An actual baseball trade is going down – only the second such “actual” trade of this trade season – and it’s Mariners righty Taijuan Walker heading to the pitching-needy Blue Jays, according to Ken Rosenthal.
A handy bit about this trade? It confirms that you can use the “Player to Be Named Later” to complete a trade involving a minor leaguer not currently on the 60-man roster:
The player the Mariners are acquiring is a minor leaguer who is not part of the Blue Jays’ 60-man player pool. https://t.co/urwKEe4CDW
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 27, 2020
Walker, 28, was an injury comeback story this year, and you may remember he worked out for the Cubs in Spring Training one day, before he ultimately signed with the team that originally drafted and developed him. He’s been hit hard this year, but with decent strikeout and walk numbers, his overall results have been right around league average. That’s not a bad thing to be at the back of a rotation, and for the Blue Jays, it’s a big need.
Walker was signed to a $2 million deal, so his salary going forward is about $350,000. I’ll be interested to hear – if we hear soon – whether the Blue Jays are taking on all of that, and what kind of tier of PTBNL we’re talking about in the trade. I’ve been pretty open about my opinion that money is going to be held tightly like no other year before, so even taking on $350,000 in salary is a lot.
The Blue Jays currently hold the 8 seed in the American League playoff race.