The Blue Jays have struck a trade to acquire shortstop Aledmys Diaz from the Cardinals, per an announcement from the Toronto organization (h/t Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca, on Twitter). Outfield prospect J.B. Woodman is heading back to St. Louis in return.
[RELATED: Updated Blue Jays Depth Chart]
This time last year, such a deal would not have seemed possible. In 2016, Diaz turned in a sparkling rookie campaign. Over 460 plate appearances, he slashed .300/.369/.510 with 17 home runs. Diaz went down on strikes just sixty times while drawing 41 walks.
Alas, he was not able to sustain that surprising outbreak in his sophomore season. Diaz limped to a .259/.290/.392 batting line in 301 trips to the plate. He was ultimately demoted to Triple-A, where he watched as Paul DeJong took off and dashed any hopes of a near-term return.
Beyond the questions at the plate, there are also some questions regarding Diaz’s defensive work, at least at short. He has drawn mixed reviews from UZR and DRS which, in the aggregate, paint him as at least a somewhat below-average defender at that challenging spot.
For the Jays, Diaz represents a possible solution to the team’s depth issues up the middle. While Troy Tulowitzki and Devon Travis will likely enter camp as presumptive starters, they have each struggled with significant injury issues in recent years. Diaz, then, not only adds another option but also represents a potential buy-low candidate.
In exchange, Toronto parted with its second-round pick from the 2016 draft. Woodman, a left-handed-hitting outfielder who’ll soon turn 23, had a solid debut season at the low A level but struggled upon reaching Class A in 2017. In 414 plate appearances, he slashed just .240/.320/.378 while striking out 157 times. Needless to say, his offensive game will require quite a bit of polishing, but the Cards can certainly afford to be patient with him.
Don’t like it!
It’s basically never a good idea to trade a middle infielder for a corner outfielder.
Why?
Because they’re harder to come by.
Especially a young middle infielder with recent success. Who’s to say Paul Dejong won’t take the same step backwards that Diaz did this year? If the only return you’re getting is a single A outfielder at least wait until the season starts to see whose 2017 was a fluke…
That makes no sense! They are looking to improve their ML club
I was fully prepared to argue that DeJong had a much better track record than Diaz in the minors but it’s not true. .050 difference in OPS with similar power numbers. Diaz has just been in pro ball for much longer(being drafted at 16.)
All in all pretty questionable move.
Well, if DeJong does flounder in his sophomore year like Diaz did, at least he can play decent defense. Diaz needs to hit like he did in 2016 in order to make up for all the runs he gives away in the field.
Dejong barely qualifies as average, with a 0 DRS and a 1.8 UZR. While Diaz did poorly, I don’t think we should kid ourselves about Dejong’s defense.
We also should note that while Diaz’s offense took an unexpected turn, so did the defense, going from a -3 DRS to a -9. So it may be reasonable to expect the same kind of regression from Dejong, especially given the almost certain offensive regression.
No one is mistaking Dejong for Ozzie Smith…….but Diaz was a butcher in the field. Many more deals to be made for both teams.
Diaz was an international free agent, what in the world are you talking about
Yea I guess you would not trade Diaz for Aaron Judge or Stanton. As they are corner outfielders by your logic
I wouldn’t do it for Judge, no.
Isn’t this the guy who hit like Babe Ruth for a month while their real shortstop was injured?
He had a great rookie season while the aging Jhonny Peralta proved useless.
The Cards find a way to be the dumbest organization every offseason
care to expand or are you just bashing for the sake of bashing?
Past few years they have shown a tendency to buy high and sell low.
They paid Dexter Fowler 5/80 for age 31-35 when they could have likely signed him for 4/50 for age 30-33 the previous season (he took a smaller, shorter deal with an option because he couldn’t get something like that.)
And here they are selling Diaz when his value is in the toilet when they could have sold on him when he was at his Ruthian peak.
(Of course you can counter this with moves like the Gyorko acquisition, but you could counter that with holding on to Gyorko now while he is peaking. Also no talk of selling high on deJong even those his arc had been mimicking Diaz’s so far.
You have excellent hindsight.
so get rid of every player when they’re good. that’s a great way to win…… that’s ridiculous. when Diaz was mashing, there no way they trade him. they HAVE to let him play as he MIGHT become a franchise SS. well, he didn’t. it happens. he’s blocked now and doesn’t have much value because he spent most of the year DEMOTED back to the minors. they got younger by trading depth and somehow that’s a bad thing to you……
If they wanted Fowler the year before last, they would have had to surrender their 2016 first first round pick. It would have been 4/50 for him PLUS the pick, which has value.
