Toronto dealt OF-R Shannon Stewart and a player to be named later to the Twins for OF-S Bobby Kielty on Thursday. While the Blue Jays are playing well, the team is looking towards next season, as the Yankees and Red Sox don't appear within reach this year. As a pending free agent, Stewart wasn't likely to remain with the team through the trading deadline.

Minnesota doesn't believe Kielty can play the field every day and remain healthy, so they jumped at the opportunity to acquire the leadoff hitter for which they've been searching. The Blue Jays have only attempted 30 steals as a team this season, so Stewarts reduced steal total is not a result of a loss of speed. He'll run the bases with the Twins and could rack up more than two-dozen over the second half of the season if he remains healthy. However, I'm concerned that his hamstring problems may flare up if he begins running the bases again, since he won't receive any relief from the turf with a move to Minnesota. Even without the stress of stealing bases, he spent close to a month on the disabled list due to a strained hamstring, only rejoining the Blue Jays near the end of June.

The 29-year-old is a solid offensive player but not spectacular. He tends to hit a good number of balls on the ground, which works well with his speed but limits his power. I'm also a bit concerned that he appears to have developed a sizeable platoon split this season. Nevertheless, Stewart should fill a need for the Twins and help them make a push to catch the Royals for the division title. He will take playing time away from Dustan Mohr and Lew Ford, as Kielty was only playing part time.

In Kielty, the Blue Jays receive a player with a bit more power, a better walk rate, and a correspondingly worse contact rate. He also possesses marginal speed skills, but Toronto is unlikely to utilize those. Kielty is almost three years younger than Stewart and he won't even be eligible for arbitration for another season, so the Blue Jays will be able to allocate funds to other areas of need such as their pitching staff.

With Josh Phelps on the disabled list, Kielty should spend a good deal of time at DH. However, when Phelps is healthy Kielty will cover one of the two corner outfield spots, likely leftfield. Phelps hit the DL on July 10th, though the move was retroactive to the 8th. The Blue Jays haven't released much information about Phelps' condition, but they don't appear to believe he'll need to spend much more than three weeks on the disabled list, so he's expected back sometime in early August.

The Blue Jays called up Corey Thurman, Dan Reichert, and John Wasdin while sending down Jeff Tam and designating LHP Doug Davis for assignment. Davis cleared waivers and opted for free agency rather than accepting the assignment to AAA Toronto hoped he would take. Earlier this week, Davis signed a minor league contract with the Brewers, who will probably give him a chance to start sometime before the end of the season. Unfortunately, nothing indicates the 27-year-old's likely to display a better walk or strikeout rate in Milwaukee than he's demonstrated in Texas and Toronto, so he isn't likely to stick.