The Blue Jays have officially acquired righty Jesse Chavez from the Athletics. Right-hander Liam Hendriks is going to Oakland in return.
This swap could have wide-ranging implications. The 32-year-old Chavez figures to join the re-signed Marco Estrada in the Jays rotation, significantly reducing the team’s need to add a free agent starter. While neither figures to be a top-of-the-rotation contributor, that duo should provide innings, depth, and options. Of course, a bigger addition could still occur.
Chavez was something of a journeyman before he landed in Oakland. Over four seasons there, he worked to a 3.98 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in 363 2/3 innings. He proved especially useful for his versatility, making 47 starts and 54 appearances from the pen after working almost exclusively as a reliever earlier in his MLB career.
MLBTR projects that Chavez will earn $4.7MM this year in his final season of arbitration eligibility. That’s obviously quite a bit cheaper than one would expect to pay for an arm of his quality on the open market, but he does come with just one season of control.
Meanwhile, the A’s will get four years of control over Hendriks, the first of which (2016) will be at league minimum. The 26-year-old enjoyed a breakout 2015 in the Toronto pen after functioning mostly as a starter earlier in his career — the opposite transformation of that enjoyed by Chavez.
The Aussie ended the season with 64 2/3 innings of 2.92 ERA pitching. Most impressively, he racked up 9.9 K/9 against just 1.5 BB/9 — figures that he never approached in prior seasons. As Chris Mosch of Baseball Prospectus explained in detail earlier today, a huge leap in fastball velocity and tweaking of pitch selection seemed to drive Hendriks’ success. His new team will now hope that he can continue that high level of performance and take up a key set-up role.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the trade (Twitter links).
Return probably isn’t very much. They probably hope that they can turn him into another Estrada.
Traded from Oakland to Toronto…
So we should expect Jesse Chavez to be the Cy Young winner next year?
No
hahahahah
Lol
Hendriks is the return? I’d rather have Hendriks than Chavez
why? SP are way more valuable than non-late inning relievers?
4 years of a quality, low ERA bullpen arm for 1 year of a mediocre starting pitcher that you could get someone just as good on the FA market for like for the same price.
Find me a SP that will sign for 4 Million a year and post a sub 4 ERA.
Jesse Chavez has had 1 career season as a starter with an ERA under 4.
Dillon Gee had a 3.85 ERA over 446 IP from 2012-2014. I’m sure he’ll sign for under 5M.
You can’t just selectively choose to withhold Gee’s numbers last season…. He got TORCHED last season and that is why he will sign for under 5 million. He is getting old and will unlikely ever have a sub4 ERA ever again.
And you can’t just exclude Jesse Chavez’s last year.. in which his ERA was above 4 too..
Even if you want to include Gee’s 2015, he had a 4.02 ERA over the last 4 years.
Chavez over the last 4 years had a 4.23 ERA.
If we want to talk about consistency, Hendricks last season was his ONLY good season to date. Who’s to say it wasn’t a fluke?
Maybe you’re right, but last year was his only year as a full time reliever.
Yeah you’re totally right. Cause no pitcher has ever transitioned into the bullpen and become really successful.
*cough* Mariano *cough*
*cough* Hawkins *cough*
*cough* Britton *cough*
*cough* Perkins, Grilli, Nathan, Soriano,Benoit, Andrew Miller, Wade Davis *cough*
Ugh cold weather making me sick.
Hahaha freaking love it!
“You can’t just selectively choose to withhold Gee’s numbers last season”
Well, before last season, the Mets were actively shopping Gee and basically couldn’t even give him away. If he’d been a FA, he would have signed for under $5MM. He made $5.3 in arb, but the Mets hemmed and hawed about that and almost non-tendered him.
But Brixton is right here, imo. I’d much rather have Hendriks than Chavez. It might be his only successful season, but it was his first as a reliever and he had 9.9 K/9 with only 1.5 BB/9 (1.082 WHIP) and a FIP of 2.14 in 64 2/3 innings. Cheaper, more years of control, etc.
Chavez is going to make around 4.7 mil in arb this next season, and you can get someone like a Rich Hill for that kind of money.
Rich Hill had 4 starts last year. And made 1.3 Million dollars more.
I said around. and it’s possible.
