TODAY: The deal ships $1MM in international bonus availability to Toronto, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter).
YESTERDAY, 7:40pm: Slusser reports that the Jays are covering more than $10MM of the $12MM remaining on Morales’ contract.
7:06pm: The two teams have announced the trade. Toronto is sending Morales and cash to Oakland in exchange for minor league infielder Jesus Lopez and international bonus money. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Oakland transferred right-hander Jharel Cotton to the 60-day injured list as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
7:02pm: In a surprising move, the Blue Jays have traded designated hitter Kendrys Morales to the Athletics, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (via Twitter). The 35-year-old Morales is earning $12MM in the final season of a three-year, $33MM contract with the Jays, so presumably Toronto is providing substantial financial relief in the deal.
Oakland recently lost first baseman Matt Olson when the slugger underwent a hamate excision procedure on his right hand. Olson suffered the injury in the second game of the Athletics’ two-game set against the Mariners in Tokyo. With Khris Davis locked in as the primary designated hitter in Oakland, it seems likely that Morales will play first base while Olson is sidelined. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that Olson will be out anywhere from six to eight weeks.
Morales won’t match Olson’s offensive output or especially his glovework, but the veteran switch-hitter is coming off a solid 2018 rebound campaign in which he batted .249/.331/.439 (112 OPS+) with 21 homers. His recent work at first base has been extremely limited, as he’s logged just 30 games at the position over the past two seasons. The A’s also have Mark Canha and Jurickson Profar (who played 24 games at first base last year in Texas) as alternative options at first base should the need arise.
The addition of Morales will also help to balance out a righty-heavy Athletics roster. Prior to the trade for Morales, switch-hitters Profar and Robbie Grossman were the only two players on the active roster capable of hitting left-handed. A career .264/.328/.468 hitter against right-handed pitchers, Morales isn’t exactly a standout but will present a sound platoon partner for the right-handed-hitting Canha.
For the Blue Jays, the move creates some much-needed roster flexibility. Teoscar Hernandez can now receive semi-regular at-bats in the DH slot, with Billy McKinney, Kevin Pillar and Randal Grichuk lining up around the outfield. The Jays can also rotate some other regulars through the DH slot, and the trade of Morales could even create a path to the Majors 24-year-old first baseman Rowdy Tellez on the heels of a .280/.308/.600 showing in Spring Training.
The return for the Jays, as one would expect when dealing a soon-to-be 36-year-old DH in the final season of an undesirable contract, is minimal. The 21-year-old Lopez spent the 2018 season with Class-A Beloit, where he hit .239/.293/.402 with 10 homers, 15 doubles and a couple of triples in 326 plate appearances. He spent time at third base (587 innings), shortstop (65 innings) and second base (53 innings). Lopez wasn’t ranked among the Athletics’ top prospects. The amount of international money picked up by Toronto in tonight’s deal isn’t clear, though international funds must be traded in blocks of at least $250K.
Huh
Rowdy time in Toronto!!
No.
Yesss
Maybe?
3 things are gonna happen here…. I hit you, you hit the pavement, then rowdy comes and hits DH for Toronto
LOL!
You referenced Letterkenny, and that’s what I appreciates about you.
Suprising move
Interesting, better still be able to play 1B well tho cuz I’m not tryna ever see Khrush try to throw a baseball again
Wait till you see Kendrys in the field.
Should cover Oakland while Olsen is out. After that, I guess he is a bench player.
Then trade him for a starter who is cabable of throwing a baseball!
Maybe Kluber and Bauer?
I ment Morales not Olson. I can see where you got confused.
Morales for Kluber is a win for both teams.
Please put down the crack pipe if you think a guy somebody just pay $10million on a $12million salary to go away and play for somebody else equates to a premier arm like Kluber or Bauer.
Those kinds of comments shouldn’t get a rise out of anyone. That’s the lowest hanging fruit.
Put down the weed and maybe you’ll recognize sarcasm
Hilarious exchange
Hard to differentiate sarcasm when some of the ridiculous trade scenarios kicked around here, especially from Padres fans, aren’t much different.
I don’t think it’s hard at all, but then again I don’t get worked up into a blind rage over people posting idiotic trades on the internet.
You just go into a blind rage chiming in over people posting comments on the internet not directed at you…
I like that, a smaller payroll never hurts on a rebuilding team.. or any team
He can barely move him at first base won’t be pretty
David Klein’s sentence isn’t pretty.
Commas matter
Barely move him can he?