If they traded Diaz after 2016, and trade DeJong now after his 2017, and Gyorko now that he’s apparently peaked (according to you, anyway) they would be running Greg Garcia out there at SS. That would be a problem.
Don’t let Captain Hindsight distract you from his dynasty building ideas
What bothers me about the trade is that we gave up a guy who was an all star in 2016 but had a weak sophomore year because of a broken thumb and even so he hit 20 points higher in AAA than the guy we got for him hit in single A.
Also, seems like poor planning to add another outfielder to our farm system when the Cards are so flush with OF talent both in StL and at Memphis. Why not trade for a pitching prospect?
The Cardinals have sold high one time. Kent bottenfield for jim edmonds. But yes they should have sold high on Diaz last year. He performed way better than expected offensively, and it was clear he couldn’t stick at ss. I do not understand why they didn’t at least give him a shot to be there utility guy this year. The only thing I can think of is that they are about to make a move for another infielder so Jed gyorko becomes the new utility guy. I really don’t get the outfielder they picked up they already are loaded with outfielders Why not pick up someone even younger that is farther away.
The Cards got the best they could for Diaz. IUnless I am mistaken, he was on waivers not to long ago and no one claimed him. They were lucky to get what they got. No way they were getting a pitching prospect.
Cards not finished making changes.
This guy looks like a roster filler. 150 K in 96 GM at A ball. Move will clear up money from a player they obviously were done with.
That’s what I was thinking. Cxcx shouldn’t waste his time here when he could be using his perfect hindsight to make millions on the stock market.
Reminds me of Andrew Stoeten. He has perfect hindsight as well.
Yes, the front office known as one of the best in baseball and looked up to by various other organizations is the dumbest.
Well, the last few years the front office has been awful, but teams who expect to compete for the league championship don’t have players like Diaz on the roster.
You mean hard working well liked people who defected from Cuba and are doing what they can to succeed?
is that why they hacked into the astros system to view player profiles?
And which organizations would those be?
Ever since their computer system was hacked…that was their brains…
MasonTerneus finds away to make a dumb comment every post.
I’m a Cardinals fan and I agree they are being dumb. Why wouldn’t you package some of these guys together and trade for someone they need? Instead it’s like, “Hey who do you got that you want to get rid of?”
can they finish the off-season before you jump to conclusions? How do you know this isn’t a precursor to a different deal?
The better deal being to go one up on the Fowler deal where we grossly overpaid for a guy with a very fragile history and now we are going hell bent after another highly expensive guy in Stanton whose record of being fragile is even worse than Fowler’s.
Add to that, neither of them are quality defensive players and weak defense is the Cards Achilles heel the past 2-3 years. Why not go after someone like Ozuna of the Marlins with a great offer that could help them and us. He’s young, he’s durable, he’s solid on offense and defense and a good smart base runner and he would not break the bank. All upsides and much lower risk.
could definitely see this leading into the Stanton trade
You should take a look at Stanton’s defense and then reevaluate your assessment.
Ozuna would break the prospect bank though. He’ll cost more than Stanton prospect-wise.
It’s more like “the non-tender deadline is hours away and no one else has offered anything better for a player we were going to non-tender because of a roster crunch so why not get something for Diaz?”
exactly
Diaz isn’t eligible for arbitration yet, so this deal has nothing to do with the non-tender deadline.
True, but neither was Gore when KC used the non-tender deadline to finally cut ties and clear his 40-man roster spot for a better prospect or offseason acquisition.
Woodland is hardly a better prospect than Diaz. Diaz was an all star in 16 with a 300 BA and 17 HR’s in a season where he barely had 400 PA. His chances of recovering his batting form are probably far better than Woodlands who hasn’t batted over 240 in 2 years of single A ball. Diaz batted .259 in AAA with a broken thumb hampering him much of the season. And if this wasn’t enough reason to question the logic behind this trade, why did we go after another OF ? We are flush with good OF’s.
I am guessing they also needed to clear a roster spot for something else they have which is imminent
And Woodman buys a lot of time and was stellar at Ole Miss and his first season in minor leagues
I am guessing Cards hitting instructors are very high on him
Another outfield prospect?
Another OF prospect. They definitely have a surplus.
Maybe because a few of them will be dealt to get Stanton
Yeah and Cobb is heating up also.
But it was an A ball prospect
and that prob means he’s years away from MLB .
Whaaaat
The calm before the storm. I see a Donaldson tornado next
Toronto will NOT be moving Donaldson before the trade deadline.
than don’t move him at all waiting to the deadline is stupid. it’s now or never.
You new to baseball and grammar?
No. Common sense kicked on. The jays are not a couple pieces away.
And a grammar shot on a web forum. Ouch I’ve been burned.
Hey a guy can never be to careful. Figured I’d let my nephew (6) explain it to you if you were.
