Its pretty simple why the Blue Jays traded him:
Eric Hinske inf
5 years/$14.75M (2003-07)
signed extension 3/03
$0.5M signing bonus
03:$0.5M, 04:$0.8M, 05:$3M, 06:$4.325M, 07:$5.626M
ML service: 4.000
Pure salery dump. It makes you wonder about Trot Nixon. He must be pretty far away from returning.