12 years ago today: The Blue Jays swing a massive trade with the Marlins

Coming into the 2013 season, it had been 19 seasons since the Blue Jays last made the postseason, winning back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993. Despite bringing back the good Blue Jays logo for the 2012 season, they finished with a 73-89 record, their worst win percentage since the 2004 season.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos was looking to turn the ship around for the 2013 season though. On top of this massive trade, he also acquired the reigning National League Cy Young winner, R.A. Dickey, for prospects Travis d’Arnuad and Noah Syndergaard.

Unfortunately, neither trade helped the Jays in the short term, as they finished with a slightly better 74-88 record, largely in part due to injuries. Those pieces, more specifically Reyes, Buehrle, and Dickey, helped the 2014 Blue Jays push for a postseason spot, finishing with an 83-79 record, but just missing out.

Ever the bold executive, Anthopoulos decided to make some big moves two years later for the 2015 season. On November 28, 2014, he traded a package of Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin, and top prospect Franklin Barreto to the Oakland Athletics for Josh Donaldson. That same off-season, the Blue Jays signed Canadian catcher Russell Martin to a five-year deal.

Other trades that off-season included acquiring Marco Estrada from the Milwaukee Brewers for Adam Lind, as well as Devon Travis from the Detroit Tigers for Anthony Gose, with that trade happening 10 days ago on Tuesday.

Before the trade deadline, Reyes was traded to the Colorado Rockies for Troy Tulowitzki, with the Blue Jays acquiring ace David Price a few days later. These moves in 2015 helped the Blue Jays break their long playoff drought, but the moves in late 2012 also helped in some regard, as Reyes netted them Tulowitzki, while Buerhle and Dickey were useful back-end-of-the-rotation starters.

Now just if the current regime made some bold moves…