You spelled to (too) incorrectly.
“You can never be too careful”. Just thought I’d point out your error.
The Jays are many pieces away from being even competative. This trade is insignifcant for both teams.
Ooh… the irony! Too is even easier to remember than “then” vs. “than”.
Dude that was seriously funny
How embarrassing
Lol my bad. Actually I didn’t even notice “than”. I meant the lower case. But, yeah I blew that one.
He will also be a FA at the end of 18. We don’t want a rental if it’s costing us prospects. We need a thumper we can control for 4 years or more. That rules out Stanton too.
Anyone can be traded for the right offer.
The question though is this – IF no one important gets hurt all year and the Jays do make the playoffs – are they a team that realistically can beat Houston or the Dodgers? Are we building a team that can win a wild card or a team that can win the WS? Of course we should try to get a wild card – we might fluke and win a WS – can’t win if you’re not in – BUT it really depends on what the Cards would give up.
If I’m the Cards I can’t give up too much for only 1 year of Donaldson so there would have to be a 48 hour negotiating window for an extension. The Jays brass would have to be utterly blown away – And the Cards can’t blow them away with only 1 year on the contract.. The Jays probably want 2 top 50 prospects and 2 top 100 prospects and not just names but guys where you feel will be all-star caliber players down the line. The Cards are usually deep on the farm but the Jays had the worst offense in the AL last year and if you take JD out man they’d be bad – so so bad.
I agree.. this is a gift incase they lose out on Stanton. “Hey Toronto, we just gave you a solid, cheap prospect for free.. remember?” No let’s talk Donaldson
Nah
Yup
Good shortstop
Define good because he’s not an mlb SS.
Freeing up what they can on payroll maybe? For a particular trade?
I’m pretty sure he was being paid league minimum. this wasn’t because of payroll
Actually Diaz was on a 4 year/8 million dollar deal. So quite a bit more than the minimum !
Diaz makes barely more than nothing. How is this a money freeing trade?
I agree it’s not a money-freeing trade. It is, however, almost certainly about freeing up a 40 man roster spot. Even after this move, the Cardinals only have two open 40-man spots before any free agent signings.
I’m guessing that the Cardinals – and most teams – came to the conclusion that his 2016 batting line was something of a mirage. Bad 2017 batting lines in both the majors and at AAA. Statcast contact quality data – baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_search?hfPT=&… – makes his 2016 batting line appear to be wholly unsustainable (his xwOBA was 54 points lower than his actual wOBA)
He’s a pretty bad defensive shortstop – probably more of an everyday 2B or 3B with limited utility appearances at shortstop. He’s 27, so not super young in baseball terms. He’d also lost his prospect shine once before in 2015 – the Cardinals DFA’d him off the 40 man and no other team claimed him then.
It’s certainly possible that he could rebound and be a useful major league player, but there are lots of reasons that he’s far less valuable than one would think just looking at his 2016 hitting numbers.
All you say is true about Diaz limits but to only get a single A kid who hasn’t batted over 240 in his 2 years hardly seems like an even swap.
Have they been involved in talks for someone? I haven’t heard anything lately.
Jays caught a body on this one. 5 years of Diaz for basically nothing? Uhh ok, Cardinals….
Guessing this prospect will be in the Stanton package maybe?
Yeah the #28 prospect from the jays top 30 has any impact on stanton
He was Toronto’s #28 prospect. He had a tough year, but many many many players have had tough years and rebounded to be serviceable MLB players. Diaz had no roll with Stl.
Diaz had one unsustainable year, and is 27 now, hes not very good. That said, Woodman is probably a 4th outfielder at best, so shrug.
I don’t see why it was unsustainable. His babip was only .312. He certainly isn’t old. He stunk last year but that’s why the Blue Jays can pick up a guy who had such a great 2016. Woodman was a 2nd round pick in 2016. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he didn’t hit at low A. Still, I wouldn’t dismiss him.
It is unsustainable in the fast he wasn’t a very good hitter in the minors anddidn’t really tear up a league (PCL) that everyone hits in. He was always a fringy starting shortstop until he randomly lit the world on fire for a few months
I think that’s a misrepresentation. He only had a little over 600 plate appearances in the minors after coming over from Cuba. That’s few plate appearances and there’s a transition. He hit okay and only had 54 PAs in the PCL. He did tear up the PCL in a really small sample size. It wouldn’t be a surprise that a guy who played so little before reaching the majors didn’t establish himself.
His second time in the PCL when he didn’t hit came after his MLB success and MLB failure. He had a bad year and might not be close to anything like 2016. He doesn’t need to be that good, maybe midway between 2016 and 2017. He’ll make nothing and he has years of team control. He’s a great guy to take a chance on.
