Sources: Jay Bruce trade to Blue Jays unravels
A proposed three-way trade that would have sent outfielder Jay Bruce to the Toronto Blue Jays was on life support late Monday, and perhaps not to be resuscitated, because of concerns over the health of one of the other players involved, a source involved with the deal told Yahoo Sports.
The Cincinnati Reds had agreed to send Bruce to Toronto, which would have shipped outfielder Michael Saunders to the Los Angeles Angels, who would have given the Reds at least one prospect, according to multiple sources. The players, one of the sources said, had been agreed upon and the deal was contingent on a review of medical records.
It is unclear which player's medicals snagged the deal, though Saunders played only nine games last season after injuring his knee stepping on a sprinkler head in spring training.
Toronto, which tried to trade for Bruce earlier this offseason in a three-way deal with Oakland as the third team, according to two sources, refocused its attention on the 28-year-old outfielder in recent days and had hoped to add another power-hitting bat to a lineup replete with them. Bruce has 208 career home runs, including 26 last season, in which his .226/.294/.434 line was his second consecutive well below his career average.
Over his first six seasons, Bruce hit .257/.330/.482. Knee surgery derailed him in 2014, and struggles over the last two months of the 2015 season torpedoed his final numbers. Still, the Blue Jays thought enough of him to pencil him into a lineup with reigning MVP Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki, Russell Martin, Devon Travis, Chris Colabello and Kevin Pillar after finishing last season tied for the 84th most runs in a single year with 891.
The deal never made it to the ink stage. After trading third baseman Todd Frazier and closer Aroldis Chapman, the Reds tried to shed another significant salary by dealing Bruce. He is owed $12.5 million this season and has a $13 million club option (with a $1 million buyout) for 2017. Even as Bruce's production has receded, his contract is considered a coup should he return to past performance.
The dismantling of the Reds would reach its deepest nadir yet with a trade of Bruce, who didn't carry tremendous value like Frazier or need to be dealt like Chapman, whose impending free agency and potential suspension for domestic abuse hung over Cincinnati. This would be – and still could be in a different incarnation – a pure financial dump as Cincinnati goes into full-on stripped-down rebuild.
Saunders, 29, would have been the Angels' favorite to win the left-field job, a position currently stocked with Daniel Nava and Craig Gentry vying for at-bats. The Angels spent less than $10 million on free agents this offseason, and their lineup enters this season as among their biggest question marks.
