Alex Anthopoulos calls Colby Rasmus a five-tool player. But it is the sixth tool that will be the topic of conversation when the Toronto Blue Jays general manager sits down at some point Thursday with the newest core piece to his team.
For non-seamheads, a player is said to be five-tool when he excels at hitting for average and power, has base-running skills and speed and can throw and catch the ball. Rasmus has the skill set to do all of those. The sixth tool is what Anthopoulos referred to Wednesday as "the elephant in the room," which is Rasmus's reputation for – well, depending on who you talk to he is either hard to coach or just didn't get along with St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, in which case you should know this: having a strained relationship is often a badge of honour. Scott Rolen couldn't stand him either, and it's easy to pick sides in that tiff.
"We all have warts," Anthopoulos said. "It all comes down to 'Are you a good person?' I like to have that first elephant-in-the-room conversation with guys. Where I say: 'Let's talk about the past once.' I had it with Yunel [Escobar]. I had it with [third base prospect] Brett Lawrie." There is, Anthopoulos explained, a difference between being flashy, arrogant and maybe not running out every ground ball and being "a bad human being."
There were overtones of last season's acquisition of Escobar in Wednesday's three-team, 12-player trade in which the Blue Jays landed a legitimate major-league centre-fielder and some bullpen chattel, along with Mark Teahen, in a transaction with the Chicago White Sox and Cardinals that sent Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart to the White Sox and Corey Patterson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski and Edwin Jackson – acquired in the trade with Chicago –to the Cardinals. The Cardinals also received a combination of cash and players to be named later.
Escobar joined the Blue Jays from the Atlanta Braves with a reputation for what might politely be called an "unstructured" approach to some of the subtler skills of playing and being a teammate. His replacement, Alex Gonzalez, received a standing ovation when he walked into the Braves clubhouse.
These days, Escobar gets more applause. Going into Wednesday's 3-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles, Escobar led all shortstops in on-base percentage and walks and was second in hits, average, total bases and OPS. Lawrie, of course, is the organization's top prospect who is maybe a week away from being called up. He, too, came over from another team (the Milwaukee Brewers) with the reputation for being tough to coach. Anthopoulos remembered Cito Gaston telling him about Devon White's poor reputation; "Jose Bautista," Anthopoulos piped up, "there were grumblings about him, too.
"I think we can get more out of [Rasmus] than we saw in St. Louis," Anthopoulos said.
La Russa has suggested openly that Rasmus's father, Tony, is meddlesome. And Rasmus's brother, Cyle, tweeted after the trade: "Fresh start for my brother, good for him! The unfair treatment was ridiculous! Now he can breathe and have fun playing the game once again!"
Anthopoulos admitted that the strained relationship between the Rasmus' and La Russa "probably didn't hurt," the chances of a deal being made. What he didn't say was with Carlos Beltran being traded from the New York Mets to the San Francisco Giants, he had to tie up the transaction before teams that crapped out in pursuit of Beltran started casting glances at Rasmus.
"He times well with all the players we have here," Anthopoulos said, meaning that Rasmus isn't eligible for free agency until 2015 and is 24 – a nice combination with 20-year-old Anthony Gose two years away, minimum.
Rasmus's batting average is off 30 points this season, and his OPS of .753 is well shy of 2010's .859. But he is a player the Blue Jays have tried to acquire repeatedly. He is a left-handed bat with power at a premium position. The move likely means an outfield of Rasmus in centre, Travis Snider in left and, when Lawrie's here, Bautista in right. Not bad.
But manager John Farrell won't commit to a spot in the order. Second or sixth or a little bit of both is a good guess, though. "We'll see where he's the most comfortable," Farrell said.
That's quite the pre-emptive olive branch, and if that doesn't tell Rasmus how important he is to this organization, nothing will.