How Did The Championship Jays Break Up?

Thursday, January 06 2011 @ 01:17 PM EST

Contributed by: John Northey

A good question was asked in the Roberto Alomar HOF thread about what the Jays got for their stars back in the 1992-1995 period when the super team was taken apart. Good ol' Baseball Reference has a full list of transactions and draft picks so we can check and feel sad about how little was gained for so much.

Note: I'm skipping moves made during 1992/1993 and most minor moves as they had nothing to do with dismantling the great teams.

1992...
This lists who was lost between the end of the 1992 season and the start of 1993 and who the Jays got for them.
Traded: Kelly Gruber for Luis Sojo, Derek Bell for Darrin Jackson
Released: David Wells (he only had 192 wins left in him with a 108 ERA+)
Free agency losses: Tom Henke, Jimmy Key, Dave Stieb, David Cone, Dave Winfield, Manny Lee

Draft picks made for above free agents (made in 1993)...
For Henke: Chris Carpenter (a very good pick), Jeremy Lee
For Cone: Matt Farner, Anthony Medrano
For Jimmy Key: Mark Lukasiewicz, Mike Romano
For Manuel Lee: Ryan Jones

1993...
Traded: Domingo Martinez for Mike Huff
Released: Jack Morris
Free agency losses: Luis Sojo, Alfredo Griffin, Rickey Henderson, Tony Fernandez, Mark Eichhorn

Draft picks made for above free agents (made in 1994)...
None (!) No pick for losing Henderson or Fernandez.

1994...
Traded: Eddie Zosky (SS of the future)
Released: no one worth noting
Free agency losses: Todd Stottlemyre, Dave Stewart, Pat Borders, Dick Schofield,

Draft picks made for above free agents (made in 1995)...
None - bit surprised again as I thought Stottlemyre and Borders (due to playing time) would've been worth something.

1995...
Traded: David Cone for Marty Janzen plus 2 minor leaguers, Candy Maldonado for nothing.
Released:
Free agency losses: Roberto Alomar, Devon White, Duane Ward, Paul Molitor, Al Leiter,

Draft picks made for above free agents (made in 1996)...
For Roberto Alomar: Joe Lawrence, Pete Tucci
For Devon White: Brent Abernathy Clayton Andrews

Other Regulars in 1992/1993....
Tony Castillo: traded during the 1996 season with Domingo Cedeno for Allen Halley and Luis Andujar
John Olerud: traded (with cash) for Robert Person after the 1996 season
Mike Timlin: traded during the 1997 season with Paul Spoljaric for Jose Cruz Jr.
Joe Carter: free agent post 1997 season, no compensation
Juan Guzman: traded during the 1998 season for Shannon Carter and Nerio Rodriguez
Ed Sprague: traded during the 1998 season for a career minor leaguer
Woody Williams: traded after the 1998 season for Joey Hamilton
Pat Hentgen: traded after the 1999 season with Paul Spoljaric for Alberto Castillo, Matt DeWitt and Lance Painter

For all those stars the Jays got 11 draft picks (produced Chris Carpenter and a few guys who did nothing much in the majors), Luis Sojo, Darrin Jackson, Mike Huff, Marty Janzen, Robert Person, Jose Cruz Jr., Joey Hamilton, Alberto Castillo, and Lance Painter (plus assorted minor leaguers).

Out of all of those only Carpenter and Cruz Jr had any significant impact. Thus we lost productive years of Jimmy Key, Tom Henke, John Olerud, Mike Timlin, Woody Williams, David Cone and others for Carpenter (pre-Cy Young) and Jose Cruz Jr. Ugh. Gillick and Ash had the opportunity to get significant talent for those guys over those years which could've rebuilt the franchise and had it ready for around 1998 to be contending for another decade but instead... sigh.

If anyone feels differently, that some of those trades/draft picks/choices made sense or couldn't have been better then lets hear it. I still remember seeing Key in 1992 looking so sad as he knew the Jays wouldn't resign him (he got about $17 mil for 4 years), yet they blew $8.5 over 2 on Stewart instead (same per year rate for ages 36/37 vs Key's 32-35). I guess the 2 rings were worth it, but geez were there some odd choices made back then as Gillick was 'retiring' and Ash taking over.

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