He had a .329 OBP and a .758 OPS in the minors while be well above the age of typical “prospects” at those levels, and did absolutely nothing last year. My point isn’t that he is worthless, it’s that hes not worth anything in a trade. A 27 year old shortstop who wasn’t great in the minors is unlikely to repeat an All star caliber year in the majors.
My point is that he isn’t worth a ton in a trade because other than one outlandish year, he hasn’t been very good.. The Cardinals have too many infielders as it is anyways. They already have 5 guys who will be on the MLB roster, plus Tom Edman and the free agent market
His contact quality in 2016 was much, much worse than the results that he got.
Here that is per Statcast, xwOBA vs. wOBA – baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_search?hfPT=&…
Diaz is at the bottom, dead last among players with at least 400 PA’s. Combine that with his 2017 season, and it looks more and more like Diaz’s 2016 was something of an unsustainable mirage.
this really surprises me.
Really? It was a forgone conclusion he was going to be traded.
Wont see stl, will go straight to miami for Stanton
Stanton will be a Giant. Book it.
Sweet! Someone dropped the “book it” comment! Automatically means whatever they said will NOT happen. Stanton to Cards for sure now.
Book it!
Only the first on counts. lol
*One
You new to grammar and baseball?
Dude! Don’t be THAT guy!
Nice
Good pick-up for the Jays. He’s a good infield fallback option if Tulo, and Travis end up being on the DL for an extended period of time, like last year.
They will. Both get injured just by scratching their balls.
Good shortstop for nothing. If they didn’t want Diaz, why not ship him to Miami as part of the Stanton package. Diaz would fit perfectly in Miami. Stupid cards
Who said they didn’t offer? Or are you a fly on that particular wall?
he’s not a good shortstop. below average defensively. The only thing he had going for him was a decent bat. He struggled with that this year allot after teams figured out how to pitch him. I don’t think this was a steal for either team. The Cardinals were going to non tender him if they couldn’t trade him. Plus a lower level outfielder isn’t going to be part of the Cardinals juggernot they have with outfielders in the upper levels.
a lot is 2 words.
Your allotment of buzzkill comments has been exceeded. Please add real feedback or go back to editing magazines.
Thank You! I can’t stand people who do this BS.
An established all-star major league shortstop for a light hitting corner outfielder who struck out 157 times in A ball at 22. Yeah, that’s a great trade for the Jays. The chances Woodman is anything more than a backup corner outfielder are about 10%
He is not an established mlb SS. He had 1 good year and could not maintain success. He is also terrible at defense
Hes a shortstop, makes the all star team as a rookie, and struggles the next year. That’s common. It’s common for players to not have the same focus after a rookie season where there’s a huge adjustment process to secure a job. Diaz is one of the few players that actually did secure a regular job as a rookie. To trade him away for Woodward because he struggled one season is a really poor decision.
He was a 26 year old rookie well above the average age. He also had no place on the team buried in the depth charts behind Wong, Dejong Gyorko and Garcia
Not and established shortstop, nor is he a major league shortstop. Plus the all star game is a popularity contest.
Your the guy that’s raging on people for grammar ? Ironic!
Hey, grammar/spelling cop — an, not “and”!
I didn’t realize Bruce Wayne dealt in grammar vigilante justice as well. Him and that Bat fellow are really cleaning up these online threads of crooked grammar cops.
All the more reason to retain him. He’s in his best prime years.
you’re*
“You’re”
Nice! Tell him Bro!
I didn’t realize weather reports comments are even relevant to this posts at all! You’re just as bad as that other idiot!
^^^This
I won’t judge this move until I see what comes next. This could be setting up a better move for the Cardinals.
I really hope they know what they are doing…
There has to be more to this… this is just crazy if this a straight 1 for 1 trade.
Thanks Mo, deal away one bad season after a RoY like season, for something we didn’t need. Even if its purely a trade move, Diaz was a better trade chip being the teams we’ve looked at tend to need a better SS/3B.
And you know of all these teams knocking down the doors for him!! Come on!! If he was wanted that bad he would have been gone and for more!!
But we didn’t need to deal him is the thing… certainly not for more outfielders. He’s better than Garcia, and only had one bad season. I know the Padres/Marlins could have used him, a cheap but solid player to hold a difficult spot. Now we have an OF who probably won’t rank in out system. I’m not really buying the possible PTBNL thing either because we’ve got like 4 of this guy in our system for that.
We did have to deal him. Tonight is the night you must tender contracts to players or release them. If they did not trade him tonight they either had to pay him 2 million to be on the team with no place to play or release him for nothing. Yes they got a fringe backup OF at best. Yes they got a position they already have plenty of. But they did NEED to deal him or pay him 2 million to sit on the bench.
