New Year's Day isn't typically a hotbed of activity in baseball, but we have seen a few significant moves go down on January 1st. The biggest 1/1 transaction happened in 2012, when the Blue Jays acquired Jason Frasor from the White Sox in exchange for right-handed pitchers Myles Jaye and Daniel Webb.
Beyond the fact that the White Sox and Blue Jays didn't take a holiday (much like MLBTR), it was an interesting deal for a number of reasons. For starters, Frasor returned to Toronto just five months after he was shipped to Chicago in a July deal. That trade saw him packaged with right-hander Zach Stewart in exchange for right-hander Edwin Jackson and utility man Mark Teahen. Of course, Jackson's tenure with the Blue Jays was short-lived as he was flipped to the Cardinals for center fielder Colby Rasmus later that day.
The deal was also notable because Frasor just had his $3.75MM club option exercised on Halloween of 2011. The White Sox's return on this trade wasn't spectacular – neither Jaye nor Webb were considered to be strong prospects and had yet to advance to Double-A. However, (then) General Manager Kenny Williams would have gotten absolutely nothing had he declined Frasor's 2012 option. It would appear that Chicago exercised Frasor's option year for the express purpose of trading him.
Frasor had a decent year in his second act north of the border, turning in a 4.12 ERA with 10.9 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 50 appearances. After leaving Toronto for the Rangers last year, Frasor posted a stellar 2.57 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 61 games, and recently re-signed with Texas.
Meanwhile, the 6'3" pitchers sent to Chicago both spent 2012 in Single-A Kannapolis before moving up in level for 2013. Webb, 24, put up a 1.87 ERA last year, most of it spent at the Double-A and Triple-A level, and could soon be ready to contribute to a MLB pen. Jaye, 22, managed to crack Baseball Prospectus's organizational top ten list before the year, and threw well enough at High-A (4.11 ERA in 118 1/3 innings pitched) to earn a single Double-A start.
This post was adapted from a January 1, 2013 post written by MLBTR's Zach Links.
Webb= future closer
The future may be the present. All depends how Nate Jones does in spring training.
I like the idea of making Jones the closer this year with hopes of flipping him next off-season or trade deadline even. He would have 3 years of control left after 2014 and he is young and some team would want him with a great year and they could possibly get a top 100 prospect for him like the Addison Reed deal
If that’s the biggest transaction, then I agree. Nothing happens on 1/1.
Ahhhh the Colby Rasmus for Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, and Mark Scrabble move that all of us Cardinals fans hated until it won us a World Series
Don’t forget Corey Patterson!!!!
He hit under 200 and made an error that allowed the Phillies to tie a game we had in our grasp! How could I ever!
I always liked Frasor. I’ve seen him 5 times between Yankee Stadium and Rogers and he’s never given up a run. Not an elite reliever, but he’s been consistent for a long time.
With the way the relief market is shaping up, the Rangers deal with Frasor looks like a real team bargain. He was sharp last year.