The Jays have a closer. They have acquired Sergio Santos (two separate links there) from the Chicago White Sox for prospect Nestor Molina. Molina has been ranked as a big shot prospect by a couple of people, including Kevin Gray, writer for some newspaper in New Hampshire, where Molina played this season. Jury is out on this one, since people were really shitting their pants about just how good Molina could end up being, but others really think that he projects as a back-end starter, or simply as a reliever. We'll see if there's more to the trade, or if this is it, but it looks like a 1-for-1.
Santos just agreed to a 3 year extension with the White Sox at the start of the offseason, so I'm wondering if the Sox are finally admitting that they need to gut the team and rebuild -- moving a relief pitcher for a starter prospect is a good start, I suppose. Santos will make $1MM this year, $2.75MM in '13, and $3.75 in '14. The Jays will then have 3 club options for '15-'17 worth $6MM, $8MM, and $8.75MM respectively. Santos originally came to the Jays system in the Troy Glaus trade in 2005, when he was still a shortstop. He was then waived in '08 and picked by the Twins, only to be granted free agency at the end of that year. He was signed by the White Sox, and then traded for himself to and from the Giants, before being converted to a relief pitcher. He then got good, striking out 13/9ip this season.
Molina had 148K's vs. 16 walks in 130 innings split between A+/AA this past season. The Blue Jays have a lot of depth at SP, and there was eventually going to be a bit of a logjam once people started knocking on the door at the major league level, so I can live with this, I suppose... I just feel like it's a bit of an overpay for relief help. Maybe there's something here that we don't know? Or it was just over-hype?
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