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Jose Reyes is now a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and he’ll be looking to move on from the debacle that was the 2012 Miami Marlins, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was told by his boss that he wouldn’t have to:

Jeffrey Loria told Reyes to buy house in Miami and was traded 2 days later #marlins

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 15, 2013

Ah, Jeffery Loria. Staying classy as always.

The shortstop recalled the incident as being “kind of crazy”, and was “shocked” when the call finally came that told the shortstop to pack his bags and head on north across the border.

As you can imagine, there was no post-trade follow-up with his former team:

Reyes says #Marlins never reached out to him post trade to #BlueJays. “If they traded me, I don’t need to talk to them.”

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) February 15, 2013

That said, he’s ready to move on with the Blue Jays in the upcoming season, and the team will be counting on him not only to provide the offense with a spark as the leadoff man, but for the 29-year-old to stay healthy on the field.

Reyes didn’t have a problem doing that with the Marlins last season, but the one-time 78-steal man has seen his stolen base totals level off at 40 over the last couple of years, and there are concerns about if his baserunning speed and ability are diminishing.

In Toronto, that might be something particular to watch for, as Reyes will be running primarily on turf for the first time in his career, and it’s not as though the artificial grass has a good reputation on being easy on the knees, you know?

That said, it has been more than three years since Reyes’ lost season in 2009, and the fact that he played 160 games for the first time since then last season, and that he’s one year removed from a 6.2 fWAR 2011, gives the Blue Jays hope that the dynamic shortstop’s substantial skills will be largely retained – AL adjustment be damned.

For Reyes, he’s just “glad that [he's] on the same team” with newcomers like Melky Cabrera, and that there will be a whole season of hitting in front of sluggers like Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion waiting for him.

Yes, he’s seen it before with the Marlins, but at least with the Blue Jays, he can be assured that team GM Alex Anthopoulos won’t be the type to tell him anything misleading about his status on the team.

And no, he never bought that house in Miami.