Breaking news: Angels to make worst trade ever, in history!
The magic of the interwebs has tubed me to the fact that the Angels just traded pretty-good catcher Mike Napoli and sort-of-hokay outfielder Juan Rivera to the Blue Jays for mediocre and hugely overpaid 32-year-old Vernon Wells. Napoli himself is a really good bet to be more valuable than Wells, and, if you don’t recall, the Jays got a second player also.
The real key to this deal, of course, is how much of Wells’ contract the Angels picked up. Because Vernon Wells has one of the worst contracts in baseball, as he himself recently admitted. Initial speculation about this deal had it as Wells-for-Napoli, and then the Jays send salary relief. This whole "Angels add another player and Jays add apparently nothing" angle is new. Bank on it: if the Angels are eating Wells’ entire contract, this is the worst trade since Brian Sabean shipped Fransisco Liriano, Joe Nathan, and Boof Bonser to the Twinkies for one season of washed-up A.J. Pierzynski (A.J.’s total value to the Giants: 0 WAR. Total value of the package the Twins received: who knows, since Liriano’s still their ace and Nathan’s still their closer. Value to date: 27.8 WAR.)
