Mike Aviles for David Carpenter and John Farrell. Does this trade make the Jays better off?
| Meh. They got a barely-above-replacement-level IF for a manager. |  60 (33.90%) |
| Yes. Replacement?! Aviles' performance will justify this trade by itself. | 34 (19.21%) |
| Yes. Addition by subtraction; I don't expect the players to do much. | 43 (24.29%) |
| No. Farrell is too good to justify trading for so little, to a division rival no less. | 2 (1.13%) |
| No. We have enough .280 OBP bats and I dread the prospect of wasting PAs on Aviles, and/or Carpenter will be good | 16 (9.04%) |
| Yes for other reason | 12 (6.78%) |
| No for other reason | 1 (0.56%) |
| Meh for other reason | 9 (5.08%) |
He has a lot of ML experience. So if an injury happens to our 2B, 3B or SS then he may be better than our 2011 & 2012 replacement. He played full time SS in the Majors so he can play full time 2B, 3b or SS here if needed.
This deal also means a Manager to be named later. While not a part of this deal, it could be the most important part.
Much like the "Lind rumor" this is not a rumor. Rather, it's one reporter speculating. Actually, more than one when it comes to Lovello but it's a pretty safe assumption that if he's not elevated to manage the Jays he'll be Farrell's bench coach.
but there's no reason to assume Butter will follow Farrell, they had no great history together before Farrell was hired here (as does Lovello) - and do we really CARE if Rivera moves on;/ (not that he has a personal history with Farrell either)
i see NO reason to assume Butter will follow Farrell and further, every reason to think he won't.
But to me, I hope that the Jays use this whole mess as cover to get Mottola into Murhpy's job - that alone might make the whole thing worthwhile ;)
Unlike others, I have no particular animosity towards Walton.
Given the general lack of advances made (and/or maintained) by players on this team the last 5-6 years, I'd have a hard time worrying about any coach leaving. I worry Mottola is even harder to evaluate than the players because of the Vegas issue. The Jays are a total afterthought organization now - a good caoching staff, whether bought from the outside or constructed from existing parts, would be a nice change.
I still find it hard to believe what a useless cipher Farrell turned out to be. Not much wonder he couldn't get his team to stop making basic mistakes, if he was too busy pining for Boston. Players aren't going to listen to a guy who seemingly had a foot out the door to a rival team - it's a more extreme version of a last-year contract manager. I wish nothing but the worst for Farrell in Boston. This was the equivalent of a player demanding a trade after signing a free agent contract. Glad the Jays got something for him at least. Aviles makes a useful roster member. He's an easy 2 wins better than Visquel, and a wash with Johnson (2012 version at least). Upgrades are good, even around the fringes.
It's worth noting that a lot of Mottola's star pupils (Snider, Thames, Hechavarria, Gose, Wallace) have yet to do much in the majors, while Lawrie could go either way in terms of offensive value.
Same with the pitching coach position. I'm not opposed to keeping Walton if the team thinks he's an exceptional coach. If they go in a different direction, I would rather not see a rookie coach hired.
It is possible that
1) Farrell had turned down a contract extention; or,
2) A.A. determined Farrell wasn't worth keeping; or,
3) none of the above.
Mike Aviles is a huge gain for this team. The Red Sox and the White Sox got basically prospects, a little better than David Carpenter. Aviles is an above average Major League Player capable of starting at SS or 2B or being an excellent Middle Infielder for the Bench. These guys are hard to find - we had Kelly Johnson and Omar Vizquel last year - Aviles is better.
Farrell was not rocking my world. I think we would have lost him at the end of the year. I would love to see a latino manager(ie. Alomar). I think it would be a good fit, especially considering that many of our best players are from latin america.
Getting Aviles gives us something better than Visquel\McCoy as a backup. Also if Escobar is traded, it gives us another option at 2nd(assuming Hech is playing SS).