Does this mean we are going to see Khrush Davis in the OF? Man that arm is HORRIBLE. a JV highschool player has a better arm than Davis
I get the feeling Davis has a Khrap arm
It’s laughable. Also looks like he has the yips. The arm motion is not fluid.
Don’t get this one. He’s been a DH for years I wouldn’t count on him being my 1B.
Not surprising. Blue Jays will be doing nothing but tanking this year and years to come.
While I don’t disagree with your point, this move doesn’t make the Jays a worse ball club.
The jays still have teoscar Hernandez or rowdy Tellez who are both best suited to DH.
The jays will be better without him. I can’t believe people think that the team would be better with morales then without. At this point stroman could hit better
Since the Jays plan on tanking, The Angels will gladly take Vlad Jr. off their hands.
Only because even with Mike Trout freshly signed they still can’t make the post season!
Ouch. I mean it’s true but have a heart
It’s true. The Angels are complete garbage. They’re about as good as the pirates. I feel bad that trout can’t see that they’re never going to be a competitive playoff team
Khrush trash in the field and we paying him almost $20MM and we have a gold Glover at first..why are we bringing in Morales?
Did you miss the part about Olson being out until May?
Canha’a a Gold Glover?
Because Olson is injured so he and Canha splitting time at 1st
If true, this is a spectacular move for Atkins and the Blue Jays. This would, hopefully, mean Rowdy Tellez can start this season in Toronto where he should be.
Was about to post that it seems like it’s Rowdy’s time. But you beat me to it.
Roddy piper
Ronda Rousey
Kyle Busch
Nah Starvenger. We can share this. The DH role now opens more opportunities for others too (Teoscar, McKinney, Drury, Vlad). It’s interesting since Morales was supposed to mentor Vlad, or at least we were all led to believe that. Regardless, this move helps everyone.
It probably was the plan up until, what, an hour or two ago?
Also curious about the international bonus money. Do the Jays have their eye on someone and thus increasing their allocation to land him?
I’ve been wondering the same thing. Could just be a scenario where the Jays are covering a bulk of Morales’ contract (has to be), and in-return they receive some International money Oakland wasn’t using anyway. Jays could also be at the accumulation stage looking to add more later this year to use next offseason.
If the jays don’t use the bonus money this year I’m pretty sure they lose it in July. July 2 is when the next year of int free agents is available.
They 100% will lose it. That is complete nonsense. Use it or lose it. That’s why the value of that money is much much lower right now.
Alford coming up instead
Just saw. Probably means Vlad is coming up sometime in mid to late April, giving Tellez at bats in AAA. Alford isn’t ready and should not be in the major leagues until he figures out AAA pitching.
Isn’t the plan to play Vlad at 3rd? I don’t see how calling up Alford instead of Tellez would have an impact on that one way or the other. They’re probably going to give Hernandez a full run at the DH role because he’s a crappy OF. And if they leave Tellez down another month or two they’ll gain that extra year of control which I’m sure is appealing.
Yes and no. Jays chose McKinney over Tellez, essentially. Alford gets sent down IF Vlad is brought up late-April. Alford needs regular at bats and will not get it in Toronto. He really needs work. A lot of it.
As for Teoscar….again, Blue Jays are not in the winning business. They are in the growing business and need to play Teoscar in the OF as much as possible, crappy D included.
Where would Tellez play? Smoak is at 1B.
DH
And yet they’re 2-3 and headed for 100 losses…
Why spemd assets on a dh/1b ehen their pitcjing needs an upgrade, odd move
Think your keyboard needs an upgrade.
Zing
Thank god jays needed to clear that dh spot for the young kids. Time for rowdy to play a full year
Maybe Davis goes to 1st base?
International bonus pool money is expensive!
Why did we need him?
Olson’s out for a long time. Morales will probably play a lot of first base
they didnt, they need pitching but refuse to address it
And there goes the third dead weight contract. Honestly a little surprised considering all the young Dominicans, but not disappointed.
*Latinos
The Jays are a joke. Cheapiro was brought to cut salary cause I’m sure no one in there right mind wanted the job. They can’t and will not compete with the Red Sox and Yankees too of the most storied franchises in the league. Neither one of these teams accept anything other then winning a World Series.
If that’s why Shapiro was brought in, why hasn’t he done it?
