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There wasn't a thing wrong with dumping two salaries over the side of the S.S. (Ship is Sinking) Blue Jays.
The ship was listing badly. Why not lighten the load?
Backup outfielder Eric Hinske goes to the Boston Red Sox. Lefty relief specialist Scott Schoeneweis and his not-so-special 6.55 ERA go to the Cincinnati Reds.
This is not waving the white flag. That was raised atop the Rogers Centre following a 2-8 road swing and their inactivity at the July 31 trade deadline without waivers.
Hinske and Schoeneweis were considered so vital, that no other contender bothered to block either one of them on the waiver wire.
In dealing the two -- and paying half of Hinske's $5.6-million US 2007 salary -- the Jays save $4.5 million.
There is the little matter about the Jays not having a catcher under contract for next season. The Jays have a $7.5 million option on Bengie Molina, which likely won't be picked up and Gregg Zaun is a free agent coming off his $1-million contract.
And they have to enter long-term talks to keep Vernon Wells.
To a lesser degree, this is like August of 1998 when then GM Gord Ash put failed closer Randy Myers on waivers. The San Diego Padres, fearing that the Atlanta Braves would grab him, put in a claim. The Padres wound up with Myers and assumed the $14 million Myers was owed.
FANS COMPLAIN
Think about it. Hinske played 78 of the Jays' 120 games and had Alex Rios not been gone on the disabled list for 26 days with a staph infection, the total would have been a lot less.
We've heard fans complain about Hinske going to a division rival and how bad that is for the 2007 Jays, how Hinske could come back and haunt them. That is true, but Eric Hinske has the same chance of winning an every day job with the Red Sox as does Cecil Fielder or Bobby Bailor.
And it's no secret GM J.P. Ricciardi had been trying to dump Hinske's contract, without success, for the better part of two seasons.
Here is what you should be upset about on the Hinske deal:
He was the AL's top rookie in 2002, hitting .279 with 24 homers and 84 RBIs. The next spring the Jays, who could have renewed him at less than $500,000, gave him a five-year, $14.75-million deal.
Wells was given a similar deal the same day, although it amounted to less. Wells had been a No. 1 pick in 1997and had service time with the Jays in 1999, 2000 and '01.
Hinske had been a 17th-round pick in 1998 and had been seen by the Jays for all of one season, although Ricciardi and Hinske were together with the Oakland A's, Ricciardi as an assistant GM and Hinske at triple-A Sacramento in 2001.
The Jays could have looked at Hinske in 2003 and then had talks on a long-term deal, but noooo ... he earned $500,000 in 2003, $800,000 in 2004, $3 million in 2005, $4.325 million this year and $5.626 next year.
What happened with Hinske's production? He battled hand injuries, hitting .243 with 12 homers and 63 RBIs in 2003. Then, in 2004, he hit .246 with 15 homers and 69 RBIs.
Corey Koskie was brought in to play third in 2005 and Hinske moved to first where he hit .262, with 15 homers and 68 RBIs.
And in November, at the winter meetings, Ricciardi said Hinske had "evolved into what we thought he would be" and that would be the platoon DH against right-handers.
In the spring, with the new additions, Hinske became the platoon right fielder. But Alex Rios put an end to that in about two weeks.
So, for jumping too fast to sign him, the Jays now get a player to be named later.
As Mike Flanagan used to say: "How good can a player be when he doesn't even have a name? He'd have to be a baby to not have a name. It will be years before he can help us."