Well, it looks to be all over bar the shouting, with the Blue Jays ready to officially ready to anoint Troy Glaus a Toronto player. He went up there for a physical today, and is staying for the press conference scheduled to take place tomorrow. Interestingly, it looks like part of the reason why he waived his no-trade clause, was discovering that the Blue Jays now use FieldTurf, which is supposedly kinder on the joints than artificial turf.
At least it's a two-for-two deal, with Santos already on the 40-man roster, so no-one needs to be taken off that. Batista and Hudson simply replace Santos and Glaus, but the ripple effect of these acquisitions is enormous. Counsell will move to SS (rendering my poll on that topic somewhat redundant) to make way for Hudson at 2B - Easley may well face any lefties, a weakness of Hudson's. And even more of a shift comes with Glaus's departure. Tracy moves back to 3B, meaning Green probably returns to RF, and we're still looking for a CF, probably a leftie to platoon with Terrero. [As an alternative, Green stays in CF and Carlos Quentin plays RF]
Gambo makes the case that the Diamondbacks are looking to '07, and it's difficult to argue with that. There are weird echoes of 2005: as we did coming into last season, we've lost our Opening Day starter from the previous year (then Johnson, now Vazquez), and our top home run and RBI producers (then Finley and Hillenbrand, now Glaus). Last year, however, we acquired Glaus and two free-agent pitchers in Estes and Ortiz. This year, it's been more about the potential; at the moment, I'd be putting the win total for AZ next year at about 70, but it depends to a huge amount on when the youngsters arrive, and what they bring to the table. It could easily be +/- ten or more from that.
Certainly, Chad Tracy seems happy: "I think third base has always been my natural position, and the one I like to play the most." It'll be interesting to see how he adapts: he was far from impressive there in 2004, with bad footwork leading to errant throws, and a franchise-record for errors. We'll have to see what develops as a result in 2006.