Rich Hill is likely why the As traded Chavez. They upgraded their rotation and you got their scraps.
Chavez had a great first half the past two seasons, but a bad second half. He only has one year of control, and Oakland was going to use him out of the bullpen anyway. Hendricks has four more years of control.
Not saying it’s not a fair trade, but Hendricks was a LR for the jays by the end of the season last year. Acquiring an actual starter means Sanchez can stay in the bullpen and Hendricks became expendable.
RPs who throw 60+ IP of 2.14 FIP ball should never be “expendable”. I can feel AA shaking his head about this deal from here.
Chavez and Estrada were in scary similar situations before being traded to the Jays. I don’t here anyone complaining about that trade?
“Non-late inning relievers” – thats not what Hendricks was, at all. He closed out and pitched in the 8th in a majority of his games.
Did you even watch Jays game last year… Hendricks pitched more than half of his innings before the 8th.
You can look up his innings breakdown on baseball-ref, which is what I did. He pitched in just about every situation.
As did I…. and what i said wasn’t wrong…
In 53 of Hendriks 58 games last year, he pitched in the 7th inning or later.
Makes sense man…. Relievers usually do pitch in games after starters are done pitching…. Kind of how baseball works
the 7th inning or later is ‘leverage’ situations, which was the question
You said “non-late inning relievers”. 7th or later is “late innings”. You blew it.
7th inning or later does not = “non-late inning relievers”. Non-late inning relievers are called “garbagemen”. Hendricks was very good, the A’s won this trade.
You can’t argue someone won the trade before a single pitch has been thrown. Plz calm down and wait until the season actually starts before making rash judgements.
Wait didn’t you start out talking about the 8th? Why did it switch to the 7th now
Yup.
I dislike this move a lot. Hendriks has 4 years of control left and Chavez is a free agent at the end of the year.
Liam was phenomenal in the bullpen for the Jays and Chavez is an average starter, maybe they think he can pitch well with the best offense in baseball behind him but I don’t like it. Waste of Hendriks, worst case Hendriks could start a few games. I miss AA.
Hendricks may have pitched well for the jays, but a move like this means Sanchez is likely staying in the Bullpen meaning Hendricks was Expendable (BP anchored by Osuna/Cecil/Sanchez).
And Hendricks was out of options. Maybe they traded him because they might lose him anyway.
Toronto trade Chavez to Oakland a couple of years ago! I guess they figured they screwed up.
O_o why would they do that?
Not a huge fan of this deal but at the same time I wasn’t a a fan of Lind for Estrada.
4y of control with the possibility to start a few again vs 1 year of control from a back end starter.
A bullpen that’s fairly light lost a decent arm. Likely means Sanchez is staying in the pen.
Nice pick up jays
2.14 FIP and a 1.5 fWAR over 64 IP for Hendricks, with 4 years of control left aka a very valuable piece.
OR
3.85 FIP and a 2.3 fWAR over 157 IP for Chavez for 2016 only.
With Valencia & Doubront already gifted to Oakland for free, this looks like the Jays feeling the need to keep on paying for Donaldson more than anything else!
Doubrant played like trash for the As….
and the A’s paid nothing for him, the Jays gave him to them…he was once a hyped prospect whos only 27.
So?
Valencia wasn’t gifted to Oakland, the Jays designated him for assignment and the A’s picked him up, but could have easily been any other team.
I’m sure the Jays feel they owe the A’s for the Donaldson trade just as much as the Red Sox feel they owe the Mariners for the Varitek trade…
Gibbons didn’t seem to trust Hendricks in the pen during the playoffs, so who knows whats up with that. His last playoff appearance his velocity was down a bit .
Chavez really does not look like a good fit for Toronto due to the park and division and his struggles against LHB’ers, but they need a SP’er and I imagine they can replace Hendricks in the pen. Chavez was really good in the first half.
Really makes no sense giving up 4 years of Hendricks for a year of a guy who might end up in the pen. The SP market is so big, Jays should have gotten more for Hendricks.
Quality bullpen arm for 4 years of control. Decent swingman for 1 year of control. As a Jays fan, hopefully Chavez turns into and ace. And then Billy Beane dies.
Why would you want the man who is singlehandedly responsible for your teams 2nd ever MVP to be on your team, to die?
