I’m traveling today, so won’t be posting. And, there isn’t much for Jays news today.
So let’s have a question: Which Jays player surprised you by being much better than you expected?
We did the reverse of this last week.
For me? Marco Estrada would be the obvious choice. When we traded Adam Lind for him, I was disappointed with the return. Estrada played five seasons with the Brewers and posted a 23-25 record with a 4.11 ERA in 159 games, including 70 starts. He couldn’t hold a spot in the starting
rotation and ended up in the bullpen as middle relief.
Lind had hit 146 home runs in 9 seasons with us, topping out at 35 in 2009. He became a platoon player when he couldn’t hit lefties, but he still had a lot of power, and power is useful.
Estrada played four seasons with the Jays, posting a 4.25 ERA and a 9.6 bWAR, and he saved his best starts for the playoffs, with a 2.16 ERA in 6 starts and 41.2 playoff innings. He took two no-hitters into the ninth.
Lind played one season with the Brewers. It was a good one: .277/.360/.460 with 20 home runs in 149 games. Then the Brewers traded him to the Mariners, where he had a -0.3 bWAR in 126 games, with 20 home runs and a .239/.286/.431 batting line. From there, he went to the Nationals for one good season, his last in the majors. He spent the next couple of years in the minor leagues with the Yankees and Red Sox.
The Jays saw something in Estrada and helped him become a very good starting pitcher.
Your turn.
