We broke down the Toronto Blue Jays' lineup makeover a few weeks ago, and that looked promising. Now they're adding the pitching to go with it.
With the addition of reigning Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey in a big trade with the New York Mets, here's how their starting rotation looks: Dickey, Brandon Morrow, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Ricky Romero. Any of those five guys would be the ace of the Minnesota Twins or Houston Astros.
Going with a lineup now backed by Jose Bautista, Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera and Edwin Encarnacion, this is a team built to win now. And that's now the point as Toronto sees a window in which the aging New York Yankees and rebuilding Boston Red Sox can be beaten. That doesn't happen every year, and that's why prized prospects Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Snydergaard are now pieces that the New York Mets will build around.
As ESPN.com's Buster Olney wrote, it's not a trade for the faint-hearted.
"The value-for-value ledgers say that the Dickey deal doesn't make sense for Toronto. Baseball history shows that all-in bets usually don't pay off. If the Blue Jays' business plan fails, it's possible that the Blue Jays would regress into a Marlins-like sell-off in the next couple of years. (Maybe not all at once.)
"But the Blue Jays are going for it, in a way they haven't in so long."
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