K.B.'s Baseball Blog

Three days after it was announced that the Cardinals and Blue Jays were seriously talking about trading third basemen, the deal was done.

After both players, Scott Rolen and Troy Glaus, did not use their no-trade waivers and were cleared after having a physical, Rolen was heading to Toronto to become a Blue Jay and Glaus was heading to St. Louis for his new team, the Cardinals.

The deal was nice and clean, a third basemen for a third basemen. Although, along with the trade, it is reported that Glaus has or will use his 2009 player option, worth $11.25 million dollars. In 2008, he will earn $12.75 million. Rolen has three years on his contract left, through 2010, and will get paid $12 million each year.

With Rolen, the Blue Jays now have 2 Cardinals from the 2007 team, along with Cardinal’s former shortstop, David Eckstien. To make things even more interesting, the Cardinals signed last week first basemen Josh Phelps, who spent the first 5 years of his career between 2000-2004 before being traded off to Cleveland. Not counting Glaus, only one other Cardinal has ever been in a Blue Jays uniform, the Cardinals ace, Chris Carpenter.

Rolen, 33, who apparently wanted to get out of St. Louis after feuding with Cardinals manager Tony La Russa for some time, has had his offensive numbers go way down since he hurt his shoulders after having a collision with Heep Seop Choi in 2005. He is considered by some to be the best third basemen in the major and the best since either Brooks Robinson or Mike Schmidt. He was drafted in the second round of the 1993 draft, and was the 1996 rookie of the year with the Phillies. He spent his first 7 years with Philadelphia before being traded to the Cardinals in 2002 for Placido Polanco. His best year was in 2004 when he had a .314 batting average with a career high 34 homeruns and 124 RBIs. But of course, after is injured 2005 season in which he played only 54 games, he has yet to regain his prior numbers.

Glaus, 31, will add some pop in the clean up whole behind Albert Pujols. But he will, with no doubt, have the type of defense that Rolen brought the St. Louis. He was a Blue Jay for 2 years, ’06 and ’07, before he spent the first 7 years of his career with the Anahiem Angels. In those years, he was the 2002 World Series MVP. In 2000, he hit a career high of 47 homeruns and a .284 batting average along with 102 RBIs. In the next season, he hit 41 homeruns with a career high of 108 RBIs. He has a .254 career average and 277 homeruns. In 2007, he hit 20 homeruns and.262 batting average.

With the addition of Glaus, the Cardinals now have 5 new players on the 40-man roster, Matt Clement, Jason Larue, Brian Barton, and Ceasat Izturis.