Jays Making Moves

     With the Toronto Blue Jays set to acquire a plethora of talented players, the American League East just go a whole lot harder. Sources say that the Miami Marlins and Blue Jays are on the verge of agreeing on a blockbuster trade. The Marlins will send half their team to the Jays for some young guns relieving the Marlins of contracts that just have not worked out for them. The Blue Jays are set to acquire former Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, former White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle, catcher John Buck, injury prone ace Josh Johnson, and super sub Emilio Bonifacio. The Blue Jays are sending shortstop Yunel Escobar, right-hander Henderson Alvarez, catcher Jeff Mathis and prospects Jake Marisnick (OF), Adeiny Hechavarria (SS), Justin Nicolino (LHP) and Anthony DeSclafani (RHP). The Blue Jays did not have to sacrifice top prospects Kyle Drabeck and catcher Travis d’Arnaud.

     This is scary for the rest of this division as the Blue Jays, barring injuries, have leap frogged to the top of the division. The Blue Jays have fortified their rotation with Buerhle and Johnson combining with Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow to form one of the top rotations in the game. This can only happening if Romero gets back to his 2011 form when he was an all-star pitcher and only if Johnson can stay healthy which has been a problem for him in the past couple years.     

     With that said, a lineup that ranked in the top ten last year, just got better. Jose Reyes is not the player he was two years ago but everyone knows how talented he is and he can hit well over .300 every season. Bonifacio will join Reyes at the top of the order to go with Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Brett Lawrie, and Colby Rasmus. This team will be very dangerous and they did not ruin their future either.

     The question becomes will the Blue Jays live up to high expectations? I still see them finishing fourth because they have so many injury prone players and guys who might not adjust well to the American League East (Josh Johnson). However, the Yankees, Orioles, and Rays all have tons of questions that need to be answered this offseason and I would not be surprised if the Blue Jays win the division next year. Everything must fall their way in order for them to do so but there is still a long offseason ahead with teams just beginning to make moves.

     This is a monster move for the Jays, as they will finally become relevant and dangerous again in now an even better AL East. With the Yankees, Rays, Orioles and Red Sox all expected to make a ton of moves, next season sure is shaping up to be something special.