Yeah, I just can’t wrap my head around why the other AL East teams won’t simply choose to consistently outspend both the Yankees and the Red Sox
yeah why did a small market team that has some of the lowest ticket prices in the league bring in the guy who built the Cleveland Indians another small market team on the verge of having sustainable play off run success.
it makes no sense at all. why would he waste all this time trying to build a team from the ground up. just keep signing free agents to multi year contracts so we can still not compete with BOS or NY because we haven’t developed the depth we need.
great idea.
speaking of no sense your posts are painful.
I guess the A’s were not comfortable enough with Profar and Canha at first. Personally, I thought Profar played a fine 1st base, and that would have opened up more playing time at second for Pinder.
wooooo
I’d rather have Lind or Eric Thames than old man Kendry at first
Is the guy who called out the MLBTR writers saying Oakland wouldn’t acquire a first base type going to show up and eat some humble pie?
Accountability on the internet? Good luck with that!
Yeah, in an area of the internet which is totally anonymous, why should there be? These sections are just to vent about baseball, right? lol
Guess I was wrong. My name’s Donald Trump, I live at 1600 PA Ave.
Yeah sure why not. This move sucks and Beane doesn’t know what he’s doing and needs to be fired for this level of incompetence. His rotation is all 5th starters. He thinks Rodney and Hendriks are better than Familia and Kimbrel. Beane (or whoever made all these offseason moves) sucks at his job now, period. Profar played mostly 1B last year and Barreto is a 2B.
For the record I don’t disagree with you either. Just the way you called them out lol.
Yeah, def regret that tone a bit especially considering how dumb Beane is now, guess I’ll just adjust to him always being bad now lol
Yea… he’s real dumb for only having to pay 2mil dollars of salary. I think they should fire Beane and make you GM.
They should do that, I’d sign Keuchel and Kimbrel and not add aging terrible defenders to cover positions younger, more athletic types have plenty of experience in.
Good thing you said first base type. He’s started less than a full season of games at 1B combined in the last 6 seasons.
Playing first base isn’t that hard, tell ’em Wash.
It’s incredibly hard. -Moneyball
An utterly worthless move that blocks Barreto some more. Where TF is the pitching??? Keuchel and Kimbrel are still out there, throw them a bone and see what happens, Beane you cheapo.
Barreto plays 2nd and SS
Yes and Profar should have been moved to 1B with Barreto at 2B.
And you have first hand knowledge that they didnt reach out Keuchel and/or Kimbrel?
Is this the MLBTR version of “You never played the game, you cant have an opinion” ???
Oh, so close. It’s “You never worked as a GM in the game, you can’t have an opinion,” thank you for playing and enjoy your consolation prize.
Considering Kimbrel and Keuchel are asking for 1/5 of their total payroll a season it’s probably safe to say they aren’t going to be in on them at this point.
Their total payroll is a made up number created by ownership to maximize their personal profits at the expense of the fans enjoyment.
a business is most usually built to give reward to the owners
The A’s are one of the lowest revenue generating team in all of baseball. Spending over 100MM this year is pretty good for them considering teams w similar revenues like the rays and pirates are spending less than 75 a piece.
BallFour aka head fart catcher for Scott Boras. He thinks team owners print money , like the gubmit.
Toronto must be paying at least $9M of the $12M due to Morales if not more. Otherwise, there is no way Oakland does this deal and trades a prospect as well.
This basically amounts to a salary dump by Toronto and Oakland will always jump at cheap opportunities like this.
Yep, absolutely. Worth it for 1 season in-order to give a younger player a chance to sink or swim. Blue Jays are definitely covering most of the bill.
Frackin good call
Good move by the A’s. Brings in a good bat for a playoff run. Weird so many people are complaining. Who exactly is a better bat and can play 1st?
Morales cant really play first anymore either. when he signed in Toronto everyone said he would be good as a DH only as long as he doesnt play any 1st…..
They are going to cut him the second Olson is healthy, but nice try lol
So now Smoak is the highest paid Blue Jay on the roster. Wow.
Tulo calling…
“On the roster”.
Tulo not on the roster. Payroll yes, not roster.
Good move by the Jays. The prospect is worth practically nothing. This is about freeing up a roster spot for someone to develop.
Hopefully there is more to come. Let the full tank begin!
Just saw Jays are reportedly covering $10-mil of the contract. If that’s what it takes so be it.
EDIT: Slusser report now up.
I prefer the term rebuild, tank is a little harsh. Next up, Pillar and Smoak for the same reasons (not tanking) to free space for others and get a few futures in return. With youth and raw talent, teams can surprise!
Diff is that Pillar and Smoak still have value. The others didn’t.
Smoak does, Pillar not so much unless he rebounds
Why is this news? Morales hasn’t been affective since he was with the royals.
