Time to blame Canada…
Well, I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing day off, as the D-backs flew back East (and North), crossing the border to take on the Toronto Blue Jays. I know I did, having a date night with Mrs. S, which involved dinner and then going to see Ballerina. Holy hell, that was fun. Let’s just say, I am now looking into acquiring a flamethrower, for the purposes of home defense. #IYKYK But we are back on the baseball train this afternoon, and looking forward to seeing what the D-backs can do in parts foreign. Was going to write about us facing off against Daulton Varsho, but he hurt himself running the bases (#DesignatedRunnersNow!) and won’t be taking the field against his old team.
It’s still worth looking at the results of that trade, almost three years ago, when he went to Toronto in exchange for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno. Since then, he has been worth 6.1 fWAR/6.6 bWAR, which isn’t bad. However, Moreno has been worth 6.8 fWAR/7.5 bWAR, so that alone means the trade was a win for Arizona. Add in the first year of Gurriel’s time as a D-back – the rest came after he reached free agency, re-signing here – which was 1.9 fWAR/2.9 bWAR, and you get a total for Arizona of 8.7 fWAR/10.4 bWAR, making it definitely a good deal for the D-backs. Health has been a factor, Moreno missing some time, and Varsho having appeared in only 24 of Toronto’s last 86 games, dating back to last year.
But it is likely true to say that the teams were trading from positions of strength. Varsho was relatively low on the Arizona outfield chart which at the time also included Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy, Dominic Fletcher and Dominic Canzone. He was also another left-handed batter in a line-up more than heavy with them. Meanwhile Moreno was stuck behind Alejandro Kirk, seen as the long-term occupant behind the plate, and already an All-Star. Kirk is indeed now their everyday starter, and is doing pretty well. He has been worth 5.2 bWAR since the trade – so not far short of Moreno – and is batting .316 this year. It’s probably a rare trade that worked out well for both sides.