Everyone forgets that Diaz, at the end of 2015, was passed through waivers and no one claimed him. It’s because he had shown nothing up to that point. No one wanted to give him a roster spot.
Then he lights the world on fire in 2016. 2017 rolls around and he is back to the version that no one wanted, so in some ways, the Cards did OK here. They got a great season out of him in 2016, and then picked up a lottery ticket. VEB had some great analysis of Diaz’ plate approach and the conclusion was always that it was on the unsustainable side. The trends that pointed to that got worse in 2017, and results followed.
Diaz was a decent insurance package to stash at AAA, but the issue is that he required a 40 man roster spot, so saying that he didn’t need to be dealt is not true. At some point, he prevents you from protecting prospects from the rule 5 draft, or prevents you from adding other players via free agency. Picking up a lottery ticket in Woodman is better than losing him for nothing through waivers.
If anyone wanted Diaz he would have been dealt last July to me a trade to give him a 2nd chance kinda like they did with Adams.
Clearing a spot for stanton???
Eh, seems the Blue Jays non-tendered Ryan Goins today and replaced him with the Cardinals’ version of Ryan Goins. Progress?
Diaz and Goins are completely opposite players.
How on earth are Diaz and Goins the same? Really? Goins is a great fielder, super athletic, and bats lefty. Diaz has better bat speed, righty, is streaky, and is better off at second base in terms of defense. Goins plays a better SS than Diaz by a mile.
Lol Goins is not super athletic. He’s a poor base-runner who reaches base about as often as a good hitting pitcher.
Slight savings and I don’t think Diaz out of options.
Goins should land somewhere and be dependable I’d hope. Diaz seems like a wild card but worth it for roster flexibility.
Still need MI depth if Gurriel isn’t gonna be ready.
Dependable how? Goins has been lucky to be on a major league 40 man let alone get regular time. He has a career OPS+ of 64 and is is 2 months from being on the wrong side of 30 years old. Beyond the “eye test” he’s also nowhere near the fielder everyone wants to give him credit for,
Goins is like John Macdonald was. He has a very good glove and gets to balls many other defenders can’t. He can play SS, 2nd or 3rd. He can even pitch as a releiver with 2 pitches, a 90 MPH fastball and an effective changeup. He is a great clubhouse guy. And he has some pop in his bat.
Torontopoly:
Dependable like a team can generally rely on the guy to be healthy when the starters get injured. Not a starter but solid insurance policy.
True pro, very much like Johnny Mac, good call jimmertee.
Not fair to judge an insurance policy type on career OPS+ in my opinion.
Goins is generally thrown into the fire. Shouldn’t face LHP. Ideally used to face RHP 1-2 times per week for resting MI starters. Shouldn’t pinch hit in AL parks. Deals with a lot of misuse.
First two years was much more overmatched than he seems now.
Past 3 years vs RHP looks like a dependable backup 2b/ss to me. Team with healthier MI could get a decent deal on backup with Goins.
Ok fair enough, he doesn’t get injured and I don’t disagree re: OPS+. My issue is this myth that he was an amazing defender really fell apart last year. Does he get to balls others can’t? Yes. Does he also whiff on the occasional routine play. Also, yes. He had a negative DRS and UZR last year.
Good points.
From what I happen to pick up, Goins really gets in his own head for stretches. Brings slumps out to the field with him sometimes. Very slick glove when playing with confidence. Best range at 2b/ss among Jays options past few years now.
Not a wiz like John McDonald but had some stretches where you could tell he’s close. Maybe Goins finds that comfort level at 30 and endears himself to a team like McDonald did in his early 30s with the Jays. I’ll be rooting for him to stick somewhere obviously!
Feel like the Padres would have offered something better than that in exchange for Diaz. Super light return. But as some have suggested maybe it’s a precursor for another move by STL, but as it stands it is very head scratching.
Takes a shortstop off the board and leaves only Cozart, Escobar, Hardy and possibly Hechavarria and Mercer as the last real starting options for a team Like San Diego.
You really don’t think they didn’t call on San Diego?
Unless Preller is just unimpressed with the player I don’t think they did.
Keep in mind. MO had some pretty snarky comments about Preller after the Padres snagged Cordoba in the rule V draft last year. Mentioning the fact that the kid had never played about rookie ball and that taking him would be a detriment to his career because he is redshirt-ing a year basically. That may have been coupled with the fact that the Padres plucked Perdomo from them the year prior but anyways, the point in trying to make is that there might be some animosity between the two GM’s stemming from that.
If you’re right, and I really doubt their skins are that thin, then San Diego wasn’t an option at all. So they wouldn’t have made a better offer.
