In Adding Donaldson and Martin, Anthopoulos Has Outdone Himself

When the J.P. Ricciardi era was finally, mercifully ended by the Toronto Blue Jays at the end of the 2009 season, one of the major criticisms that fans laid on him was that, while he'd done well picking from off the scrap heap and turning the trash into something useful, he missed the mark badly when it came to splashy, big-money moves, like the Frank Thomas, B.J. Ryan, and A.J. Burnett contracts, or the Vernon Wells extension. Prior to this winter, the longer we got into his successor's tenure, the more it seemed the story had hardly changed.

While Alex Anthopoulos had his share of wins—the Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion contracts, and getting out from under Wells' deal, for example—most of his biggest moves have led to a lot of failure. The big trade with the Miami Marlins and the deal for R.A. Dickey after the 2012 season are the obvious ones, but Colby Rasmus flamed out, the Roy Halladay deal didn't pan out, extensions for Brandon Morrow and Ricky Romero ended in disappointment, trading Mike Napoli for Frank Francisco was a mistake, Melky Cabrera was abysmal for half of his time in Toronto, and even a small deal like the one that sent away Yan Gomes—now one of the best catchers in the game—ended up having big consequences.

It's still early and the moves may not have arrived in time to save his job, but Alex Anthopoulos appears to have reversed that trend this winter with the acquisitions of free agent catcher Russell Martin and third baseman Josh Donaldson, who came from Oakland in exchange for Brett Lawrie, prospect Franklin Barreto, and pitchers Sean Nolin and Kendall Graveman.

Jays fans certainly are well within their rights to wonder how Anthopoulos chose to allocate resources on a 2015 version of the club that's very offence-heavy and has so far lacked for pitching, both in the rotation and bullpen, but there's no disputing that his two major signings have been—if you'll pardon the expression—home runs.

Granted, the honeymoon period is still in full effect, but Donaldson has been awesome—currently the second-best position player in the American League, according to FanGraphs' version of Wins Above Replacement, in a virtual tie with the great Mike Trout and Cleveland's Jason Kipnis. In other words, he's come exactly as advertised. Donaldson's WAR trails only Trout among all position players in baseball since the beginning of 2013, ahead of even Andrew McCutchen and Miguel Cabrera. And unlike his talented tease of a predecessor, Lawrie, he manages to keep himself on the field.

Martin's WAR ranks tied, alongside Cabrera, for fifth among AL position players—perhaps an even more remarkable feat given that he struggled so badly out of the gate (picking up just one hit in his first eight games as a Blue Jay) that he had a certain special brand of local clown calling him "Russell Clarkson" after the Maple Leafs' high-profile free agent bust. He's come as advertised, too, also scoring high marks for his pitch framing, according to Baseball Prospectus, despite having caught knuckleballer R.A. Dickey four times—a tough job he's done with aplomb, but which offers little opportunity to steal strikes the way one can with a conventional pitcher.

Martin has also validated the Jays' investment in him by continuing to successfully employ a two-strike approach that he altered in 2014 (modeled after fellow Canadian Joey Votto), and that helped propel him to a career-high .402 on-base percentage, something many thought he might struggle to repeat. He's also controlling the running game with breathtakingly perfect throws, tossing out an AL-best 15 would-be base-stealers.

It's hard to pick out all the individual moments from these two that exemplify the impact they've had, but Donaldson's walk-off, opposite field bomb against the White Sox this week—his second walk-off blast of the year—jumps quickly to mind.

What's vital, however, has been the cumulative impact. As completely decent as Lawrie and Dioner Navarro were last season as the Jays' third baseman and catcher, having two legit, MVP-type players in those critical spots has not only helped keep the club afloat as it sorts out some early-season struggles, it promises bigger and better things in the months and years to come.

Maybe even more importantly, whether the club as a whole sinks or swims, the pair of new Jays, with their ability to make jaw-dropping defensive plays and crush the ball in the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre—particularly Donaldson, who looks thrilled to have taken the swing he modeled on Jose Bautista's out of Oakland's spacious stadium—have been a joy to simply watch play the game. That alone may not be enough to keep the general manager employed, but as a fan, it's awfully hard to complain about.