Toronto Blue Jays Ship Mike Napoli Back To the AL West

I really hope Mike Napoli didn’t put a down payment on a house in Toronto.

Less than a week after being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the Vernon Wells trade, Napoli was traded to the Texas Rangers for RHP Frank Francisco. Interesting trade for both teams.

I have to believe that this leads to another trade for the Rangers. Napoli is a DH/1B at this stage of his career, and the Rangers already have Mitch Moreland at first and Michael Young to play DH.

I doubt the Rangers traded for Napoli just so he can be insurance if Moreland doesn’t pan out or platoon with Moreland.

With a $16 million salary for 2011, it seems like Young might be the odd man out in Texas.

If the Rangers do keep Young around, look for the right-handed Napoli to platoon with the left-handed Moreland against left-handed pitching. As I mentioned last week, Napoli crushed left-handed pitching to the tune of a .305/.399/.567 slash line with 10 HRs.

Napoli also could serve some time behind the plate if the newly acquired Yorvit Torrealba needs a break.

One doesn’t recommend doing that on a consistent basis, but for every now and then, having Napoli behind the plate isn’t so bad. It’s like eating KFC; once in a while is fine, but a couple of times a week will kill you.

I will say this. If the Rangers do keep Young around and with the additions of Adrian Beltre and Napoli, their offense is stacked in 2011. There aren’t too many automatic outs in that lineup, that’s for sure.

For the Blue Jays, they get another right-handed arm for the back of their bullpen. They say things come in threes, and Francisco will now join Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel in the Jays’ bullpen.

Francisco is a three-pitch pitcher, but mostly features a fastball in the low-to-mid-90′s and a splitter. Over the last three seasons, Francisco has a 3.54 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and has averaged 10.9 K’s/9 in 165.1 IP.

Francisco can really pitch and while I don’t think he will get the first crack at the closer’s job, if Dotel struggles at the beginning, Francisco can fill in with no problem. He did have 25 saves for the Rangers in 2009.

Interesting trade for both teams, but a good trade for both teams.

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