Really there are two reasons Preller may not have traded for him.
1. He’s planning to outbid people for Zack Cosart to play ss. He could go as high as 3 years 60 mill to get cozart and frontloading 2018 at 25 mill, 2019 at 25 mill and 2020 at 10 mill since theoretically the glut of talent comes up in 2019 and fill gaps in 2020 to compete. Plus, a lot of money off the books in 2019.
2. He wants to see what they have in rondon or doesnt want to block urias who could he up mid season.
No player in history would sign a contract like that.
Is that why Cespedes signed a 3 year 75 million deal with a 1 year 27.5 deal and opt out clause?
Yeah, no player would sign guaranteed contracts for 25, 25, 10. 60 mill is 60 mill You could go 25, 10, 25.
I’m seeing the Padres with a full 40 man roster per their website. Diaz needs a 40-man spot, which is presumably a significant factor in why the Cardinals traded him. The Cardinals now have two open 40-man roster spots, with a good chance that they sign at least a couple free agent relievers this off-season.
I don’t know the Padres’ roster well enough to know if they have any DFA candidates, but that’s a consideration for teams thinking about acquiring (or trading) a player such as Diaz who looks like a marginal major league player after 2017.
As a St Louis Cardinals fan I do not know if this is a good trade for the cards. Hopefully, it turns out a great trade for the team. Good luck Diaz, thanks for great times in St Louis. It would had been better trading Kolten Wong and giving second base to Matt Carpenter full time.
Diaz was terrible last year. Not just in the majors, he couldn’t hit a lick in Memphis either.
He had no value. This is clearing a 40 man roster spot and saving a couple million. Nothing more, nothing less. I hope Diaz can rebound in Toronto.
Diaz has some real value – it’s just a situation we can’t take advantage of. He had a broken thumb last year and tried coming back too soon. He still hit 259 at AAA Memphis. While the guy we got for him has hit under 240 his 2 years in single A. Seems like we gave up a SS who was weak defensively for a corner OF we can’t use. All we did was clear a spot off our roster. Other teams like the Jays have to be loving deals with the Cards and picking up our rule 5 losses.
Woodman was a 22 year old in single A who had an OPS under .700 and struck out 157! times as a corner outfielder. He was a second round draft pick 2 years ago but those are some ugly numbers. Deal really doesn’t make sense for the Cards but makes all the sense for the Jays.
Wong had an amazing year last year. Why trade him for that?
In the midst of Stanton talks, the Cardinals Trade What could’ve been a piece of an outfield prospect. Wonderful!
Yeah not like Mozeliak would know who the Marlins are interested in.
Why would Miami want diaz?
cause he’s cuban
Whaaaaa? What is happening
Unless Tulo is part of a salary dump/exchange for Stanton, this is an odd move.
Blue Jays probably don’t expect Tulo and Travis to play 150+ games each, make sense at add a not-terrible regular, if Diaz qualifies for that
What? No way is Stanton going to Toronto! LoL
Let’s not forget it’s the Jays we’re talking about. Remember the Chris Carpenter trade with St Louis? Now he’s on the HoF ballot as a card? This will only help the cards, we all know that.
Carpenter signed with the Cardinals as a free agent.
what a stupid comment
What is stupid about thinking a team’s thinking has changed in like five regimes and 15 years later?
Yeah pretty sure Chris Carpenter was signed to a minor league deal by St Louis after being non tendered due to his injuries, by a different Front office but it is the Jays we are talking about right??…but yeah this will only help the cards I guess.
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Thank you.
I don’t like this sell low trade for the Cardinals. I dont see why. Nice pick up for the BlueJays, I had predicted the Jays were going to sign Zach Cosart in the off season, but that might be scratched now.
Have a good evening baseball fans.
Spencer.
Do any fantasy chat Spencer?
This screams of clearing 40an roster space. My guess is that the Cards have worked out a deal for Stanton, Ozuna, and Zeigler or two of them. They are in LA meeting with Stanton’ s agents right now. They had one open spot on the 40 but not two. They may throw in this prospect or include one of Bader, Sierra, and Oneil to sweeten the deal.
I wonder if the Marlins and Stanton were a driving force in this trade?
Did STL try to trade Diaz in a Stanton deal, get no bites, and then trade him for a player Miami is interested in?… Because if not, the Cardinal way appears to be drunk.
The Jays are trying to pick up a depth piece that has upside. They have tried it many times and failed before many times. It is not a signifcant move for either the cards or the Jays. It is a trade of disappointed expections. If anything the Cards win since Woodman is so young he has time to learn. Diaz is too old at 27 to mature into a [good] shortstop. I don’t scout Diaz well. Over the course of a whole season Goins will show as the much better MLB player.
