Only time will tell with all the strings Alex Anthopoulos is pulling this winter, but he’s pulling them just about as fast as he can talk, which is at warp speed.
The Blue Jay general manager’s latest trade has a chance to be something special.
Tuesday, he plucked the power arm of Brandon Morrow out of Seattle in exchange for reliever Brandon League and minor-league outfielder Johermyn Chavez.
Outsiders may look at it as the dealing of one enigma for another, Morrow, 25, and League, 26, being the principals.
They could be right. But as far as potential goes, Anthopoulos may have hit the jackpot with Morrow.
The deal is unlikely to become official until Wednesday, after all the medical reports and paperwork have been digested.
Rushed to the big leagues after just 16 minor-league innings three years ago, perhaps because he was the fifth overall pick in the 2006 draft and management wanted to show him off, Morrow has never tapped the full measure of that potential, despite his high-90’s fastball and biting curve.
Over three nondescript seasons, he has a record of 8-12, with 16 saves and an ERA of 3.96 in 197 innings.
His major flaw? He averages six walks for every nine innings pitched. In his defence, his time in Seattle was a bit chaotic.
First he was a reliever, then a starter, then back to being a reliever — a closer, no less after J.J. Putz bolted to the Mets. Twice he was sent to the minors.
By the end of last season he was back as a starter, and in his last assignment of the 2009 season, he tossed a one-hitter (two walks) over eight innings in a shutout win over Oakland.
Now, he’s getting a change of scenery and, more likely than not, a more clearly defined role.
Since the trade is not yet official, the Jays aren’t talking but it would be a major upset if Morrow didn’t start the 2010 season firmly planted in the Toronto rotation.
As they did with Dustin McGowan two years ago, it would behoove the Jays to take away any uncertainty and just give Morrow the ball every fifth day and let him stop looking over his shoulder.
With Seattle, Morrow always seems to have been a square peg in a round hole.
It didn’t help that, as he struggled, fans were only too aware he had been picked ahead of Tim Lincecum, who has already won two Cy Young Awards. That legacy alone could make leaving Seattle a good move for Morrow.
While League’s history with the Jays has been inconsistent at best, it is easy to see how another club could find him intriguing. When he’s on his game, he has absolutely filthy stuff — a fastball that touches 96-99 on the radar gun and a nasty splitter that darts all over the place.
Early in his career, he lacked control but in 2009, when he worked 742/3 innings for Cito Gaston, he walked only 21 batters, while striking out 76. His 3.62 strikeouts-to-walk ratio put him in the top 20 of American League relief pitchers in that category.
The frustrating part for the Jays was that when he was bad, he was horrid. Of the 38 earned runs he allowed in 67 appearances in 2009, 21 of them came in the six awful games. In the other 61 games, he gave up just 17 earned runs.
This habit of inconsistency sheds doubt on the concept of his ever becoming an effective closer.
Chavez, one month short of his 21st birthday, has been in the Jays farm system since 2005. The Venezuelan spent the last two seasons at low-A class Lansing, experiencing a breakout season last summer when he hit .283 with 21 homers and 89 RBI, and an OPS of .821. The downside is his plate discipline: he had 40 walks and 137 strikeouts.
