I'm not saying he's great. I'm not sure that his true talent isn't much better than what it is now. A 3.8-4.0 FIP type of guy. But even so, he has still been one of the team's best starters. Moving him to the pen makes no sense at all.
Mike Fiers is essentially a 30 year old version of Hutch. Why should the Jays trade Hutch and Alford for him? Doesn't solve the rotation issue, and they lose a top 5 prospect within the org for a lateral move.
How are people still failing to understand Hutch has been one of our best starters this year? It blows my mind that people advocate moving him to the pen.
The butt hurt is off the charts over there. They're essentially a cult of morons who refuse to allow outside ideas inside their forum.
Things are about to get really bleak in Baltimore. It's really too bad we couldn't acquire someone like JJ Hardy!
Counting on any combination of Norris, Boyd, Sanchez and Osuna to replace the ~550 innings left behind by MB, Estrada and Dickey is setting yourself up for failure and will lead to an overworked and ineffective bullpen.
Gallardo and his ability to get ground balls would work well in Toronto, especially with the improved infield defence. He should come fairly cheap too. That being said, acquiring someone better than Hutch is the biggest need right now. Shields or Ross plus Gallardo along with Tulo and Hawkins would make for a pretty good deadline.
Grab Gallardo for Colabello, take on that contract of Shields and keep most of the farm intact. If Buehrle is gone next year
allocating those funds back into Shields makes perfect sense to me. Those innings are going to have to come from somewhere.