Four Years Later, Anthopoulos Can Learn Something from Blue Jays-Cardinals Trade

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

On the morning of July 27, 2011, the St. Louis Cardinals were 6.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central. They were also just a shade behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for a Wild Card spot they'd eventually win, on their way to being crowned World Series champions. But they needed help.

With co-ace Adam Wainwright out for the year, the rotation behind Chris Carpenter was fairly uninspiring. There was 24-year-old Jaime Garcia, in his second year back after Tommy John surgery. There were two sturdy-but-unspectacular veterans in Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook. And there was 27-year-old reliever-turned-starter Kyle McClellan. Hardly a collection of names fans would see and immediately think of as a World Series-ready rotation.

Their bullpen needed help, too. In the first half of 2011, the unit ranked in the bottom 10 in baseball in ERA, Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP), and cumulative WAR.

If you're seeing parallels with the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays, I'm not exactly going out of my way to downplay them. The 2011 Cardinals also had a collection of great sluggers—Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman—an elite two-way catcher, Yadier Molina, and even went out of their way to add a declining, 33-year-old shortstop, Rafael Furcal, for their stretch run!

That's certainly not to suggest the Blue Jays are destined to repeat the Cardinals' success, but there is, of course, another interesting link between the two teams—and more importantly, perhaps an instructive one for a Blue Jays club searching not necessarily for another superstar, but for help on the margins, and with not a whole lot of desire to blow a giant hole in their prospect pipeline to do so.

The Cardinals of 2011 managed to do something unconventional on their way to the playoffs. They managed to address multiple needs in one fell swoop and not only was Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos involved, he might of even been the mastermind behind it.

Colby Rasmus, at the time, was a massive talent and two years removed from being the No. 3 prospect in the game, according to Baseball America, but struggling badly in his third season of regular duty for the Cardinals. He clashed with manager Tony La Russa, and was being outplayed by Jon Jay, a less intriguing all-around talent, but a better defender and hitter for contact.

Anthopoulos saw the opportunity to get a potential star for pennies on the dollar, and St. Louis GM John Mozeliak saw the chance to add the pieces he needed to strengthen his roster by moving what was essentially an out-of-favour spare part. But it wasn't exactly easy.

First, Anthopoulos managed to acquire Edwin Jackson, a dependable, mid-rotation starter who was two months from free agency, along with Mark Teahen, from the White Sox in exchange for reliever Jason Frasor (who had two years of team control left), and right-handed pitching prospect Zach Stewart. Anthopoulos then flipped Jackson to the Cardinals, along with two key bullen pieces, righty veteran Octavio Dotel and young left-hander Marc Rzepczynski, for Rasmus and inconsequential relievers Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters.

Jays fans were overjoyed at getting Rasmus for so little, but it was the Cardinals who won the deal. They traded a very high-end talent, yes, but they didn't take a hit to their big league roster, and suddenly added a very nice piece to their rotation, while giving themselves two additional late-inning options in relief.

In the second half, the Cardinals' bullpen moved from the bottom to the top 10 in ERA, FIP, and xFIP.

Imagine, if you were the 2015 Blue Jays, what that might mean.

They may not have the perfect parallel for Rasmus—after following him in Toronto for the three-and-a-half years after the trade, I think it's safe to say that few humans would be—but if you look past position, contract status and the personality clashes, you might be able to find one who lives in his van in the off-season.

I'm just spitballing, of course, but Daniel Norris is maybe the most sought after, and most expendable, of a number of pieces who could perform much the same function for the 2015 Jays as Rasmus did for those Cardinals. To call Norris a stalled prospect, as Rasmus was, would be unfair, given the way he blasted through several levels of the Jays' minor league system last year. But the beginning of this season has been a setback for him—he's lost his spot in the Jays' rotation and found himself demoted to Buffalo—and the Jays have plenty of options on the horizon who could take his place.

Aaron Sanchez is currently cementing his long-term place in the club's rotation. Drew Hutchison and, once he's back to full health, Marcus Stroman seem to have already done so. Norris could be another in a great stable of young, cheap rotation options, but so could Roberto Osuna, who is pitching so well with his starter's arsenal in the Jays' bullpen. So, too, could last year's ninth overall draft pick, Jeff Hoffman, whose progress returning from the Tommy John surgery he had in May of 2014 has been nothing but positive, and who many believe could have gone first overall had he been healthy.

Moving any of these guys could net the Jays a huge return, but with Norris not currently helping the big league club, and not quite carrying the upside that Hoffman has, he seems the logical choice. If the Jays are willing to do it, that is.

Thinking about the Cardinals' end of the Rasmus deal worked out, and how it could be used as a template for trading a prospect like Norris to address several needs at once, certainly has to be tempting for a Jays team with a lot of good parts, and the division wide open ahead of them. Maybe they can get creative, find a trade partner, and get everything they want—a chance to make what's been an awfully thin margin for error, that too often this season they've found themselves on the wrong side of, just a little bit thicker.

It's not like Anthopoulos hasn't seen it done firsthand before.