2 different sentences there.
So if you replace Buehrle with Chavez that leaves money to sign a reliver or two. Hopefully that’s what the Jays intend to do because their bullpen didn’t really have the depth to be used as trade pieces.
Chavez has never thrown more than 157 IP and has fallen apart in the 2nd half both years as a SP:
2014 1st: 3.14 ERA
2014 2nd: 4.60 ERA
2015 1st: 3.40 ERA
2015: 2nd: 5.59 ERA
Also:
2014 H/A: 2.67 ERA/4.12 ERA
2015 H/A: 3.38 ERA/4.92 ERA
So he’s a product of the Oakland Coliseum too.
This is bad trade for the Jays.
Taken in a vacuum maybe. But if they make several other moves there’s no reason Chavez can’t be a serviceable 4 or 5.
It is not fair at all to say “he’s a product of the Oakland Coliseum,” by just looking at ERA…. His peripherals (xFIP and k-BB% both higher) were actually BETTER away from O.co
Regardless of where he played, he had a 5.86 ERA over his last 15 games of 2015 – that’s positively doodoo.
I’ve got an idea let Chavez start half a seasons worth of games all on the road so he doesn’t fatigue and let Drew Hutchison start the other half at home where he had a 2.92 ERA. Between the 2 of them you’ve got 1 dominant starter
For those people hating on Chavez (and this trade):
Chavez has a 3.74 xFIP and a 3.85 SIERA over the last 3 years. In 2015, his xFIP and k-BB% were both higher away from Oakland than at home. Steamer projects him at 176 innings in 2016 with a 3.86 ERA and a fWAR of 2.2. All for $4.7 million.
Oh yes projections. They are always guaranteed.
And someone said or insinuated they are.
This is a horrible trade, Jays are not going to spend any money on pitching. Hendriks could of easily been transferred back to a starter and he’s controlled for four years. Chavez is a long man in the bullpen at best. Can’t rely just on the bats to bring them back to post season.
Great trade for the A’s. I’m afraid Chavez isn’t gonna hold up the the AL East. At all.
Trade makes no sense. Hendrix could of been stretched out in the spring to be your swingman. Would rather have Liam than Chavez filling that role. Don’t get it. Bad start for Shapiro so far.
I like this trade. I really don’t think the Jays plan to add him to the starting rotation but are adding him to the bullpen and spot start when they need him. They need one more guy like this. Liam was good and cheap but very easy to replace
Some where AA is scratching his head…
What a Bad Move? Maybe next move will be Donaldson for Lawrie!!!
Getting Chavez for any other pitcher the Blue Jays have (other than Estrada) is an upgrade. The postseason exposed their weak pitching
Stroman is kind of good/important for them going forward.
I’m neutral on this trade at the moment, not thrilled about trading a guy with 4 years of control for a guy in his walk year. On the other hand, Gibby didn’t seem to be a fan of Hendriks so if he wasn’t going to be used much we may as well trade him (for the people saying he could’ve been stretched out as a starter, that would decrease his velocity, which is the entire reason he became more effective in relief). The good news is this move helps our rotation; Stroman, Estrada, Dickey, Chavez, Hutch isn’t the worst assembly of starters. Hopefully we sign a tier 1/2 FA starter to push most of those guys down a spot though.
That is actually a pretty bad rotation. Stroman, while very good, is coming off injury. Can he give you 200+ innings? Estrada had a career year. How likely is he to repeat it? Dickey is old, and he’ll probably give you what he did last year. How will Chavez do in the AL East? Will Hutchinson be awful on the road again? That rotation is seriously lacking in talent. I see one TOR starter(Stroman) and a bunch of back-end starters.
i don’t like this trade at all. I like Liam; he’s a better pitcher than Chavez. Jays basically giving players back to A’s to accommodate the Donaldson trade.
I like this deal for the Jays and it also makes sense for a rebuilding Oakland club. Chavez is a competitor who keeps his team in games by pitching low in the zone with effective breaking balls. I think it’s a solid return for Liam Hendricks who they got for free off of waivers. Hendricks offers Oakland a bullpen option on the cheap that they can give an extended look at. I think both have a great chance of out-pitching their contracts in 2016 which is always a good thing.