Griffin: Jays acquire Sergio Santos from White Sox

DALLAS-The Blue Jays on Tuesday made their first significant player move of the winter meetings, alarmingly reverting to the same frugal, cost-efficient thought processes that got them to this point, acquiring 28-year-old reliever Sergio Santos from the White Sox for highly touted starting pitcher prospect, Nestor Molina.

According to the Jays, the closer's role for 2012 is now settled, maybe even for Santos's next six controllable years.  

"Right now, we're in a good place, but we do have parameters to work with," Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos said.

"We're trying to build a competitive team that will be good for a long period of time with the parameters that we do have, when you look at the salaries over six years. It's not a bottomless pit. If it was it would be different."   

Santos, a former minor-league shortstop, had some impressive numbers with the White Sox in 2011, but he faded in the second half with the increased workload and marathon nature of the season. The native of Bellflower, Calif., was 4-5, with a 3.55 ERA and 30 saves in 63 games. He had 92 strikeouts in just 63-1/3 innings, allowing 41 hits. His strikeout rate of 13.07 per nine innings ranked top five in the AL. 

Santos has just two seasons as a pitcher in the majors leagues and in an ideal situation, building to the apex of his strong-armed career, would be best served starting off in 2012 as the eighth-inning option to an established major-league closer. Anthopoulos disagrees that he could have had more established lights-out closing from elsewhere.

"I think Santos would give us the same, with the potential for more," Anthopoulos stated with confidence. "I think there's a greater ceiling there. There's still some guys out there that are very good and obviously there's uncertainty in the relief market, but just his stuff and the dominance of knowing that we have him. The age, relative to the others. The years of control, the three options, it just makes a lot of sense for us. It allows us to re-allocate funds in some other areas."

Hey, what happened to the $110-120 million that Paul Beeston insisted was a reality if they needed it to compete in 2012? That number was not out of thin air. It was a quote from the club president as late as mid-October. He was asked if that upper-edge total included bonuses for June draft picks and international signings. He said: "No. That's strictly for major-league payroll this year." But now Anthopoulos scoffs at those that reported it meaning that they are back to trying to emulate the Rays model again. The CBA has clearly bitten them in the butt and changed the way they plan to compete.

"It's not impacting us in 2012," Anthopoulos said. "But I think in '13 and beyond it's going to impact us. Certainly we're going to be receiving less. Again, I don't get involved in those conversations, or accounting, but there's no question that's going to be phased out and we're going to lose dollars there. And I'm sure that has some type of bearing, impact." 

Santos is signed for the next three seasons guaranteed at $7.50 million, plus a $0.75 million buyout for each of three option years from 2015-17 for $6, $8 and $8.75 million. The maximum value of the deal is $30.25 million, while the minimum is $9.75 million.

Molina, 22, came on strong in 2011, splitting his time between A-Dunedin and AA-New Hampshire, elbowing his way into the conversation as a potential member of the pitching staff at some point during the 2012 season, either as a starter or in relief.

Molina at the two minor-league stops combined for a 12-3 record and a 2.21 ERA in 26 games -- 23 starts. Molina was signed by the Jays as a position player out of Venezuela, before converting to the mound in 2008.

In every conversation with the Jays this off-season, Molina's name was mentioned along with Henderson Alvarez, Drew Hutchison and Deck McGuire as starters in waiting. The Jays as far as young starting pitchers are dealing from a position of strength. 

Comments

[John]

I don't know that I really understand this move, Richard you are basically saying this is a good move as long as he isn't promised the 2012 closer's but isn't that why they traded for him? I realize the Jays are dealing from strength with the young arms they have but wouldn't it have been a better deal to try and get a more established closer?

[Rob Landau]

So basically this is still all about the money. They took Santos because of the contract he has at $8.5 million for three years and didn't want to go $10 million for one of the established closers...unless they trade for Bailey or another bullpen piece I will not be convinced that they are ready to compete.

[steve]

Umm...of COURSE Santos was acquired with the intention that he be the closer next year. Trading a starting pitcher (even a prospect who is a year away) for a closer is always a questionable decision (180 decent innings is far more valuable than 60 outstanding innings, even if all of those 60 innings are at the end of games). Trading a starter for a middle reliever would be idiotic.

[Jays Man]

Of course Santos will be the closer. They wouldn't trade Molina for an 8th inning guy. Santos has a great contract, great K rate and is a much better option than Cordero, Rodriguez, etc.

[JT]

I don't think they would give up one of their top pitching prospects for a set-up guy. And if that is the role AA envisions for Santos, then this is not a good deal.

I've seen varying scouting reports on Molina. If most of them are to believed, he features a 92-94mph fastball with good-avg slider, change-up and a work in progress curveball. Impeccable control like he displayed is extremely rare in the minor leagues and for a guy this age with minimal pitching experience. I think his ridiculous numbers in the minors are to some degree as a result of him using 3-4 pitches and throwing them at any time, a la Carlos Villanueva. Minor league hitters are very set with the getting fastball in fastball counts and breaking balls in breaking ball counts. They are DOA if you confuse them.

At the same time, there aren't too many guys in this league who can consistently bring it in the upper 90s. I think this is what AA wants in a closer. He has said he prefers strikeout pitchers as closers rather than guys who put the ball in play. Hence, Santos.

[jays fan]

great move by AA - can't get something without giving up something - no one was talking about Molina before this trade - Santos is cheap atleast through 2014 - makes him an absolute bargain - low risk/high reward potential - if we can only get Holland from KC setup/closer set for at least 3 years...

[Shawn]

I'm a big AA fan... but I get the feeling we got the short end of the stick in this trade. You can never have too many young arms.

[Allan Lane]

The real news of this story is that the Jays are reneging on their pledge to the fans to spend the amount of money necessary to win. It's always something: the Canadian dollar is weak, we can't spend; oh, the dollar's strong? Well, we're dumping salary now to save for later; oh, it's later? Well, we are gearing up with young draft picks to compete in 2011, er, 2012, er, 2013. Oh, wait, the new CBA means we don't have money available (what, did it pick the owner's pocket?) that we said was available two months ago because now we would actually have to spend it. I understand the CBA has changed the drafting situation, but at the Major League level, the players would NEVER have agreed to a deal that forced clubs to spend LESS money on them at the Major League level. All the Jays are saying is, we were full of it before and we're using the first excuse we can find not to have to actually spend the money. I'm sure I'm not the only Blue Jays fan who feels completely lied to by Mr. Beeston, whose credibility is now zero unless the Jays offer a quick and complete explanation of how the GM was completely misunderstood.

[Jimmy]

Dear Richard,
I believe that you and many others get caught up in the importance of a 'closer' when, in reality, except for a few anomalies there have been very few closers who were dominant for more than 3 years, and thus trying to get one at just the right time is akin to trying to catch lightening in a bottle. Therefore, this is a very astute move for the Jays because, realistically, this guy is better than Heath Bell with more long term potential and a way , way cheaper price. I like you and respect your writing, but you seem to think that the Jays should spend money for sake of spending it.

[Blaise]

I was not among those thinking "Ïf only we could land Sergio Santos..." Was anyone?