Today in Jays History: Some trades, and Adam Lind drives in 8

Four Years Ago Today

The Jays made three trades. Two went very well. One not so well.

Robbie Ray came over from the Diamondbacks for Travis Bergen. Bergen pitched 6.2 innings for the Diamondbacks at the end of last season, and then we got him back at the end of February for cash. He pitched in 10 games for the Jays. After the season, he was a free agent, signed with the Padres, and was released earlier this month.

Ray pitched in 5 games down the stretch in 2020.

In 2021, working with Pete Walker, he was the best pitcher in the AL.

His place among AL pitchers in 2021:

• bWAR 1st, 5.9
• ERA 1st, 2.84
• Strikeouts 1st, 248
• Innings pitched 1st, 193.1
• Quality starts 1st, 23

And he won the Cy Young Award.

We can count that trade as a win.

After the season, he signed a five-year $115 million contract with the Mariners. In his first season with the Mariners, he didn’t come to Toronto when the team did, so the feeling was he wasn’t vaccinated, which would explain why the Jays didn’t try to sign him.

He had a good 2022 season, with a 3.81 ERA in 32 starts. Ray only pitched in one game in 2023, suffering a torn flexor tendon, and missed the rest of the season. The Mariners traded Ray to the Giants before this season. He was out until late July and has made seven starts since returning, with a 4.70 ERA.

On the same day as the Ray trade, Ross Stripling was acquired from the Dodgers for Kendall William and Ryan Noda.

Williams is in Double-A. He has a 6.70 ERA, with 50 strikeouts and 50 walks in 92.2 innings.

Noda never made it to the majors with the Dodgers, but he was picked up by the A’s and played in 128 games for them last year and 30 this year. He’s in the minors how.

Stripling was terrible in 15.2 innings in 2022 after the trade.

The following season, he was better, with a 4.80 ERA in 24 games and 19 starts.

He was terrific in 2022, going 10-4 with a 3.01 ERA in 32 games and 24 starts. After the season, he signed as a free agent with the Giants. Now he is pitching for the A’s.

And, the same day, we still picked up Jonathan Villar from the Marlins for Griffin Conine.

Villar hit .188/.278/.203 in 22 games. He played for three teams in the next two years and retired after the 2022 season.

Conine was just called up to the majors by the Marlins. He’s 27 now and seems a long shot to get an MLB career, but I’d still rather have him than Villar.

Eight Years Ago

We traded Josh Donaldson.

It was all a mess. Josh was injured. He hadn’t played since May 28th (and he wouldn’t play until September 11th for Cleveland).

The rush to trade him was hard to understand. I know the front office must have decided they wouldn’t sign him over the winter and likely didn’t want the PR problems of not offering a former MVP a contract. Add in that they wanted to get something back for him. But, it wasn’t done well.

I don’t know if there was a good way to do it.

As it turned out, it would have been better to trade him before the season. But the team hoped that he could have a good year, that Tulo could play, that the pitching (led by Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada, and Aaron Sanchez) would be the team’s strength, and, well, a half-dozen other things would turn outright. Almost nothing good happened.

When Josh finally could play. He was excellent in September’s 16th games (.280/.400/.520 with 3 homers). However, he had a tough time in the playoffs getting just 1 hit in Cleveland’s 3-and-out series against the Astros.

In 2019, he had a terrific year with the Braves. Then he had two decent seasons with the Twins. Before the 2022 season he was traded to the Yankees. It didn’t go well and he was released in August 2023. The Brewers picked him up, where he hit .169 in 17 games. He retired after the season.

17 Years Ago

The Jays won a wild game over the Rangers.

Adam Lind had a huge game, going 3 for 5 with 2 home runs, including a grand slam and 8 RBI.

After 5 innings, we were up 11-0, and the game appeared to be over.

We scored 5 runs in the first. The big hit was a 3-run homer by Rod Barajas. We scored 1 more in the third, 4 in the fourth (Lind’s grand slam), and 1 more in the fifth.

All seemed good. Brett Cecil had thrown 4 shutout innings. Then came the fifth. Cecil gave up 7 runs.

Why would a manager leave his starter out there to give up 7 runs? Well, it was the fifth inning, and Cito wanted Cecil to get the win. In my view, Brett was clearly tiring. He also took a hard grounder off the thigh that inning, which likely added to his troubles.

There are old school managers and managers who went to the school that burned down before they built the old school. But that’s an aside.

In that fifth inning, Cecil:

• Gave up three straight singles to start the inning.
• Then, after a ground out, Ian Kinsler hit a triple, which made it 11-3.
• After a fly-out, two more singles (one from Josh Hamilton) set up a 3-run Nelson Cruz home run, and it was suddenly 11-7. Thankfully, that’s where the bleeding stopped.

Then the bullpen got into the game:

• In the sixth, Casey Janssen came in and gave up two more runs. Jesse Carlson (a favourite of mine) got the last out of the inning. 11-9.
• Carlson gave up 2 singles in the seventh, coming out of the game with runners on the corners and 1 out.
• Scott Downs followed, and a sac fly made it an 11-10 game. Things needed to be looking better. But Downs shut things down.

Then, in the top of the ninth, we scored 7 runs to make it a blowout again.

The inning started with Lind’s second homer, followed by doubles from Kevin Millar and Vernon Wells. Then, after Randy Ruiz and Rod Barajas made outs, the inning went: Walk (Jose Bautista), single (John McDonald), walk (Marco Scutaro), walk (Aarron Hill), and 3-run double (Adam Lind).

The game ended 18-10.

Lind drove in 8 runs (and only had a .126 WPA). Rod Barajas hit 2 homers.

Brett Cecil got the win, so all’s well and ends well.