Heading North: Tigers trade David Price to Blue Jays

by
Raj Mehta / USA TODAY Sports

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The Toronto Blue Jays traded away part of their future Thursday for a two-month rental.

That's how confident Alex Anthopoulos is in the impact of left-handed ace David Price.

The Blue Jays general manager pulled off his second monumental trade this week, acquiring Price from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for a package of prospects that includes highly touted left-hander Daniel Norris. Detroit will also receive minor-league pitchers Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt in the deal.

Price is expected to join the team this weekend and could make his Blue Jays debut as early as Sunday against the Kansas City Royals.

"We feel we added a No. 1 starter," Anthopoulos said Thursday. "Getting a guy like Price, those guys can make you a great team all by themselves."

The acquisition of Price is a major coup for a club that just days ago landed superstar shortstop Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies in a blockbuster six-player trade.

"(Price) is a winner," Anthopoulos said. "He fits what we are trying to do from a character standpoint."

A former Cy Young winner, Price bolsters a thin starting rotation and complements the league's highest-scoring offense. Toronto entered Thursday seven games back of the New York Yankees in the American League East, but just two games out of the second wild-card spot.

Toronto will reportedly absorb the roughly $8 million in salary that remains on Price's contract this season. The five-time All-Star is set to become a free agent this winter for the first time in his career.

"I still prefer to acquire players with control. We're always looking to get players with control, " Anthopoulos said. "The unfortunate part is David Price only has the remainder of the year under our control. That doesn't mean you walk away from him."

Price, 29, is in the midst of another impressive campaign, crafting a personal-best 2.53 ERA with 138 strikeouts in 21 starts. The stunning deal reunites Price with the AL East, where he spent parts of seven seasons pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Acquired by the Tigers in a three-team trade at last season's deadline, Price is coming off a career-high 248 1/3 innings with a league-leading 271 strikeouts in 2014.

The Digest

Complete guide to the David Price trade

by theScore Staff
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off their second blockbuster trade of the week Thursday, acquiring ace David Price from the Detroit Tigers for a trio of left-handed pitching prospects.

Top-rated Blue Jays prospect Daniel Norris is among the three players headed to Detroit, along with Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt.

Blue Jays acquire David Price from Tigers in blockbuster trade

Blue Jays Reaction

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said that he and Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski haggled over the third player in the deal for almost five hours before reaching an agreement at 3 a.m. Thursday morning. In the end, the Blue Jays finally landed their long-pursued ace.

Blue Jays GM on adding Price: We haven't had a true No. 1 since Halladay

Blue Jays players took to Twitter to welcome Price to the organization, and hurler Marcus Stroman was scorned by a professor at Duke University for his reaction to the news during class.

Bautista, Donaldson, Stroman react to Blue Jays' acquisition

Tigers reaction

Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski insists the club is not going into a full rebuild mode after dealing the ace, and is happy with his return in the deal.

Tigers' Dombrowski on Price trade: 'We're rebooting, not rebuilding

Opinion

The acquisition of Price followed Monday's six-player deal with the Colorado Rockies that landed the Blue Jays All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, elevating Toronto's contender status in what's become a wide-open wild-card race in the American League.

3 reasons why David Price makes the Blue Jays a World Series contender

Speaking of odds

Las Vegas reacted quickly to news that the Blue Jays had landed the coveted ace from Detroit, upping the club's chances of winning the World Series dramatically after news of the reported deal broke.

Blue Jays' World Series odds get big bump with Price, Tulowitzki

Rivals speak out

Several Blue Jays players, including Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson, have already weighed in on the trade, but perhaps no reaction was better than Price's former teammate Chris Archer.

Rays' Archer says Blue Jays are 'all in' on postseason after Price trade

Further reading

FanGraphs' Chris Mitchell looks at the prospects the Tigers obtained in the deal, and whether their future impact balances out the loss of the club's top pitcher:

The centerpiece of the players headed to Detroit is easily Daniel Norris, who was widely considered to be one of the top-20 prospects in baseball heading into the year. Norris enjoyed a meteoric rise through the Blue Jays farm system in 2014. After 13 dominant starts at High-A, the Blue Jays bumped him up to Double-A for eight starts, and then Triple-A for four starts, before giving him a taste of the big leagues last September. Norris pitched to a 2.53 ERA and 2.57 FIP in the minors in 2014.

Ben Lindbergh of Grantland says Anthopoulos landed the ace his team needed, but wonders at what cost?

This is the sort of situation in which we wonder about moral hazard, the conflict between the short-term incentives of a GM who’d prefer to stay employed and the long-term incentives of his organization, which would prefer to play competitive baseball long after its current regime moves on. Anthopoulos, who took over Toronto’s GM job in October 2009, has expended enough currency — both in prospects and in loonies and toonies — without a playoff appearance that he’s probably one more October absence away from being an ex-GM.

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