Looking to upgrade their offensive production at first base, the Milwaukee Brewers have acquired Adam Lind from the Toronto Blue Jays for right-handed pitcher Marco Estrada.
The Brewers’ Twitter account officially announced the deal:
This deal comes the same day that the Blue Jays exercised Lind’s $7.5 million option for next season, per Shi Davidi of SportsNet.ca:
However, it wasn’t a surprise that Lind got traded. He’s reportedly been the source of many phone calls in recent days, per Bob Elliott of The Toronto Sun.
Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has Brewers general manager Bob Melvin’s thoughts on the deal:
Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star adds more from Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos:
Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman wished his now-former teammate well on Twitter after learning about the deal:
The 31-year-old veteran hit .321/.381/.479 in 96 games last season, though he’s best used in a platoon situation because left-handed pitching has limited him to a .588 career OPS, via Baseball Reference.
Estrada gives the Blue Jays pitching flexibility. He appeared in 39 games last year with 18 starts, posting a 4.36 ERA and 1.201 WHIP, though he also led the league with 29 homers allowed in just 150.2 innings.
Neither player is the difference-maker but can serve an integral role in a specific area that both teams needed to upgrade. The Brewers got virtually no offensive production from first base with Mark Reynolds as their primary starter. The Blue Jays get more depth on the pitching staff, though Estrada is best served coming out of the bullpen.
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