If the Jays are smart, they would trade Donalsdon and move Tulo to 3rd or 1st. Tulo is fragile and will get hurt is he continues to play at SS.
that’s a fun opinion
It’s a possible change of scenery trade for both teams! In other words, it’s a wash .
Maybe Diaz is insurance for Goins being on the FA market
This move for the Cards does nothing more than than clear a 40 man roster spot, and received a return greater than straight releasing him would have…
I’m not a scou. I look at statistics only. JB Woodman hasn’t produced any good numbers. Maybe its because he’s working on things… That’s speculation. He’s a CF who doesn’t seem very good there and he strikes out too much for a non-power player.
Aledmys Diaz is fat.
You only look at statistics, but you make a claim that Diaz is fat? Very hypocritical
Possibly clearing a spot on the 40 man roster so they can draft a rule 5 next week
Confusing deal since the Cards are overloaded in the OF already. I understand moving Diaz but would have thought a different deal would have been completed
I understand the Cards wanting to move Diaz, since he was ceded by De Jong but for a low level OF prospect is befuddling, Due to the fact that the Cards already have a logjam of young outfielders, surely they could have found a prospect of similar caliber in a position of need, such as Pitching. Great deal for Toronto.
It’s a player in single A ball. At that low level of the minors, you’re not worrying about need. You’re just trying to add players that you think may have upside, regardless of position.
In any case, doesn’t sound like Woodman is that great of a prospect. This move was really about getting something for Diaz because the Cardinals didn’t think he was worth a 40 man roster spot going forward. Still only have 2 open spots on the 40 man before signing any free agents (relievers, for example).
Peralta dashed by Diaz
A year later Diaz done in by Dejong
A year later Dejong dethroned by….. it’ll be a shame if they don’t have any options for a sophomore slump.
Decent fade though
Remember, Stanton has already told the Marlins what teams he’d play for. If he had told the Marlins that the Cards were a no go, then his personnel wouldnt be meeting with them. There would be no point. With this Diaz move and a meeting coming up it certainly looks fishy to say the least.
stanton is playing his cards by visiting teams, even if he has already decided what he wants to do. he’s probably trying to entice the dodgers to join in.
1. “Stanton” isn’t a Free Agent, and Isn’t organizing/scheduling these meetings. He’s employed by the marlins right now. THEY are the ones setting this all up, and he is just “going through the motions that they set forth”.
2. Jmoney4 is probably right in his assumption that this meeting wouldn’t even take place if Stanton had given them a “Hard Pass” on StL.
3. .”The Diaz Trade”….looks like the Cards are positioning themselves to “make an addition”, but Stanton isn’t the only deal they are working on. They have several irons in the fire (if they miss out on Stanton). If that doesn’t work out, expect them to make a serious move within a couple days afterwards.
wrong on whose setting this up. it says stantons representatives are meeting with teams.
I totally understand the desire to trade Diaz before the non-tender deadline, but I’m pretty sure the Cardinals could have gotten a better return. Why not a future bullpen arm, anyone that doesn’t need 40man protected
That usually means they couldn’t get more than they got. In other words the market for Diaz wasn’t very good and they got the best they could.
jimmertee is very much correct. I don’t know why anyone would downvote this comment. When a player is traded for a lower return than we might expect, the best default assumption is that the front office is actually competent at its job and that the market is just less than expected.
Well it must be true if YOU are pretty sure then!
Woodman doesnt need to be 40 kan protected.
I don’t know, I feel DeJong is gonna be Diaz 2.0. I could be completely wrong, but just a strange feeling about it. I think it mainly comes from they were successful for similar reasons. Main shortstop was either hurt, or under performed (Peralta, and Diaz), and they stepped up, and performed way over expectations.
no way. DeJong is the complete package at SS. he just needs to not strikeout as much. That is essentially is only weakness. Diaz was a terrible defender and was terribly inconsistent with his swing, hence why he was demoted. DeJong hit almost 40 homeruns last year between mlb and Mib. DeJong will be a solid ss. He could regress some next year but the wheels wont fall off like they did for Diaz.
Idk. He had a high babip and didn’t walk much. Add that to the strikeouts and he’s a prime regression candidate
Even if he does regress, at least it won’t be compounded with terrible defense like it was with Diaz. If the Cards get the big bat they want this offseason, they can afford to be patient with DeJong’s bat as long as he continues to play a decent defensive shortstop.
The best part about this deal is that there will be no eduordo Nunez deal in Toronto
Yes, because why would you ever want to get someone who is a better player in every aspect?
I mean, if this is the start of a rebuild I guess someone has to play there, so fine.
total bs trade. so much for donaldson going to cardinals. didn’t really want the one year rental 3rd baseman anyway.
