The Toronto Blue Jays acquired super sub Marco Scutaro from the Oakland Athletics on Sunday for a pair of minor-leaguers.

Also on Sunday, Toronto claimed outfielder Cody Haether off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Though a mediocre hitter, new Blue Jay Marco Scutaro is prized for his versatile glove work.
(Gus Ruelas/Associated Press)

Scutaro batted .260 last season with a .332 on-base percentage, seven home runs, 13 doubles and 41 RBIs in 104 games with Oakland.

The 32-year-old Venezuelan is prized for his defensive versatility: he is able to play second, third, shortstop and the outfield and owns a career fielding percentage of .979, making him close to an ideal utility man.

"He was the perfect guy," Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi said. "We were looking to have that role be an offensive guy who can play a little bit of defence. We think he's one of the best in the game."

The A's, who missed the playoffs in 2007 after reaching the AL championship series the year before, valued Scutaro's contributions but wanted to give youngster Donnie Murphy a chance to be a utility infielder.

"We decided to go in a different direction with that position," A's assistant general manager David Forst said. "We like Donnie Murphy a lot. Marco's obviously been great here. We wouldn't have accomplished what we did the last three or four years without him. I hope it's a good opportunity for him.

"We got a couple of good young arms. For us it was a chance to get some other guys in there."

Insurance policy

In exchange for Scutaro, the Blue Jays sent right-handed pitchers Graham Godfrey and Kristian Bell to the A's.

Godfrey, 23, had a 6-7 record with a 3.98 ERA in 21 starts for the single-A Lansing Lugnuts last season. Bell, 23, was 3-7 record in 22 games with 11 starts and an ERA of 5.33 for single-A Dunedin.

Haether, the Blue Jays' waiver-wire pickup, spent the majority of 2007 with double-A Springfield. The 24-year-old hit .289 there with five home runs and 28 RBIs in 37 games.

Toronto also activated outfielder Vernon Wells, third baseman Troy Glaus, closer B.J. Ryan, left-hander Gustavo Chacin and lefty Davis Romero from the 60-day disabled list on Sunday.

Infielders Hector Luna and Pedro Lopez and lefty Mike Gosling were sent outright to triple-A Syracuse, and outfielder John-Ford Griffin was released unconditionally to make room for them.

The Blue Jays now have 39 players on the 40-man roster after the trade for Scutaro, which was the second move of note this off-season by Ricciardi, following the re-signing of outfielder Matt Stairs of Fredericton last month.

Scutaro provides insurance should something happen to either shortstop John McDonald, who had hernia surgery last month, or Glaus, who is coming back from left heel surgery and is also recovering from plantar fasciitis.

"One of our goals was to upgrade the utility role and we think we've done that," said Ricciardi. "He's OK enough in the outfield where we could play him there in spring training and run him out there. 

"We'll expand his role a little bit."

With files from the Canadian Press