After I posted this recent piece on the departures and arrivals in the Blue Jays’ summer trade flurry, a reader offered a suggestion:



Interesting idea. So I hit rewind on the Alex Anthopoulos deals that triggered the Drive of ’15.



The skinny: That summer, the Blue Jays traded 13 players, including 11 pitchers, to acquire David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, LaTroy Hawkins, Ben Revere, Mark Lowe and Cliff Pennington.



The ones that got away: Of those 13, only three – pitchers Matt Boyd and Miguel Castro and infielder Jose Reyes – have left marks of any consequence in the majors. And one could certainly make an argument against including Reyes on that list, given that his numbers show a replacement player might have made a bigger contribution.



The conclusion: The 2015 team gave up a lot in quantity but no game-changers. That syndrome played out in the Blue Jays’ recent roster purge; lots of depth pieces added, but no...