3/17 - We'll Segui you later

It's not quite akin to the Red Sox and Yankees pulling a trade or the Dodgers and Giants swapping players, but it's a rare sight to see the Jays and Expos pull a trade. In fact it had only happened once before when the Jays sent a poor outfielder named Mitch Webster to the Expos for a player to be named later (which we're still waiting for; how about Vlad?). However, on March 16, the Jays and Expos tangoed in the trading circle and even invited a southern partner to show them how to dance. Toronto sent David Segui, resident DH, and $825,000 to the Texas Rangers, who shipped Lee Stevens to the Montreal Expos. To complete the deal the Expos sent Brad Fullmer to the Toronto Blue Jays. It's rare to see a three-way trade where all players play the same position and all three were current or ex-Expos too.

Lee Stevens, the new addition to the Expos ball club, was born July 10, 1967 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was selected by the Houston Astors in the 6th round of the 1985 June draft. Soon Stevens found himself in the Angels minor league system and quickly rose through the ranks, including a stop at the California All-Star game in 1987. He enjoyed a cup of tea at the major league level in 1990-2, but in the 106 game stint in 1992 he only hit .221. The Expos invited him to their 1993 spring training camp but he failed to stick. He was signed by the Rangers as a free agent on April 4, 1996 and finally found a home. He saw limited duty in the majors in 1996, but has played 137, 120 and 146 games the last 3 years, hitting .300, .265 and then .282. He reached career highs in most categories last year including 146 hits, 24 homers and 81 RBIs. He did have an alarming 132 strikeouts though. He is very solid defensively and Rafael Palmeiro, his teammate and the Gold Glove winner for 1B, said he thought Stevens should have won the award. He should provide leadership in the clubhouse for the Expos, and he should anchor the infield. He will be an improvement defensively over Fullmer or Fernando Seguignol. Stevens will probably hit fifth and provide protection for Vladimir Guerrero. He makes $3.3 million, which is about $3 million more than Fullmer, so this is a heavy financial commitment for Montreal. Stevens is eligible for free agency at the end of this year, but Jim Beattie, Expos GM, said that he will try and re-sign Stevens at some point during the season.

Last year, when they were in the thick of the hunt for the wild-card race, the Jays sent hard-throwing future closer Tom Davey and left-handed reliever Steve Sinclair to the Seattle Mariners for soon to be free agent, David Segui. The trade looked like a typical deadline deal, it could help the team contending if they made the playoffs or if they re-signed the player, but it could haunt them in the later years as the prospects matured. Segui did hit .316 in 31 games but failed to make a big impact. The Jays failed to get the wild-card spot but then offered arbitration to Segui when negotiations with Delgado went awry. They figured they better secure themselves at least one first baseman. Segui and his money-hungry agent Scott Boras, figured that Segui would be a hot commodity on the free-agent market as Seattle and the Mets needed a first baseman. Seattle signed John Olerud away from the Mets and Segui figured to land in New York, which had the best defensive infield in baseball. However the Mets did the unexpected and signed Todd Zeile to play first, which left Segui out in the cold. He came back to Toronto and accepted the arbitrator's decision, which he didn't want to do. Delgado, the captain and leader of the Blue Jays, is happy at first base, and the organization doesn't want to upset him, especially with the fact that he has an opt-out clause in his contract at the end of this year. That meant that Segui, the second best defensive first baseman of all time, had to DH most of the time, something he wasn't happy with. I'm not sure if this caused clubhouse dissension, but it could have and Segui is known as a bit of a crybaby and a bad teammate around baseball. Therefore Segui and $825,000 (the difference in Segui and Stevens' salaries) was shipped to the Texas Rangers. The Rangers get a great defensive first baseman to spell Palmeiro and a consistent .300 hitter.

