It's hard to be critical of the job that Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos has done this year.
He signed his high draft picks, he practically stole Brandon Morrow for the Mariners and made a shrewd trade with the Braves, picking up Yunel Escobar. While all of those things can and are viewed as good things, I'm a little surprised at the club's handling of one-time closer Jeremy Accardo.
On Sunday, some quotes came out that Accardo is not thrilled with spending another season in Triple-A and that he feels like he was misled by the team, after being shuttled back and forth in 2009.
It's pretty clear at this point that there's a 'schism' (sorry to go all 2009 Vikings there, but I couldn't help it) between the 28-year-old and the Jays, and it's one that no one is talking about right now.
Frankly, I don't really think it matters why there's an issue. But why is nothing being done to fix the situation?
That's where Anthopoulos comes in.
He gave Accardo just over a $1 million to basically spend the entire season in the minors, which is a waste of money, and more importantly, a wasted asset.
While Accardo's value was likely not that high at the end of the 2009 season, I'm guessing since he saved 30 games in 2007, that he could have been moved to another team for a lower tiered prospect.
I know that's the kind of return about which nobody gets really excited, but the club would have at least been trying to maximize Accardo's value. What's his value in trade now? Whatever it is, it stands to reason that it's considerably lower than what it was last year.
It might be considered nit-picking to bring this up, but the bottom line is that the Jays aren't in a position to let the assets they do have depreciate. It appears that they have done just that with Accardo.
I understand that Accardo is arbitration-eligible again after this season, and that he's still under team control, but at this point it looks like the relationship might be beyond repair. If it is, the club should release him, and the sides should just move on - for the sake of both parties.