You know no one really regrets the Drew Storen trade because so many people were happily taking the blame for his failure.
"Right out of the gates, he was in unfamiliar territory," said Jays GM Ross Atkins – the man who put him in that territory.
"In all fairness, I didn't pitch him much on a regular basis," said Jays manager John Gibbons – without bothering to sound particularly regretful of the fact.
Storen was designated for assignment on Sunday. This could end a bunch of ways. Returning to Toronto is the least likely of them.
He left as he'd arrived – quietly. A few bro hugs, a few handshakes and a polite refusal to talk about it.
"I'm going to head out, guys," he said. "Probably easier that way."
Storen's exit was remarkable only in how little angst it produced. Five years ago, the Jays would've gotten skewered for this trade. Now, we are all more enlightened, positive people. We've learned to appreciate a job not well done.
From a deals perspective, there haven't been many highlights in the Mark Shapiro/Ross Atkins era of Blue Jays baseball. Acquiring Storen may be the most notable thing they've done so far.
He came with good bona fides. He was an effective closer for the Washington Nationals right up until they bounced him out of the job.
The man swapped for him – Ben Revere – was occupying a human-sized space in left field that could be filled by Michael Saunders (once the attempt to trade Saunders fell apart).
Most significantly, Storen's arrival allowed the Jays to put Aaron Sanchez in the starting rotation.
From the off, Storen said all the things you want to hear from a guy whose career is in flux. He didn't claim the closer's job. In fact, he seemed to shrink from it.
"No matter what, any of those last nine outs are important," he said in his first conference call. "Whatever they want me to do, I'm just going to go out there and do my job."
Sometimes you look back on a piece of boilerplate and cringe a bit. However you picture the prototype closer – big-bodied, aggressive, slightly unhinged – Storen was the opposite of that.
Saunders and Sanchez used the space cleared out by Storen to thrive. The man himself fell apart.
He wasn't impressive during spring training, ceding the closer's role to 21-year-old Roberto Osuna.
He wasn't much better as a setup guy. Eventually, he just wasn't much good at all. He'd become the sort of reliever either used early in games that mattered, or late in games that didn't.
His arsenal reduced to a figurative slingshot, Storen was functionally throwing batting practice.
His last outing came Saturday during a 14-5 loss to Seattle. It was a day of terrible Toronto pitching, but somehow Storen managed to stand out to the crowd. He'd gone from the new guy to the whipping boy.
They booed him when he gave up a home run to Nelson Cruz. Then they cheered derisively when he finally got an out.
After the game, Storen was sitting slumped at his locker, bare-chested, staring fixedly at nothing. He didn't bother moving when the media arrived – a tell-tale sign of surrender.
If he didn't actually know what was coming, he certainly sensed it.
There's nothing really sad about his departure. Someone will take a chance on him. However it turns out, he'll make more than $8-million (U.S.) this year for being one of the worst pitchers in Major League Baseball.
The only thing that might be said to be melancholy was that five hours after he'd left, Storen had already been forgotten. No teammates stood up to say a few nice words – he hadn't been here long enough to get that. Management fell back on the "very professional" line – which translates as "at the least, he wasn't a pain in the ass."
As if to prove how little Storen mattered, the Jays went out on Sunday and strung together a small pitching gem.
Between them, J.A. Happ, Brett Cecil, Jason Grilli and Osuna allowed Seattle only one hit over nine innings. Toronto won 2-0.
Storen was replaced on the roster by Ryan Tepera, whose performance in three separate stints with the big-league club this season might best be described as unpromising. So, until evidence to the contrary is supplied, the Jays are down a reliever.
They might trade Storen for someone useful, but that's exceedingly unlikely. The only good news is that whomever they get is likely an improvement.
"We're looking for pitching in general," Atkins said. "It's not starter specific or reliever specific. It's make the team better with the pieces we have here."
Storen will read that and flinch. Atkins is talking about a warm body. Storen no longer qualifies.
The only real winner in this is Atkins. Thanks to two pieces of good luck (Saunders and Sanchez), he's off the hook for one bad assessment (Storen). Since he'd get killed for it if it went the other way, that's only fair.
But those mulligans are rare in baseball. Once you start stringing the mistakes together – even fortunate ones – people will begin to notice.
Cathal Kelly