Blue Jays land Price in Toronto’s 2nd big trade of week

Toronto made a big splash earlier this week by swapping shortstops with the Colorado Rockies, sending them Jose Reyes for Troy Tulowitzki, who promptly homered in his first at-bat for the offensively loaded Blue Jays on Wednesday. As I’ve said before – knowing it is not popular or a majority feeling – I’m good to go with what we have. Labourt is 2-7 with a 4.59 ERA this season with Single-A Dunedin. Toronto is two games back of Minnesota, which holds second American League wild-card spot.

Price is the third ace to be moved in recent days, joining Cole Hamels (from the Philadelphia Phillies to Texas Rangers) and Johnny Cueto (from the Cincinnati Reds to the Kansas City Royals).

In landing Price, Anthopoulos may have provided the final piece of the puzzle, a true “ace” that can sit atop the rotation. The Blue Jays gave up left-handers Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd, and Jairo Labourt to get him after the Rays received Drew Smyly, Willy Adames, and Nick Franklin. Norris is a guy to keep an eye on in all fantasy leagues, but I would avoid his first start against Baltimore.

Price, 30 next month, said it was “very tough” to leave the Rays after being with them his whole career, and the most hard thing about being traded in season is learning new teammates and staff.

Having not made it to the Major League Baseball postseason since 1993, it isn’t too surprising that the Toronto Blue Jays worked so hard to add a starter with a 2.53 ERA this season. In 2009, he became a full time starting pitcher and was named the American League starter for the 2010 All-Star Game in his second full season. Though Tulowitzki is under contract through 2020, Price is an impending free agent and there is no telling if Toronto will be able to keep him when he hits the market this winter.

The Toronto Blue Jays haven’t just dove into the trading pool this year.

“When he told me I was (like) “You’re screwing with me”, Gibbons said. He was #10 on MLB.com’s midseason Blue Jays prospect list. In fact, the addition of Price has increased the Blue Jays’ odds of making the playoffs from 41% to 48%, according to our metrics. At this point, anything Anthopoulos does wouldn’t come as a surprise as nobody saw these two trades coming (especially with the Dodgers reportedly going hard after Price).

The Dodgers acquired righthander Mat Latos from the Marlins and lefthander Alex Wood from the Braves, two pitchers who can move right into the rotation behind aces Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.

“He would be great here”, Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia said, according to the New York Post.