The trade between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Toronto Blue Jays has set the baseball world on its ear on what has become a busy Friday afternoon. In addition to the earlier report that Mike Napoli was headed to Toronto for Vernon Wells, it appears the Angels are also sending outfielder Juan Rivera to Toronto as well. This was first reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, and later confirmed by Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports as well as Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles. What is unknown is the amount of cash, if any, being sent from the Blue Jays to the Angels in the trade.
Wells is due a whopping $86 million over the next four seasons: $23 million in 2011, and $21 million in each of 2012, 2013, and 2014, per the always resourceful Cot's Baseball Contracts. Rivera is due $5.25 million in 2011, and Napoli will make between $5.3 million and $6.1 million, depending on whether he is able to strike a deal with Toronto or goes to an arbitration hearing. Depending on the amount of cash sent by Toronto to the Angels, the net addition to the 2011 Angels payroll might not be too large.
The baseball world became a transaction hotbed Friday afternoon as, in addition to the Angels/Jays trade, the Tampa Bay Rays signed not one, but two free agent bats in Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez, per Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated. Incidentally, both Damon and Ramirez have been linked, at least peripherally, to the Angels in recent weeks, especially after the Angels lost out on Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre on the free agent market.
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