Blue Jays Turn Around And Trade Napoli To Rangers

"Hopefully Mike Napoli's suitcase is still packed. Just four days after acquiring the catcher/first baseman from the Angels, the Blue Jays have sent him back to the AL West. Napoli is heading to the Rangers for Frank Francisco and cash, the teams announced. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the deal (on Twitter) and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports (on Twitter) that the Rangers are sending less than $1MM to Toronto (MLBTradeRumors)."

This isn't a deal that will make a lot of headlines, but it is still very interesting. For one, it never made sense that the Blue Jays acquired Napoli in the first place. They have their catcher of the future in J.P. Arencibia, and a veteran in Jose Molina, so the catching duties seem to be covered. On top of that they have somewhat of a log jam at first with Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion lobbying for playing time.

What is interesting now is that the Rangers are kind of running into the same problem. Napoli will play some catcher, sharing time with Yorvit Torrealba and Matt Treanor. He could play some first, but Michael Young is rumored to be moving to first base after the signing of Adrian Beltre. On top of that the Rangers have Chris Davis and Mitch Moreland battling for playing time.

This could mean that Rangers plan to trade Michael Young (Colorado has expressed interest). So, keep an eye on the Rangers as they may not be done wheeling and dealing yet.

This also could mean that Neftali Feliz will stay in the bullpen. There had been rumors that the Rangers would stretch him out and try to make him a starter again. I'm almost always against doing that, but after losing Cliff Lee I guess it had to be looked at. With this deal it seems a lot more likely he'll stay in the bullpen.

For the Blue Jays Frank Francisco helps round out a bullpen that already has Jason Frasor, Jon Rauch, and Octavio Dotel. They needed to add some arms back there after losing guys like Scott Downs.