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 just last year 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. The right-hander is still on the open market and is said to be receiving interest from the Brewers. Meanwhile, the 6'3" pitchers sent to Chicago both spent 2012 in Single-A Kannapolis. Webb (23) and Jaye (21) didn't set the world on fire, but the youngsters still have plenty of baseball in front of them.
