Meanwhile, the widely rumored trade of Jesse Chavez has gone down, as the A's sent him to Toronto for Liam Hendriks. You'll recall that Chavez has a history of pitching well in the rotation but not, perhaps, having the stamina to go 200. You'll also recall that Matt Swartz's arbitration model projects Chavez will earn $4.7 million in 2016. That's a bit rich for the A's blood for a swingman, especially a swingman who, despite warm and fuzzy feelings from A's fans, has put up an A.J. Griffin–esque 101 ERA+ over the last two seasons. Chavez was a lot of fun, certainly, a pint-sized overachiever whose glove slaps were among the best in the game, but Bivid Beast aren't here for your amusement. (Which is too bad.)

Then again, maybe they are: Liam Hendriks is Australian and Grant Balfour and Travis Blackley were certainly a barrel of laughs. Hendriks has one more season of minimum-salary eligibility, so the A's save themselves $4 million off of 2016's payroll in the swap, and get three more years of team control overall because Chavez is due for free agency after next year. Hendriks is 27 and on his fourth major-league team, but only just had his first good year in the majors last season, after Toronto put him into the bullpen. From 2011 to 2014, Hendriks started 34 games (out of 39 total), basically a full season's worth, and racked up a not-nice-at-all 69 ERA+. He didn't miss bats, he gave up bombs, and he didn't even manage to luck into run support (3–15 record). That experiment over, Hendriks struck out 10 per nine in the bullpen last year while walking just 1.5 and allowing three homers in 65 innings. He threw two 95 mph fastballs and an 88 mph slider.

So why would the Blue Jays trade all that good stuff for one year of Jesse Chavez? One thing is that you will notice I did not mention a changeup. In 112 plate appearances last year, lefties smacked Hendriks for a .746 OPS. He stuffed righties, obviously, or else his overall numbers would have been better, and .746 doesn't sound that bad, but .746 was above the lefty league average last year, which is not something you want to see from a late-innings reliever. Which is just to say that Hendriks isn't a late-innings reliever so much as a righty platoon pitcher. Those aren't quite a dime a dozen, not at Hendriks' level of ability (.499 OPS allowed to right-handed hitters), but they're not all that rare either.

Ability isn't static, of course, and maybe the A's think they can teach Hendriks something to, if not stop lefties, at least make him a more valid setup man–type option, because at the moment, given the rest of the A's options, Hendriks is probably the eighth-inning man behind Sean Doolittle, unless it's Fernando Rodriguez, in which case he's the 7th-inning man, and in either event, he's not a middle reliever.

Still and all, though, I have to say that Liam Hendriks is more than I thought the A's might get for Jesse Chavez and is, further, an indication that the A's aren't (and thus may never be) in teardown mode; surely some team (and maybe the Blue Jays themselves) could have offered some Low-A live arm for Chavez rather than someone who will help Oakland win games in 2016.