Sixteen years ago today Blue Jay traded Robinzon Diaz to Pirates for Jose Bautista. It was such a big deal that we didn’t even write a post about the trade here at Bluebird Banter. We talked about it later, but the day of the trade passed without the deal being mentioned. It turned out to be the best trade of JP Ricciardi’s career.
The news was included in a post that I a few days later:
Robinzon Diaz was sent to Pittsburgh to complete the Bautista deal, so I guess we can cross his name off our list of top 11 prospects. I’m not sure what to make of that. Diaz hasn’t had the best years and JP Arencibia has probably passed him by. But I thought he was closer to being major league ready. We’re going to need someone to catch next season or we’re going to have a hell of a lot of passed balls.
I missed that.
A day later I started a poll about the swap. 48% thought it was a good swap for us, 52% didn’t. It was noticeable that at the time I thought he was the midfielder.
A few days later mwrote in a FanGraphs story: “Pirates plunder Toronto“ and said the following:
Another story I’d like to refrain from mentioning is from Fangraphs: Pirates Plunder Toronto. Now, I’m not really thrilled about the trade, but to say the Jays were “plundered” is a gross exaggeration. I like Diaz, but I don’t think he’ll be a great major league player. I think in the long run it’s going to be a trade for nothing. But we’ll see.
Wrong again.
It took a few days until he landed his first hit as Blue Jay.
It took us about a year to realize that he should be more than a Platoon player.
Whatever the case, it was a good trade for the Jays. Baseball Reference gives Jose a 37.0 WAR in his career with the Blue Jays. Diaz played 44 games in the major leagues.
Jose was one of my favorite players. He is intense, desperate to win, and seemed to get along great with his teammates. Jose spent a lot of time giving advice and helping his teammates. Sometimes I wish he had a little more fun, but the same people who think he is too intense would complain just as much if he was smiling and happy.
There were more than enough people complaining about him. That’s just part of the price of being the best player on a team that tends to disappoint. For some reason, people blame the best players for losses. When I was a kid, I saw people blaming Gary Carter for the Expos’ failure. I always wondered why people didn’t blame the lousy players.
I believe that Jose’s signing was a turning point for the franchise. We went from a team with no personality to a team with some confidence. And we had a player that other teams’ fans hated. As Reggie Jackson said, “Nobody gets booed.”
I can’t imagine (nor do I want to) what those seasons would have been like if we hadn’t traded Jose. I’m sure they wouldn’t have been as entertaining.
Favorite memories?
- The bat flip was such a Jose moment. We needed a big hit and Jose made it for us. And I think his reaction spoke for all of us.
- I was at games in Boston in 2010 when he hit his 48th and 49th home runs of the season.
- In 2009, we were in Seattle for the Jays games. It was Jose’s first full season with the Jays. We were sitting all the way down third base. The Mariners had a runner on second base and a single was hit into left field (Jose played more games at left base than right that year), so I thought we had allowed a run. I was watching the runner and saw Jose’s throw land on a line about 10 feet up and he caught the runner (Kenji Johjima) at the plate. Before that, I didn’t realize how good his arm was. Roy Halladay started in that game and we thought it would be his last start as a Blue Jay since the trade deadline was only two days away. As it turned out, he wasn’t traded until after the season.
- I watch him work with Chris Colabello on his outfield defense.
- Jose quietly refused to do interviews with Sportsnet because they did a segment on Devon Travis where they took him suit shopping and then made Travis pay for the suit. Jose felt it was unfair to basically do an ad for a men’s clothing store and then make a rookie making the major league minimum (though that is a tidy sum) pay for the purchase that was forced on him.
- What I remember most is how intense he was.
Jose on the Blue Jays’ career best lists:
Career bWAR position player: 1st (38.3).
Offensive bWAR: 2nd (37.0).
On-base percentage: 7th (.372) minimum 1500 PA (same as Otto Velez).
Slugging average: 5th (.506 behind Carlos Delgado (.556)).
OPS: 4th (.875, tied with Edwin Encarnacion).
Game played: 5. (1235).
Homeruns: 2nd (288, 48 less than Delgado).
RBI: 3. (766).
Walks: 2nd (803, 24 behind Delgado).