Well, thanks for all the hits back in 2016, Diaz. Now the fans in Toronto can be the ones to watch you throw it away every time you try to make an off-balance throw.
Diaz will be making the league minimum in 2018 and 2019, has a minor league option remaining and was an all-star one year ago
I think it’s absolutely foolish that the Cardinals gave him away for JB Woodman, who looks like an organizational depth piece based on his inability to make consistent contact.
Diaz is on a 4 year/8 million dollar deal
He was, however it only spanned from 2014-2017
He earned $1m in ’14, $2m in ’15, $2.5m in ’16 and $2.5m in ’17
I don’t understand how it works out that he has six more years of team control, however both spotrac and br say that he is pre-arb eligible through 2019 and will become a free agent following the 2022 season
That doesn’t make any sense! If the contract only ran threw 2017 like you say it does, then wouldn’t Diaz be a free agent
I believe it has something to do with service time. Diaz has only picked up just over one season of major league service time.
I thought Diaz signed as a free agent out of Cuba by going to another country(?) and establishing residency . So that his 4 year/8 million dollar deal would end in 2017. So wouldn’t he be a free agent ? How did the Cards retain him and thus be able to trade him? I don’t know all the details
and that’s why I’m confused . LoL! Can anyone HELP me with the facts on this case?
I absolutely hate this trade.
Based on chatter on some Jays boards I think the Jays are looking at Diaz as a 2b. Travis injury may not be healing great and many are worried about him long term. Scouts say his range and arm play better at 2b than SS. If true, this was a CYA trade for the Jays at 2b.
Great trade for the Jays. If he reverts back to his rookie form it’s a massive steal. If he’s a .250 hitter with 15HR potential as a backup I’ll take that too. An “ok” defender with pop is a good bench piece when you consider he plays MIF.
It doesn’t make sense unless it’s some ground work for Josh Donaldson.
Good trade for the Jays
I’m a Cubs fan, so opinion might be bias, but it does seem odd to trade a MI who is at least in the mix on your ML club with recent success for another corner outfielder whose offensive potential is at best suspect
Cards probably wanted to dump Diaz. He’s probably a bum. Like when the Cards traded us Rasmus.
What a steal for the Jay’s.
I’m liking this right now as a Jays fan. Nothing against Woodman and I wish him the best but nothing about him strikes me as being more than a 4th outfielder down the road, and his strikeout rate right now is just obscene. I that it’ll likely improve, but that HAS to be addressed. Diaz, however, should just be entering his prime. I don’t believe that he’s as good as his rookie season but I think that he’ll be better than his sophomore season. He seems like he plays passable defense and he’s got a bit of pop and I like that he doesn’t strikeout like crazy; in his down year of 2017 he struck out even less than his stellar 2016 season (I expect that to increase though). I imagine that this spells the end of Ryan Goins as a Blue Jay though unless something happens involving Devon Travis.
Ryan Goins was non-tendered…..which brings up, potentially the funniest line of the day………
“Goins……Goins……..GONE!!!”…………..LOL
I scout Goins as a much better player than Diaz over a full MLB season. I think time will tell this projection as accurate. There is one possibility that Diaz could prove me wrong. He had a broken finger and many suggest that he came back too soon and it messed him up. Perhaps the Jays can sort this out. otherwise, Diaz is a poor defender with a questionable bat and once the MLB pitchers figured him out, he was done.
Cards freed up a roster spot with someone they had no room as DeJong a core player now. Woodman 4 years younger and buys time with regard to roster amd he was a beast at Mississippi even as a freshman. Budaska et al may be huge positive impact with his hitting and he has the other tools
All this is doing is clearing roster space and anybody who thinks otherwise has no business being a gm. Something big may be happening soon.
Why dump Diaz?? Sophomore years, as a rule, are generally subpar.
Jays get another bum. Color me shocked. Gonna go into next season with 4 holes in the lineup again (2B, SS, C, CF). Cozart would have been way, way better.
Rovssss, I agree Cozart was the move for the Jays. Move Tulo to first. Trade Donaldson and Smoak for a full rebuild – acquire starting pitching. The Jays may start well in 2018 but won’t finish in the playoffs. The starting pitching staff isn’t even competative level quality, let alone being able to fill the holes at 2B, SS, RF, &; C.
Well Cozart is 32, so you add him hoping that you contend this season, with Cozart hitting 2nd or 3rd. You don’t give this guy Justin Turner money to play for a rebuilding team.
This team is going nowhere fast. All indications are that Atkins and staff won’t go for the rebuild. So another wasted year in Jays land.
A mini trade let’s get Stanton traded so people can argue over that to!