It’s my belief the Jays did a good bit of business here, and that the trade that brought Raimel Tapia to the Jays is already a win.

In fact, I’d argue that the 28-year-old Tapia is far too over-hated and has had a better season than Randal Grichuk. This is because once you dig into why Tapia struggled at the start of the season, you can see that he’s a darn good fourth outfielder.
Not just that, but the Jays have a chance to cut payroll next season while getting a pretty darn good prospect in return. Let’s look at each one of these things, starting with the MLB player they got in return.
Ramiel Tapia:
At face value, Tapia’s.264/.290/.374 slash line with 4 homeruns isn’t great. Especially when you factor in his Fangraphs WAR of -0.4, but let’s dig deeper into the numbers.
Batting Statistics:
Let’s take you back to April 13th when Teoscar Hernandez injured his oblique. This injury devastated the Jays for multiple reasons. For starters, Teoscar has been one of the better hitters (I’d argue the best) over the past two seasons.
The second reason is due to the lack of depth in the outfield, and due to the injury, Tapia played a little more than the team probably wanted.
Between the start of the season and Hernandez’s return (May 7th), Tapia posted pretty awful numbers. He slashed .222/.237/.289 in 95 p …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation