Quick hit: roster management

Handful of minor but interesting moves lately, my thoughts:

Adam Loewen
I won't repeat Alex's explanation of the mechanics of the deal, if you pay close enough attention to read this blog you surely know. I still hold out hope he'll be back, not just for the story but also because I see him being a valuable reserve OF/1B at a minimum. Still, he has to have cleaner path's to a major league starting role. In particular, I suggest that the mariners would be a good fit. Besides being a "hometown" team of sorts, there's a LF job crying out to be filled.

Jesse Carlson
Recovering from shoulder surgery, and by no means a high-enough ceiling guy originally for anyone to be optimistic about his coming back solid. But I'd have no objection to giving him another whirl.

Trystan Magnuson
Re-acquired from the A's for cash, Magnuson continues to put up impressive numbers in the minors (albeit his control slipped this year) and in a small sample in the majors, was not ugly - in fact, take away one terrible appearance v. the Twins and his ERA otherwise was 2.86 - but in less than 13 IP. We'll see where he ranks in terms of being a candidate for the last job in the 'pen alongside Danny Farquhar, Chad Beck (who still hasn't been scored on in the AFL by the way) and...

Jesse Chavez
Also pitching well in the AFL, but has so far been unable to consistently turn good minor league work into  major league success. I think there's a solid possibility that the Jays will, at some point, try to sneak both Magnuson and Chavez off the 40 man roster, but either would be tempting in the Rule 5 draft so maybe not.

John McDonald
Presumed to return to Toronto this off-season, he re-signed with Arizona on a two year deal. No big thing, he's an NL kind of guy anyway. I trust that, despite the speculation of some fans, the Blue Jays will make every effort to have someone better than Mike McCoy in that role next year. I like Jerry Hairston, Jr for instance.


In other news, the annual exit of over two dozen minor league free agents occurred yesterday.  Besides Loewen and Carlson, other guys who are free to leave who you may have heard good things about over the years include Reider Gonzalez, Yohan Pino (who pitched very well standing in for Deck McGuire in August) Sean Henn (who did surprisingly well in relief for Vegas) and veteran major league pitchers Chad Gaudin and Kyle Davies, both of whom would surely be welcomed to re-sign. Baseball America has the complete list.

In still other news, there was a report this week that Atlanta seems willing to take offers on Martin Prado. , other than the idea of trying a gamble on Gordon Beckham if the White Sox give up on him, I don't think I've heard of a potential 2B candidate for the jays that i like better. On his career, he's pretty much equal in value to Johnson, and more consistent. If you can get Prado for something you value less than the 2 draft picks you can get for Johnson, then he's a better choice. But I have no idea how high the price might get.

All for now. Transmission ends.