Mike Wilner: The Gabriel Moreno trade looks great for the Diamondbacks. Here’s how it could still be a win for the Blue Jays

22 comments

  1. Varsho for Moreno is to the Jays what Mark Langston for Randy Johnson was to the ‘89 Expos: a win now move that made intellectual sense at the time, and turned into a horrific oversight faster than anyone anticipated

  2. This is a sad state of affairs from Toronto media.

    Just let it go, Toronto lost the trade. It was meant to be a win now for Toronto, Diamondbacks down the road and it went the opposite.

    Now the media is trying to move the goalposts.

  5. I remember seeing articles like this in 2016. Here’s how Hillary can still win the election. This trade looks bad right now. Varsho is a good centre fielder, a position that the Jays would desperately need if they didn’t make the trade. I would love for someone that wants to redo the trade to put on their gm hat and find Toronto a centre fielder. What would your answer be?

  7. Can we at least wait until 2 or 3 years into the 4-year deal before everyone calls it a lost trade? Hasn’t this fanbase learned enough after screaming to ship out lost-cause players who turned it around after a year or within a year? Bichette, Romano, Berrios, Kikuchi, Belt, Biggio, etc etc.

    Moreno will probably be a good catcher if he can avoid injury or a fall-off like so many have after a good start. He had a pretty good season, but this is all magnified in the minds of our fans because:

    * Moreno had a good postseason (including HR numbers that were way beyond his regular season). We’ll see if he can keep up that production in the coming years.
    * Varsho struggled at the plate mightily until he found a bit of a fix with his toe tap. I expect he can easily get his OPS up and hit the number of HRs we’d expect in the coming seasons, while also producing even higher WAR numbers in his natural CF spot.
    * Jano, who was hitting the absolute shit out of the ball, succumbed to a freak injury and we lost him for a long chunk of time. If he can stay healthy (always a challenge with him), you won’t miss Moreno as much.
    * Kirk came into the year late and out of shape, and struggled to come close to this numbers at the plate that he showed capable of previously. If he can turn it back around and produce at expected levels, you won’t miss Moreno as much.

  8. If Varsho can hit >.240 with 25-30 HRs and 70+ RBIs next season as a CF then this trade will be fine. I don’t have much confidence in Kirk as a hitter anymore tbh but Jansen can step up if he stays healthy. Otherwise this was a bad trade for a glorified platoon bat

  9. I didn’t read the article, but I don’t have to. Varsho and Moreno had similar WAR for the regular season. We needed a (preferably left-hand hitting) OF to improve our defense and still provide pop after trading Teo. We still hope to see better with the bat from Varsho. The trade is way too early to call. Varsho under control until 2027.

    We already had 2 young, above avg. catchers. If they could’ve traded Jansen or Kirk for Varsho I’m sure they would have. Please shut up about this until at least 2025.

  10. Lol, we traded a perennial star catcher for a guy who has to try and bunt for singles and has a great glove, this wasn’t a win when the trade was made and it won’t be in the future.

  12. This still looks like win-win to me. Moreno wouldn’t even have been on the Jays this year until Danny got hurt. He has blossomed with Arizona, and good for him.
    Meanwhile Varsho has been great in the field and has hitting issues are the whole team’s hitting issues. His ceiling is higher than Moreno’s, he just needs help to reach it.

    Revamp the hitting coaching team. Not just for Varsho, but for the whole team.

  14. We weren’t keeping either of those guys. They were the traceable assets. Hopefully what we got back works out but being upset to see them performing elsewhere feels silly. They were going one way or the other.

  18. Wilner is the biggest Jays apologist. If he doesn’t have a romantic relationship with Shatkins I’d be shocked.

  19. I think a lot of people are watching the playoffs right now and seeing Texas and Philly just hit the shit out of the ball and beat people by hitting HR after HR, and are thinking “Forget all this defense and slap hitting shit from 2023; I want to go back to having mashers on our team!”

    And to those people…congratulations! Moreno is a slap hitter with good defense, and Varsho is a legitimate HR threat.

  21. You can win and lose in player acquisitions. Look no further than Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. They both struggled mightily until they came to Toronto. And even then it took a few years before they hit their stride. You can’t judge these things after just one year.

  22. It was a fine trade.

    Jays are a little behind on it but it wasn’t the most horrific trade in the history of sports or anything lol

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