Boy, the Cardinals got fleeced on those Grichuk and Diaz deals

The Blue Jays made a few buy-low moves last winter, acquiring Randal Grichuk and Aledmys Diaz from the St. Louis Cardinals in two separate deals. It’s safe to say these deals worked out better for Toronto than they did for St. Louis.

First, the Jays sent former second-round pick J.B. Woodman to the Cards for Diaz. After that, they sent breakout reliever Dominic Leone and high-upside pitching prospect Conner Greene to St. Louis for Grichuk. The only one left in the Cardinals organization, one year later, is Leone.

Woodman was released by the Cardinals half way through the season after slashing a .246/.318/.373 line and Greene was designated for assignment today as the Cardinals shuffle their 40-man roster to navigate the Rule 5 draft.

The Jays managed to turn two essentially non-prospects and a reliever who would go on to post a 4.50 ERA in 24 innings into three years of Grichuk, one of Diaz, and, after the deal with Houston, six years of Trent Thornton. The front office gets a lot of shit for things like the Kendrys Morales contract and going half-in, half-out the past couple seasons, but they’ve made some smart, shrewd moves to add depth and value to the organization.

I hope we see some more Grichuk and Diaz style buy-low moves this off-season.