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Francisco Liriano Goes to Houston For Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez
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Photo credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Andrew Stoeten
Jul 31, 2017, 14:07 EDTUpdated: Jul 31, 2017, 15:04 EDT
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So this is turning into an interesting little deal. The details are still filtering out, but right now what we know is that the Blue Jays have traded Francisco Liriano to the Astros for 35-year-old outfielder Nori Aoki, plus a minor leaguer.
Why is that interesting? Because Aoki makes $5.5 million this season (about $1.8 million remains on the deal), and will be arbitration eligible in 2018. He’s far more likely a non-tender candidate than an actual candidate to play for the Jays next season, but Aoki has a chance (assuming he’s not immediately D’d FA) to play a little down the stretch for the Jays and maybe opens some eyes. He gives them a little bit of insurance for an outfield that will be in flux — and maybe he even gets tendered, with an eye to giving him a DFA in the spring and only paying one sixth of what his deal is. He has a .350 career on-base in the big leagues (he only arrived from Japan in 2012), and before this season was a perfectly slightly-below-average-ish player.
This year, however, he’s been merely replacement level, as his wRC+ has sunk to 87, and his defence has never really graded out well.
What’s more important about this is taking on that financial commitment. Aoki’s money balances out some of Liriano’s money going to Houston, so the Jays are indeed using some of their financial muscle here. Hopefully they’ll accommodate the Astros even more eating a bunch of money on Liriano’s contract, too — thus receiving a better “minor leaguer” in the deal.
There’s also this:

More importantly…

We now know the name of the prospect coming along with Aoki, and — holy piss — it’s a pretty decent one!
All of the main sites seem to have Hernandez as being a top 10 prospect in the Astros’ system (Baseball America ranked him eighth on their recent mid-season top 10), and we also have this:
Yep, Hernandez was in the big leagues already. In fact, he took 112 plate appearances in the majors last year, putting up a 93 wRC+. He was basically replacement level, but obviously the Jays see potential for more from the 24-year-old. This year he has slashed .279/.369/.485 in Fresno, and while there may be a little bit of PCL inflation to that, we don’t seem to quite worry about that stuff the way we used to (it’s really more about specific parks).
Hard not to like this trade for a team that will need a replacement for at least one corner outfielder next season — and especially the bit about him being able to play a little bit of centre in a pinch, albeit not very well. Gives them another nice young option in the mix — and a cheap one at that.
Not bad, Jays. Not bad at all.

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