The domino effect continued this weekend in the AL East where Tampa picked up former Red Sox Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez and Toronto traded the second highest paid player in baseball in Vernon Wells. For the Rays, these are the types of players they are forced to compete for due to the poor attendance they have to deal with in Tampa. They have a roster of mostly players that are either on their way up in their careers (Evan Longoria, David Price, Jeremy Hellickson, B.J. Upton) or on their way down (Damon, Ramirez) like other small market teams that have payroll restraints. I still think Tampa will be a little better than expected this season due to their solid starting pitching and adding Damon and Ramirez can’t hurt the lineup. Good enough for the playoffs? Probably doubtful, although I can’t remember a season in recent memory where I thought so many American League teams could make it to the postseason. However, Tampa will be compensated with 6 combined first or second round picks for Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford and Rafael Soriano alone in this year’s draft and they’ll have their own as well. Based on their recent history of drafting and developing quality talent, it will probably only be a matter of time before they are competing at the top of the division again.

Meanwhile the Vernon Wells deal is a great trade for the Blue Jays. They get rid of a player who had 4 years and $86 million still owed to him for two useful players in Mike Napoli and outfielder/DH Juan Rivera who hit 25 homers in 2009. Napoli, 29, is a slugging catcher who has hit 20 or more homers in each of the past 3 seasons including 26 this past season. Toronto was wise to capitalize on the obviously desperate Anaheim Angels as the Angels simply have too much invested not to add a significant piece to a team that won just 80 games last season. It’s hard to figure why the Angels didn’t want Carl Crawford, Rafael Soriano or Cliff Lee for draft picks but traded two major league players for Wells. For the Blue Jays, they can now focus on locking up promising players like Ricky Romero, Adam Lind and, if he can come close to repeating his breakout 2010, Jose Bautista. The Blue Jays realize they are probably a year or two away so why hold onto a player with such a bloated contract? A no-brainer for Toronto that shouldn’t hurt them in the short term and should really help them in the next couple of years.