep Rajai in left? We’re not getting any cabrera or Hamilton and I don’t see much else out there in our favor (unless we can get a manager)
This is the first trade you hate? Snider-Lincoln didn’t anger you, but Aviles-Rogers did?
Snider-Lincoln didn’t anger me.
I guess I figured every Jays fan envisioned Snider being an impact player, so trading him for a reliever seemed like the Jays gave up on an eventual every-day player. Snider was thought highly in most blue jay circles I’m a part of.
His star faded fast. I don’t know if you read the 3 part Shi Davidi story on Travis Snider on Sportsnet, but you should check it out if not…gives you a good perspective on the whole situation.
Snider is what he is.. he did the exact same thing for the Pirates and will continue.. He’s not going to turn into Mike Trout or Bryce Harper over the winter..
Thanks George. I was under the impression that Travis Snider was going to be a generational talent until you mentioned that. Very insightful.
well theres only 1 mike trout…dont be shocked if snider eventually turns into a brian giles type. we should have held on to him…or atleast packaged him in a deal for something more substantial.
I liked him a lot as well, but I was starting to wonder how many more years before he didn’t get sent to AAA to wake up and realize he’s a big leaguer.
Wow, heard of the guy before but those numbers are pretty impressive, except for the WHIP which they coincidentally didnt mention, but still, he kept his ERA at right around 3 which is great. He’s also only 27 so there’s still a possibility he further refines his game. But I love hard throwing guys, that’s what this guy does and what the Jays need, we had too many soft throwing guys so thisll mix things up and keep batters guessing.
His WHIP with Cleveland was 1.11 … that’s good.
Not a fan of this trade for the Blue Jays…Aviles couldve been.a.productive player for them and i was impressed woth Gomes at times, would ve liked to see if he could duplicate those triple a numbers to mlb…couldve got a reliever in free agency.. good trade for Indians
Toronto has massive holes, but they aren’t in the bloody bullpen. They are in LF, DH/1B, the starting rotation and now 2B. You don’t waste resources on middle relief.
A team that will not spend on FA’s can’t be wasting resources like this.
I beginning to think AA isn’t the guy and should be let go.
It’s not even two weeks into the off season.
the jays also save some money here, both through shedding aviles’ contract and through not needing to bring back lyon or frasor. probably around $6mill+ or so. plus the jays obviously believed they still had a hole at 2B even with aviles, hence why they gave him away so easily
“Toronto has massive holes, but they aren’t in the bloody bullpen.”
Do you even watch the games?
Starting pitching was clearly the weakness on this team. Not the bullpen once Cordero was effectively swiped for Lyon.
What kind of a player do you expect to get for Gomes and Aviles? Rogers is better than those two combined. You can’t expect the world for below average players.
what resources did they waste rob? what type of trade value do u think these 2 fringe players have? we didnt part with a darnaud or sanchez to get this guy.
Does AA every sit still!?
Very, very nice. Rogers will move back into the rotation.
I’d be very interested in seeing that. We turned Morrow from a future closer into an elite (yeah i went there) starter. How many people have we lost though that helped Morrow develop?
People are acting like Aviles is an everyday player. He isn’t. He looks really good for periods of time when he subs for an injured player. But once he starts to get regular at bats, he becomes exposed. He’s a great backup infielder, which
Clev. needs to back up at 3b with Chisenhall. He was never an answer for 2b in Toronto. AA was able to get another hard throwing arm to throw in the pen.
For everyone upset about the plethora of bullpen pieces, consider that is essentially how the Orioles made the playoffs. Struggling rotation and a bullpen full of arms to bail them out.
Nice little trade here. I’ve seen Yan Gomes play on Television only but his stance is very impressive nonetheless. Essentially since Aviles never played for the Blue Jays, he was never truly in their plans. Shipping him for pitching to fit a need was smart by AA. Aviles will backup Cabrera and Kipnis and get some time at Third as well with the Indians.
I’m thinking Hechevarria is a possible fit for 2B now? Maybe they pick up someone else too like Polanco or something? What do you think Dan? Or do you see McCoy gettign time at 2B also?
Hechevarria will definitely get his opportunity either at Short or second.
They picked Aviles over Bailey, then traded him for Rogers. So they think, Rogers > Bailey. Well, okay.
Since there isn’t any good 2Bs available, another fan mentioned that maybe they could sign Maicer Izturis and have a platoon with Aviles. Izturis is a career .274 hitter vs RHP and Aviles is a career .295 hitter against LHP. Sounded interesting, especially after seeing Oakland manipulate platoons this past season. So now, I really don’t know what they could do at second other than resign Johnson.
Two things make this deal a little easier to swallow: 1) Having a surplus of bullpen help is always a positive, particularly when a lot of teams would be willing to part with good starting pitching to improve their own pens; 2) Rogers is controllable until 2016.
This trade proves that the Jays are in rebuild mode. They may as well trade Bautista, EE to fill a bunch of the gaping holes on this club.
Great job again AA.
How exactly is that?? It proves nothing except AA is always looking for arms to add for depth.
Your kidding right? Jays are 3 or 4 players away from contending (2 starting pitchers, 2B/SS, and an above average power bat.
They don’t need anything other then bench depth on offense, they’re offense is great if healthy. Jose and Edwin could easily get 40 homeruns by themselves next year. Starting pitching should be their main focus.
quality post.
Has anyone thought about how AA could be using Rogers in a trade package for a starting pitcher? I believe AA will sign Marcum and trade for the other pitcher (Josh Johnson / Gavin Floyd / James Shields). I wouldn’t be surprised if Wallach becomes manager that AA signs Kuroda or if Wakamatsu becomes manager that AA charges hard after King Felix because of the familiarity component. Let’s not jump to conclusions on every move. We’re barely into the offseason, let’s see what happens until the winter meetings and go from there.
I would rather have Aviles on the Jays than Rogers as things stand right now.. perhaps management knows some other plans on the horizon that we can’t possibly know about, but middle infield is a bigger need than a middle reliever with a poor track record and one good half-season
Can’t have enough arms. Pitchers and defense win championships.
that and grinding out AB’s, something this team has yet to learn excluding EE and JB.
I think you’re presuming Aviles is more of of an asset than Rogers to the Blue Jays. The Jays never had a problem scoring runs, run prevention is the primary focus of the Blue Jays.
I would rather have a quality starter who can give me 6 or 7 innings rather than focus on great relievers to get me thru the 5th and 6th innings
Wouldn’t everybody? I don’t think anyone’s arguing that a reliever is more valuable than a quality starter. Esmil Rogers can valuable in the middle innings, and be a stop-gap. I think there’s value in that.
Aquiring Rogers wasn’t a bad move, trading the guy you got for your manager when 2nd base depth is relatively weak is though.
Can never have too many arms. I like the deal.
Well,,, ok I understand this move, Gomes was expendable but Aviles? AA sure better have someone to play 2B in mind now and I dont mean resigning Kelly Johnson either. I was sort of excited to have Aviles playing 2B this coming season ( key words, sort of ) but this just looks like another Napoli for Francisco move to me, what a bust that was.
Esmil Rogers had a good year for Cleveland. Gomes has some potential with the bat but is not likely to stick at catcher. Aviles should jump in as the starting SS or 2B in Cleveland
As a Tribe fan, I hate to see Esmil go. I thought the young man had a lot of potential and could fit into our bullpen for years to come.