Roki Sasaki’s free agency will always be remembered as if no team but the Los Angeles Dodgers had a chance, but there was one little window on Friday where it seemed like the Toronto Blue Jays were up to something.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, the Blue Jays announced they had acquired Cleveland Guardians outfield Myles Straw, cash and international bonus pool money in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
On its face, the trade made little sense. Straw is one of those players who essentially has negative value. The 30-year-old is a brilliant fielder, but an anemic bat has kept him from becoming an MLB regular, to the point he spent all of last season at Triple-A, where he posted a .651 OPS. And because of an ill-advised five-year deal the Guardians gave him, he’s still owed $13.8 million, plus the money it takes to buy out his club options for 2026 and 2027.
The Guardians at least sent $3.75 million to help offset Straw’s deal, but that still meant the Blue Jays were still agreeing to pay $11 million for a no-bat, all-glove player, a player type of which they already had plenty.
The only way it could possibly make sense was if the $2 million the Jays acquired would be put to use. Namely by sweetening the pot for Sasaki, who was bound by international free agent rules to receive a bonus representing a fraction of his true value. The trade expanded the Jays’ international pool to roughly $8.3 million.
No one knew anything for sure outside Sasaki’s camp (and perhaps the Dodgers front office, if some people are to be believed), but one theory worked out like this:
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The Blue Jays executed a trade that made no sense without Sasaki.
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The Blue Jays wouldn’t make a trade like that without having a deal with Sasaki.
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The Blue Jays must have a deal brewing with Sasaki.
That would have made sense, if the Blue Jays operated like a normal team. Instead, Sasaki announced he was signing with the Dodgers hours later, leaving a massive question of what exactly Toronto was doing.
On Saturday, The Athletic answered that question by reporting that the Blue Jays made the trade with no go-ahead from Sasaki. Instead, they “seemed determined to prove to Sasaki they were willing to do everything possible to land him” after sensing the Dodgers were the favorites.
Rival executives did not think highly of how the team pulled it off:
It was a dubious strategy, especially without a deal in place, prompting one rival executive to say, “My phone has been blowing up all day with ‘wtf Jays.’”…