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Moreno's playoff outburst salt in wound for Blue Jays fans

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Oct 8 2023, 8:46 pm
Moreno's playoff outburst salt in wound for Blue Jays fans
Rob Schumacher/The Republic/USA TODAY NETWORK

Gabriel Moreno is doing something the 2023 Toronto Blue Jays couldn’t: win in the playoffs.

And less than 10 months after Toronto traded away the former top prospect in baseball, the young Moreno is showing he’s already capable of starring on the sport’s biggest stage.

Sent as part of a deal along with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. last December to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for outfielder Daulton Varsho, Moreno just might be having the last laugh over his former team.

With the team facing a logjam at the catcher position, Toronto opted to keep Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk over the still-developing Moreno after just 25 games with the Jays.

Through three playoff games with the Diamondbacks, the 23-year-old catcher has performed quite admirably in his first appearance on a postseason roster: 10 at bats, two homers, and three hits while knocking in four RBIs.

Perhaps more importantly for Moreno, his Diamondbacks are undefeated in three games and up 1-0 over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.

Sure, it’s a relatively small sample size, but Moreno himself has also crossed the plate twice in the playoffs, something the Jays did just once as a team over their two-game series loss to the Minnesota Twins.

On Saturday, Moreno launched a monster three-run shot in the top of the first inning of future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. It was a start-of-game rally that’d eventually see Kershaw leave after giving up six runs and recording just one out while the Diamondbacks cruised to an 11-2 win.

By contrast? Varsho went hitless in five at bats in the postseason and struck out to end the Jays’ season on Wednesday as they fell to the Twins 2-0.

It’d be unfair to judge the trade entirely on a few postseason games: Varsho had a remarkable defensive season, leading the major leagues with 29 defensive runs saved over the course of the 2023 campaign.

His 3.9 WAR was fourth on the team this season, trailing just Bo Bichette, Matt Chapman and Kevin Kiermaier, but it’s actually a shade lower than Moreno’s 4.3 WAR in his first full year in the majors.

For all the positives a player like Varsho brings on the defensive end, his paltry .674 OPS over the course of the season ranked 127th out of 134 qualified major league batters this season, significantly lowering his overall value to the team that he’d bring with even a league average hitting season.

And fair or not, it’s tough not to see his time with Toronto forever linked to a prospect like Moreno that he was brought in for.

With not much else to do but lament, Blue Jays fans let out their frustration when seeing Moreno’s success this weekend.

While the jury’s still out on how Moreno’s MLB future will work out, the kid is passing all his first playoff tests with flying colours.

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