Segui was also born in Kansas City, but this Kansas is in Missouri. Born on July 19, 1966 he is only a year older than Stevens. His father Diego was a major league pitcher for 15 seasons, winning 92 games. Segui was selected in the 18th round of the free-agent draft by Baltimore. Segui played in Baltimore until the end of 1993, playing the last season as the regular first-baseman. He hit his first major league homer off Tom Henke in 1990. Segui spent 1994 and part of 1995 with the New York Mets, but he was traded to Montreal in mid-season for Reid Cornelius. He was named Expos player of the year by the local chapter of the BBWAA He spent 2 more solid seasons in Montreal and was awarded NL Player of the Week honours from April 15-21 1996. However he signed as a free-agent with Seattle on December 12, 1997. He spent a year and a half in Seattle, setting career highs in hits, RBIs and runs in 1998. Segui will provide better defense and average then Stevens, and Texas won't have to pay him such a high salary. He doesn't have Stevens' power though and is not rumoured to be the greatest person.

Brad Fullmer's name will become the answer to an obscure trivia question. Decades down the road when baseball junkies are swapping trivia questions and one of them asks "Who was the first player to be traded from the Expos to the Jays?" you will know the answer, if you still have your memory then. The interesting question is whether Fullmer will ever amount to more than the answer to that trivia question. Fullmer, by far the youngest player in the deal, was born on January 17, 1975 in Chatsworth, California, a long way from Canada. Brad attended Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth from kindergarten to grade six and was both an outstanding athlete and an outstanding student. He consistently won awards for academic execellence and he led his teams to city championships in baseball and football. He was named to the Baseball America and USA Today All-American teams in 1993, his final year at Montclair Prep High School in California.

Fullmer was selected by the Expos in the second round of the June 1993 draft. He missed the 1994 season with rotator cuff surgery. He made his debut in the South Atlantic League in 1995 and finished second in batting to his teammate, Vladimir Guerrero. He was the Expos Minor League Playr of the Month in June and co-led the league with Fernando Tatis in hits with 151. He was also 3rd in doubles and fifth in on-base percentage. In 1996 he was MVP of the Hawaii Winter Baseball League and was one homer away from winning the first triple crown in league history.

In 1997 he rose quickly through Harrisburg and then Ottawa, and became the second player in Expos history to homer in his first major league at-bat on September 2. Fullmer has always had lots of potential and in 1997 he was voted the top rookie prospect of the Expos by Sporting News and the Montreal Expo player development system Player of the Year. In a month with the Expos in 1997 he hit 3 homers in 40 at-bats and had a .300 average. In 1998 Fullmer had a solid year with the Expos, hitting .273 in 505 at-bats. He had 44 doubles, 73 RBIs and 13 home runs. However his defensive play was poor and he made 17 errors. In 1999 Fullmer was optioned to Ottawa twice before the All-Star break but after the break he hit .302 to finish the season hitting at a .277 clip. He had 34 doubles in 1999, making his two-year total 78. Fullmer was in Alou's doghouse though, mainly because of his shoddy defense and his refusal to alter his free-swinging style at the plate. Fullmer is more a gap power hitter then a pure power hitter, as his high doubles numbers will show you. He is a free swinger and only averaged 3.3 pitches per at-bat last year. He isn't very fast and his defense is poor, but he will DH in Toronto so that won't be a problem. The 25 year old is a good contact hitter but struggles against lefties and was benched against most lefties last year.

This is a rare trade that seems to work out the way it's supposed to for all three teams. All of the players were unhappy in their current situation and a trade seemed likely for all three, all in the same trade however seemed unlikely. With the Jays paying the difference in their salaries, the Rangers effectively swapped Segui for Stevens. Segui is the better defensive first baseman and if he is re-signed is the heir apparent to Rafael Palmeiro. Segui hits better than Stevens, but doesn't have as much power. This isn't much of a change for Texas but they get a player that they feel can help compensate them for the loss of Juan Gonzalez better than Stevens could.

This trade probably makes the least sense from the Expos' standpoint, although you can see why they would have done it. With new owner Jeff Loria in charge, the team has a new commitment to winning as soon as possible. He has already increased last year's $17 million payroll by $10 million. The Expos have a good young team and with players like Milton Bradley and Tony Armas Jr they should be contending in a few years. However, they won't be contending this year with the Braves and Mets, and even the Phillies in the NL East. They added $3 million to the payroll with the addition of Stevens, a free agent to be. This seems to be one of the main points of doing this trade. Loria is trying to show the fans that they are committed to winning, and by adding a veteran and $3 million he is trying to show the casual fan that the Expos are making themselves better. Witness Loria's comments immediately after the trade; "Lee is a tremendous addition to our club, He brings not only power to the middle of our lineup, but a great glove at first base. This trade is just another example of the Expos' commitment to making this club exciting and competitive for our fans starting right now." However let's not detract ourselves from the facts. Stevens will be a good glove at first base and will bring some leadership to the young club. He'll hit for power and a decent average and will provide some protection for Valdimir Guerrero. If the Expos can re-sign him, as they plan to do, then this trade will have worked for the Expos, even if they did give up potential.