He hasn’t really been effective either, but you obviously considered it news enough to click on it.
#preachitbrother
And it was my two cents about this news. Trolls gonna troll dude. Get better at it.
My .02 about your spelling. Get better at it.
twitter.com/susanslusser/status/111106144515055616…
“David Forst tells me that Kendrys Morales “has consistently mauled right-handed pitching throughout his career,”
2018: .860 OPS
2017: .680 OPS
2016: .730 OPS
2015: .901 OPS
2014: .584 OPS
2013: .780 OPS
How is this either consistent or even “mauling”? For the love of god just use Profar, Barreto and Pinder. All the while with no pitching to speak of and a staff that’s already dropping like flies?
It’s official, the A’s front office needs to go.
EDIT: Ok they’re only paying him $2M so he’ll be cut when Olson gets back, but if you can’t see Profar outhitting Morales you haven’t watched them at all over the last 2-3 years. Pinder could out hit Morales too.
Good god, dude, step away from the Internet for a bit.
I didn’t fact check this but if it’s correct he does have a point.
My comment is regarding all of his asinine posts berating the A’s before details of trade are even revealed. Dude needs a Xanax or something
sorry it offends you that I make good points and show my work
Not even close to be offended. Your “premature” reaction shows lack of actual work and research, but hey, whatever makes you happy.
he has been killing the angels ever since the team traded away. let us see if he continues his revenge against halos.
The fact the jays got an expensive bag of balls for kendrys, and maybe paid maybe 80-90% of his salary is a good move,,,,,,,the bad move was the original contract
Still better than resigning Edwin.
Out with the old, in with the new. This seems to work out for everybody. Solid move.
Typical Oakland move
It was only solid if you forget that a sizeable portion of his production came in a two week stretch long after the Jays were out of contention. For the better part of the season he was terrible.
So, they stopped trying to get him out during that portion of the season? Most production comes during stretches of a season.
The trade serves two purposes for Toronto. One, it opens up a roster spot for a player like Rowdy Tellez. Two, it clears a spot on the 40-man roster and the Jays needed a spot to add either Javy Guerra or Bud Norris to the team
Why is this move “surprising”? My biggest MLBTR pet peeve is when you tell me whether or not I should be surprised.
I’m surprised that’s your pet peeve.
Unsurprisingly
This move is surprising because almost no one expected his terrible contract to be trade-able and certainly not this early in the year. This isn’t quite the Orioles dumping Chris Davis but it’s not too far off.
Like this move for Toronto, the youth movement is happening Vlad will be up mid month, Alford made the team which means Pillar should get moved and with Morales out Teoscar will be the DH. Tellez should be up and get time at 1st & DH until Smoak gets dealt.
$10 Million and Jesus Lopez. ?
STEAL. !
You say that like Jesus Lopez is something. The guy can’t hit at low class A. He is likely minor league filler until the Jays decide to release him or he retires.
Huh. ?
Where did I lose you?
Hiflew it’s probably because the sarcasm completely escaped you. Don’t know how you took that one literally.
Why are the Jay’s giving away these veterans (subsidizing their salaries by 80% or more or outright release) for minimal returns? What genius stroke am I missing?
The genius stroke where they want to play their young players and don’t want these underwater deals clogging that up in a non competitive year.
Martin, Molasses and TooLow had little to nothing to offer the Jays going forward. Youth ABs and playing experience worth more. Jays saved 2M.
2 mil and the roster spot immediately. If you traded him in July you would’ve already paid more than half his salary anyway. You would’ve also had to hope he was productive/not injured by then for someone to want him and I think you still would’ve had to eat about the same amount. This was the best case scenario.
Rowdy sign out of high school in the 30th round? What!!??
850K to sign. I don’t think he gives a rats a$s when he was selected.
Kendrys was a heck of a player until that unfortunate leg fracture while playing for the Angels. He was never the same afterwards. Hopefully, he can help the A’s while Olson is out. Still, I don’t see the merit of this transaction as Oakland already has Pinder, Barreto, Profar at al. Plenty of choices…
If they are covering more then 10mil I love this deal
Jays saved 2M. If KM can hold fort, hood for both.
They add a switch hitting power threat five days ahead of the Red Sox series. I like it. Hopefully Kendrys helps the As steal a win or two.
Go As. Everyone needs to put in some effort and keep the Red Sox at 100 wins or so this year. Do that, and they’re in the WC game.
