Teoscar Hernandez traded to the Mariners

This’ll have to be quick since I’m at work, but the Jays have made a major trade only days into the offseason. The vibes in the dugout are about to be missing a huge contributor in Teoscar Hernandez:

Hernandez, aka “Mr Seeds” has been one of the longest tenured Blue Jays since the team received him in a trade for Francisco Liriano in 2017.
With the Jays, he became an All Star and a silver slugger.

The return is said to be on the pitching side:

Thanks for everything, Tesocar. I will miss your mammoth home runs.

Swanson is a left-handed reliever who turned 29 in September. Had a 1.68 ERA last year with 70 strikeouts in 53.2 innings. He held hitters to a .202/.245/.290 batting line.

Macko is number 8 on the Mariners MLB pipeline. He’s a lefty, turns 22 in December. Made 8 starts in High-A with a 3.99 ERA, and 60 strikeouts in 38.1 innings. Says he topped out at 97 MPH, has a curve and slider. He was born in Slovakia, grew up in Ireland but his family moved to Alberta so he could go to the Vauxhall Academy.

For all of these reasons, the 21-year-old possesses a unique blend of movement and velocity, which isn’t exactly what the Mariners were expecting – a much-improved product compared to the raw lefty who entered 2021. Macko experienced some rotator tendinitis that halted his season after just 33 1/3 innings, but if he returns healthy in ’22 and gets back to the level of production he was pre-injury, he could continue to get long-term consideration as a starter.

Teoscar would have been in his last year of team control next year. The team may have felt it would be hard to sign him and keep our other young players.