The two big aces are off the trade market. One day after the Phillies traded their ace Cole Hamels to the Texas Rangers, the other major shoe has dropped. David Price has found a new home. For this season, anyway. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports broke the news: The Toronto Blue Jays have acquired David Price from the Detroit Tigers.
In exchange for Price, the Tigers landed three pitchers: Daniel Norris, Jairo Labourt, and Matt Boyd. How did this stack up with what the Phillies got in exchange for Cole Hamels?
MLB.com broke down each of the players in the deal:
Norris made his big-league debut late last year and began this season in the rotation before eventually getting optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. Once there, he struggled to find consistency and posted a 4.27 ERA over 16 starts. If he finds a way to throw more strikes and limit his pitch count, Norris has the type of potential to become a very solid middle-of-the-rotation piece.
Boyd made his Major League debut earlier this year but it didn't go very well. He appeared in two games for Toronto and in his final start he allowed seven runs on six hits and a walk while retiring just two batters. The results in Buffalo have been much better with a 2.77 ERA in six starts and he projects to be a back-of-the-rotation starter.
Labourt is a little farther away from the Majors. He was Toronto's representative at this year's Futures Game and went 2-7 with a 4.59 ERA for Class-A Dunedin. Those numbers don't tell the full story as Labourt has strong potential but will need patience from the team that is developing him. Labourt was ranked Toronto's 19th-best prospect by MLBPipeline.com.
While the Phillies probably would have loved to have Norris, there were plenty of whispers that Hamels was not willing to go to Toronto. Also different is that Price is likely a rental for the Blue Jays, whereas Hamels is under control of the Rangers for the next three years.
So, the two aces are all off the board. The Los Angeles Dodgers ended up with neither. It will be interesting to see how this plays out long-term. Unwilling to give up 19 year-old prospect Julio Urias, the Dodgers had to settle for Mat Latos from the Marlins, quite a drop from Price or Hamels. But with any trade for prospects, time will tell.