Jays are in for a long year
I like that morales was going to (in your opinion marner) was going to push the jays into the post season. Maybe you are Bautista with Fake account ?
i dont see where Marner stated that Morales was going to push them into the postseason? he only implied that the Jays are in for a sucky year
And? They’re in a rebuild and just saved money, traded a bad contract for a prospect and international cash, and cleared a roster spot. How can anyone ask for more right now?
I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call Lopez a “prospect.” He’s struggling to hit in low A ball and not in Oakland’s top 30. I think “random name” fits him far more than “prospect.”
Is there a couple more teams out there we could pay to have our guys play for them!
How much $$$$ are the Jays eating this year between Tulo, Martin & Morales?
Too many but you can’t unsign them and they have a glut of young players battling for spots. Tulo is the only move that was unnecessary. I think they could’ve gotten someone to eat some of that money rather than just outright releasing him.
Proof positive all owners have unlimited money and they’re just making it up when they say they “cant afford” anyone.
That’s an idiotic comment. The blue jays have 115 million on their payroll. That’s 35 MM less than last year. This isn’t proof of anything other than that they want to play their young players. Nobody was questioning if the jays could pay a 115MM payroll.
Spending doesn’t equal winning. Spending usually means you have expensive often injured older players. 714 mil dollars was spent on players on the DL last year. Tells me teams should cut free agent spending in half and play their prospects who are younger make less and are probably better. Once those guys reach free agency let them go and repeat the process. That’s what good teams do.
Strikefour is mad teams have figured out spending is the best way to lose after years of him sounding unintelligent advocating for more spending among all teams
The trade opens a spot for Vlad Guerrero who will soon become too fat to play 3B.
Read your posts, GaryHarris and you seem like a kind, no-nonsense guy. Respect that.
Anyway, think you’re way off. Maybe by years. I believe Vlad will be extreme clock manipulation case. Predicted 3 years, cuz that’s how long CBA has left, until it expires. Baseball is a business and anticipate this getting ugly, barring an extension which is premature, at this point.
You are asking a 19 year old to control his body type – this is stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
Anthony Alford has not earned the right to be on a major league roster. Would have carried 4 OFs to begin the year and let Tellez have a legitimate chance to play. Unlike Vlad, Tellez has learned to cut down on his weight believe it or not. Alford can’t solve AAA pitching and he’s actually not a good defensive OF. This is a poor decision. Alford needs at bats every single day in AAA.
Tony Gwynn would like a word with all you “he’s too fat” slanderers – who I’m sure are all very skinny little boys who cant hit their way out of a paper bag.
Gwynn was skinny in his mid-20’s. Base stealer. Good athlete.
Yeah tony Gwynn was 310 pounds playing point guard at San Diego state in college. Strikefour…
Vlad Guerrero identifies himself as skinny. You shall therefore see him as such!
240 lbs skinny when the guide says 200. Vlad Jr will be a first base before long. Bank on it.
Absolutely Vlad will move. August of this year potentially. Will open a spot for Kevin Smith down the road. Or Groshans in 3 years.
Decent stick but there’s a lot of first base capable players out there that could’ve been had. Throwing to a guy you don’t trust isn’t the best thing for an infielder, have to make good throws.
I didn’t think any team wanted morales to play the field more than once or twice a month at this point. That’s essentially all he’s done for the past 5 seasons. But if they feel he’s no worse than profar over there than I guess that’s that. It’s certainly not a back breaking sum of money to give him a shot. There were a lot of cheap 1B options this offseason but they all found a home and the A’s obviously weren’t in the market. I don’t think many of them are available in a trade right now.
The international bonus allotment is key here. Has anyone seen any article stating how much Toronto received? Clearly TO had an international strategy after the Bal/Dwight Smith for International bonus trade.
They’re probably going to make a play at Yolbert Sanchez. He’s the last substantial prospect remaining. Personally as an orioles fan I think I would rather have Dwight Smith. He may be nothing as well but Sanchez doesn’t profile to be anymore than Jose iglesias at his ceiling. That’s my best guess. The jays have MI prospects in their system though so maybe they like someone else or are maybe looking at a guy who hasn’t opened himself up for this signing period yet.
Updated to say $1 million. That’s a pretty sizable amount. Good on Toronto for wanting to spend big on international free agents.
Smart move! Congrats for Tellez, Jays need the bat! and Alford will go back AAA soon…
Great to see Robbie Grossman’s sensational defensive play as the A’s starting left fielder. The best thing that happened to Robbie Grossman was getting out of Minnesota!