Blue Jays Trade Insight: 3 Overlooked Elements of the Marlins-Blue Jays Trade

It's a good look for Reyes

The monster 12-player trade between the Miami Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays is finally official!

Along with the signing of Melky Cabrera, the 2013 Blue Jays are going to be an exciting team to watch.

Now, most analyses of the trade focus in on the starting pitching acquired and Jose Reyes being a true leadoff hitter—but what else did the Blue Jays improve on in the trade that might have been overlooked?

Here's three new elements of the 2013 Blue Jays.

Need for Speed

Number 43, eh? Is that how many steals you gonna get?
J. Meric/Getty Images

The amount of speed this trade infused into the lineup is absolutely ridiculous.

Jose Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio could easily have 40-plus steals each. Add on 15-20 from Melky Cabrera and Brett Lawrie—not to mention Anthony Gose and Rajai Davis on the bench—and you have threats on the base paths up and down the lineup.

Let's say Anthony Gose and Rajai Davis each got 15-20 steals off the bench—that gives the Blue Jays a total of 140-160 steals just from six players. To put that in perspective, the team leader in steals for 2012, the San Diego Padres as a 40-man roster managed 158 steals for the season.

That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on opposing pitchers, not to mention more fastballs for everybody.

Similarities

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Hey, did you know that Toronto sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are both Dominican? Do you know where the three position players the Blue Jays acquired are from?

Yup, Melky Cabrera, Jose Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio are all from the Dominican Republic as well. Go ahead, Google it.

Oh, you're from the same town as me as well? The Blue Jays team chemistry is amazing right now, and there is no "I" in championship...oh wait, never mind...but you get the point.

A Buck or Two

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Many people think that John Buck was just added to the trade to dump additional salary on the Blue Jays. Not only do I think that's wrong, but I believe that the Blue Jays asked for Buck to be include in the trade.

Why? Because he knows the pitching staff better than anyone.

Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle are going to be bringing back their battery mate from Miami, and that makes the transition so much easier. And don't forget that Buck was once a Blue Jay as well, with an All-Star appearance to boot.

And this is the icing on the cake, while catching Ricky Romero in 2010, Ricky Romero had a slash line of 23 GS/12 W/ 7 L/153.1 IP/ 3.87 ERA/ 2 CG.

Can you spell nostalgia?