Done Deal

Tuesday, January 15 2008 @ 08:33 AM EST

Glaus for Rolen is official. The formal announcment will be today.

A few opinions on the deal:

• Rob Neyer: Glaus gets slight edges in hitting and durability, Rolen the big edge on defense. They cost roughly the same per season, but Glaus' shorter contract leaves the Cardinals with more flexibility down the line. I like this deal for the Cardinals
• Transaction Oracle (Dan Szymborksi): Rolen's a bit better when completely healthy but also has the lower chance of being completely healthy. I think the risk/reward scenarios actually work out pretty well for both teams - the Blue Jays are against very tough competition and have some heavy groundballers, so they want the more fielding oriented guy with the biggest payoff, since they're not going to slip into the playoffs with 88 wins anytime soon and the Cardinals, against rather weak competition, would rather have the safer bet.
• Baseball Prospectus (Will Carroll): The deal comes down to whether or not the medical staffs on both sides have not only properly assessed both their new player, but also their own abilities.
• Buster Olney:  Troy Glaus told J.P. Ricciardi he wanted to be traded months and months ago, after growing a serious distaste for playing on the artificial surface in Toronto. But Ricciardi committed to nothing, telling Glaus that he wasn't going to simply give him away; he had to get a good package in return.  And that's exactly what Ricciardi feels the Jays got in Scott Rolen, who is better defensively than Glaus, and who always hit well before having shoulder surgery. The medical staff which examined Rolen told Ricciardi that Rolen's shoulder should be fine, and that he will hit again.

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