Jays trade Kendrys Morales to the A’s

Transactions, lovely transactions. On Opening Day Eve, the Toronto Blue Jays have traded Kendrys Morales to the Oakland Athletics for an infielder prospect and international bonus pool money.

Along with the 35-year-old batter, the Jays are going to be paying $10-million of the final $12-million owed to Morales. He only has one year left on his contract.

For the two years he was with the Jays, Morales slashed .249/.318/.442, hitting 49 home runs and batting in 142 runs in a total of 970 at-bats.

Coming the other way is 22-year-old infielder Jesus Lopez. In 2018, he was playing single-A for the Beloit Snappers and slashed .239/.293/.402. He was able to hit 10 home runs but he also only walked 18 times while striking out a total of 56. He posted a 96 wRC+, ninth on the Snappers.

According to Kevin Pillar and others, Morales really provided some mentorship to some young players within the Jays organization, most notably Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Vlad.

The resulting transaction because of this trade sees outfielder Anthony Alford being recalled after he was cut just over a week ago. Held back by ongoing injury troubles, the 24-year-old will now hopefully see some regular time at the big league level — totaling only 29 plate appearances over 17 games in the last two seasons.

This has now created a projected very flexible DH spot for this current lineup. It makes sense to start out Teoscar Hernandez there, but Montoyo might like to see him get a regular spot in the outfield. Without Morales, a whole rotation of players — McKinney, Hernandez, Drury, even Gurriel — could see some time as the DH.

We shall see tomorrow on Opening Day.