This trade makes the most sense from the Jays standpoint and could help them in more ways then one. The Jays save several million dollars in this deal and according to Ash it won't be kept in the bank. "Now, rather than being locked in as we were, we can look into some other possibilities," Jays president Gord Ash said. "The reality is we will take the money we saved and use it to fill some other holes. We wanted to position ourselves to be a participant rather than just an observer these past few weeks." The Jays staff has had injury problems and Joey Hamilton is still a long ways from recovery and should begin the season on the DL. Ash went to Englebert Complex to watch Hamilton throw and didn't sound optimistic at all. As impressive as Frank Castillo has been in spring training Gord Ash doesn't seem happy with the starting staff. A trade for a starting pitcher with the $3.19 million we saved wouldn't surprise me at all. Fullmer has the potential to be a very good hitter but in the short-term we lose Segui's experienced bat. Ash also mentioned the annual statistical projections, compiled by stats guru Bill James, on Segui and Fullmer. He called the projections "fun stats," but they're worth a look, as there isn't much difference between the two for 2000: James projects Segui as hitting .282 with 24 doubles, 16 homers and 63 RBIs; Fuller hitting .283 with 39 doubles, 17 homers and 74 RBIs.

Fullmer is eligigible for arbitration after this year but won't be a free agent until after the 2003 World Series. Toronto could win big in this trade if Fullmer turns into Jim Thome, or they could lose big if he turns into Travis Lee. It will be interesting to watch how he progresses.

The one potential problem is that Fullmer doesn't bat that well against lefties, and he was benched against the best lefties last year in the NL. He would be logical to be half of a DH platoon, much like the 3B platoon of Mullinks and Iorg, despite what Fregosi said about him being an everyday player. However, who could he platoon with? Alberto Castillo is needed on the bench in case Fletcher gets injured, and he isn't much of a hitter anyway. Craig Grebeck hit over .300 as the DH last year but by his own admission "if I'm your DH, then your team is in trouble." Chris Woodward seems the likely choice for other backup infielder and he isn't strong with the bat, more of a defensive player. He is hitting over .400 in spring training but don't put any stock in that. In fact Woodward hasn't even been any everyday player in the minor leagues. Jacob Brumfield isn't a great choice for DH, although he can bunt and has good bat control. DeWayne Wise or Anthony Sanders look like the likely choice for the last bench spot, but neither are DH types. The most likely choice was Andy Thompson, but he's in Syracuse now. Other choices like Kevin Witt and Chad Mottola are in Syracuse too. Willis Otanez is another guy to think about but he only hit .237 last year. Perhaps Cito is working with Fullmer about how to hit lefties, but if not then this could be a problem that needs some attention.

Fullmer seemed excited about the trade. "My bat is my meal ticket," Fullmer said over the phone from the Expos training camp in Jupiter, Fla., where he was packing his belongings. "I've been working hard on my defence, but I'm not coming in there to take over (first baseman Carlos) Delgado's job by any means. I'll do what the organization wants me to do." Fullmer also added, "Obviously this is a new beginning for me but really I just want to play every day and get a chance to be in there. Hopefully I can help a team that has a shot at going to the post-season."

Toronto gets younger and saves money by this deal, but there is no doubt they could easily be the big winner or the big loser. However, if Ash re-invests the money we saved in areas where we need the help more then this trade could be a great one for the Blue Jays.

Thomas Ayers, a Torontonian through and through, is a die-hard baseball fan. A Jays supporter since birth he is optimistic that the team can soon return to their Glory Days of '92 and '93. Feel free to e-mail him to discuss baseball, or any other sport, at tsq_bone@hotmail.com.

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