The Trade
With the baseball lockout coming to an end after months of talks not being able to reach an agreement, The Toronto Blue Jays wasted no time to make moves during free agency as spring training starts. One of the moves that they made was a massive trade with the Oakland A’s, as the A’s would be trading Gold Glove Third Baseman Matt Chapman to Toronto for prospects! With Toronto deciding to make this trade and send most of there top prospects to Oakland just shows Toronto is going all in with there young powerful squad. Adding Matt Chapman just shows Toronto isn’t a team that wants to contend and be in the playoffs, they want to go all in and show they can be the top dogs in the American League East and the American League, not just the team up north in Canada.
About Matt Chapman
So who is Toronto really getting in Matt Chapman? Oh it’s easy they’re getting an All-Star Third Baseman along with 3x Gold Glove, 2x Platinum Glove winner also has outstanding range that can throw from any body angle to get an out! But that is really his defense, Let’s talk about his hitting which is in my opinion his best part of his game. In 2017, when he debuted in just 290 at-bats he hit 14 home runs and batted .234. For some people to look at that they would say that isn’t all too good but I would disagree, because for someone thats not used to the top level where the pitchers are even harder your going to hit the rookie wall. In the following season 2018, he showed up and made a name for himself hitting 24 home runs with a batting average of .278 with a slugging percentage of .508 and an OPS of .864. Along with making a name for himself in his second year he finished 7th in the MVP voting and won a Gold Glove. In 2019, he hit 36 home runs showing he doesn’t have one of the best third base gloves but he can go yard, even though his average fell to .249 hitting 36 home runs is very impressive. Then in 2021, he slowed down a little with 27 home runs and had a batting average of .210 which isn’t too great but if you see the team he had in Oakland the past year he wasn’t the full reason his batting average fell.
Blue Jays Lineup
What does this mean for the Blue Jays Lineup, simple they have a top 2 offensive lineups in the American League. So lets take a look at it, at first you got Vladimir Guerrero Jr who hit 48 home runs and finished 2nd in the MVP (lost to Ohtani) and is one of the best players in the game. Along with Vlad Jr. you got the young gun shortstop Bo Bichette who hit 29 home runs last year. Then last off-season you signed former World Series MVP in George Springer (6yr 150mil) along with many more.
Where do the Blue Jays stand in the American League?
With Acquiring Chapman and now seeing what he means to this already power house of a lineup, where do the Blue Jays stand in the American League? Simple they are a top 1-3 team in the American League, that has a great pitching rotation to go with this offense. Remember they were just 2 games back of the last wild card spot last year.
Final Thoughts
When acquiring a guy like Chapman and having a stacked team your expectations for winning a World Series is immediately skyrocketing. That means you should be contending this year just like 2015 with the team that had Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitski, and Josh Donaldson. With expectations like this not just everyone in Canada will be looking at you but even America.
