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Revisiting the Teoscar Hernández trade that brought Adam Macko to the Blue Jays
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Photo credit: © Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
May 20, 2026, 17:45 EDTUpdated: May 20, 2026, 17:20 EDT
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After parts of four seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor league system, Adam Macko is finally a big leaguer.
In two outings against the New York Yankees, the Slovak-born left-handed pitcher has given up one hit against the six batters he’s faced, giving him a 0 ERA and 1.91 FIP over an inning and two-thirds.
And it’s not like these were low-leverage situations either. His debut, on Monday, saw him enter the game with the Blue Jays up 5-3 with a runner on first with two outs. The lefty generated a ground out to get out of the inning, then got the first two outs of the next inning before the Jays took him out and blew the lead.
Macko entered Tuesday’s game with the Blue Jays trailing 5-3, striking out Jazz Chisholm Jr. for his first big league strikeout. After allowing a single, Macko got a pop out and was replaced, with that runner being stranded on the base.
Although Macko attended Vauxhall Academy in Alberta, it was actually the Seattle Mariners that selected the left-handed pitcher in the 2019 draft. After parts of four seasons in the organization, where he was often injured, the Mariners sent Macko and big league reliever Erik Swanson to the Blue Jays for Teoscar Henández.
It doesn’t sound like a great trade, and the Jays probably should have kept the fan-favourite outfielder in hindsight, given that he’s now won back-to-back World Series. That said, Hernández didn’t have a great season with the Mariners, slashing .258/.305/.436 with 26 home runs in 678 plate appearances, with a 5.6 BB% and 31.1 K%. It was one of, if not, the worst full season he’s had in the big leagues.
On the other hand, Swanson had a good 2023 season. Serving as the Blue Jays’ setup man, the right-handed pitcher finished the season with a 2.97 ERA and 3.51 FIP in 66.2 innings pitched. Unfortunately, Swanson’s career derailed from there, beginning the 2024 season on the injured list before struggling mightily and ending up being optioned. 
There was some hope he could turn it around, as he pitched well over the final two months of the season, but Swanson was released after just six outings in 2025 and retired following the end of the season.
That leaves Macko as the only player remaining from the trade, as Hernández signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers following the 2024 season. It also keeps one of the best trade trees in franchise history alive.
In his first season at the helm of the Jays, 2016, Ross Atkins sent Drew Hutchison to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Francisco Liriano, Harold Ramírez, and Reese McGuire. Not only was Liriano an important starter down the stretch, but both Ramírez and McGuire were top prospects in the Pirates at the time of the trade.
Ramírez and McGuire both went on to become big leaguers, Ramírez elsewhere and McGuire with the Jays before they traded him to the Chicago White Sox for Zack Collins. As for Liriano, he finished the 2016 season with the Jays and had a 2.92 ERA in 49.1 innings pitched.
He didn’t find the same success with the Jays in 2017, posting a 5.88 ERA and 4.73 FIP in 82.2 innings pitched, but they were able to trade him to the Houston Astros for Nori Aoki and Hernández. And as you know, Hernández had some darn good seasons with the Blue Jays before the trade that brough Macko to Toronto.
We’ll see how Macko performs, because the potential is there to be an important left-handed pitcher out of the bullpen.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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