Blue Jays inquired on Utley, Hamels and Bastardo. Again!

[Angrioter]

CALLING UP THE PHILLIES

 

The Jays called the Philadelphia Phillies inquiring about lefty Cole Hamels, second baseman Chase Utley and lefty reliever Antonio Bastardo.

 

Utley had 36 doubles six triples 11 homers and 78 RBIs in 155 games with a .746 OPS. He earns $10 millions this year, has a full no-trade and refused to waive it earlier this season. Of course, the Jays have a need at second base after taking the job away from Ryan Goins last year.

 

Hamels was 9-9 with a 2.46 ERA in 30 starts walking 59 and striking out 198 in 204 2/3 innings. The lefty who earns $22.5 million has a limited no trade and may block trades to 20 clubs. This year he was able to block deals to all clubs except the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals.

 

Bastardo, 5-7 with a 3.94 ERA walking 34 and striking out 81 in 64 innings, might be the only one that the Jays could afford to obtain is eligible for salary arbitration. The Jays need to rebuild their bullpen.

 

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/11/10/blue-jays-reportedly-interested-in-martin-and-martinez

[RealAccountant]

Hang in there guys

 

Marlins trade 2.0 is coming up. Time to say goodbye to Stroman, Sanchez and Norris

[BlueJayWay]

I love Bastardo. Mostly because of the name.

[Angrioter]

I love Bastardo. Mostly because of the name.

 

He's my cousin.

[xposbrad]

We need to target the most expensive players to acquire, or players in their mid 30s who other teams want to cash in because they know their production will drop. AA is the man with the plan.

[BallsDeep]

The idea of giving up top prospects for old guys locked into huge contracts is stupid. Please not again. This whole competitive window notion is nonsense... Sustainability, Alex

[Deadpool]

He's my cousin.

 

Do you try to pimp him out to tourists like your other cousins?

[wardhenke1]

Hang in there guys

 

Marlins trade 2.0 is coming up. Time to say goodbye to Stroman, Sanchez and Norris

 

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/e3/e303635b39773300532476f6e4f13f598b407614eb45e78069596371f86afbb1.jpg

[Angrioter]

Do you try to pimp him out to tourists like your other cousins?

 

lol Hell no.

[GD]

Hamels was 9-9

 

Meh, .500 pitcher who would get destroyed in the AL East

[CJ-Freeway]

Meh, .500 pitcher who would get destroyed in the AL East

 

My thoughts exactly, we don't want RA Dickey part 2.

[GD]

My thoughts exactly, we don't want RA Dickey part 2.

 

I was joking lol

[Ziggyy108]

I was joking lol

 

hahaha too funny

[JaysFan4Ever]

Remember, it's AA "doing his homework." He's going to check in on almost everyone so he can say he's checked in on players, spoke about deals but nothing ever came together. With guys like this it's not a shock. Then he can say he tried. to get something done but nothing lined up money and player wise because we know the Phillies will want the top yooung starters we have plus the Jays to take on as much money as possible and that won't happen.

[Angrioter]

Ryan Howard+ money for Dalton Pompey

 

AA kind of deal

[GNick49]

CALLING UP THE PHILLIES

 

The Jays called the Philadelphia Phillies inquiring about lefty Cole Hamels, second baseman Chase Utley and lefty reliever Antonio Bastardo.

 

Utley had 36 doubles six triples 11 homers and 78 RBIs in 155 games with a .746 OPS. He earns $10 millions this year, has a full no-trade and refused to waive it earlier this season. Of course, the Jays have a need at second base after taking the job away from Ryan Goins last year.

 

Hamels was 9-9 with a 2.46 ERA in 30 starts walking 59 and striking out 198 in 204 2/3 innings. The lefty who earns $22.5 million has a limited no trade and may block trades to 20 clubs. This year he was able to block deals to all clubs except the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals.

 

Bastardo, 5-7 with a 3.94 ERA walking 34 and striking out 81 in 64 innings, might be the only one that the Jays could afford to obtain is eligible for salary arbitration. The Jays need to rebuild their bullpen.

 

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/11/10/blue-jays-reportedly-interested-in-martin-and-martinez

 

Where's all this payroll suppose to be coming from? Couldn't even sign Santana this spring

[Deadpool]

Where's all this payroll suppose to be coming from? Couldn't even sign Santana this spring

 

Multi-billion dollar parent company searched their office couches for spare change?

[GD]

Where's all this payroll suppose to be coming from? Couldn't even sign Santana this spring

 

Payroll is capped at $140M which is where we were during the year thus we couldn't spend

 

rn sans Melky and co it's around ~$118m

[Chappy]

Payroll is capped at $140M which is where we were during the year thus we couldn't spend

 

rn sans Melky and co it's around ~$118m

 

Has it been officially stated that it's $140M?

[GD]

Has it been officially stated that it's $140M?

 

Doubt that they'd officially state that but I think it's a valid assumption considering the past season / trade deadline.

[KingKat]

Might see Happ for Bastardo? Reliever in line for arb certainly fits the profile of the kind of player that could be obtained in a Happ trade. AA probably wants to bring in a veteran reliever and Bastardo is almost a statistical dead ringer for pre blowup Sergio Santos (although whether that's really a selling point is certainly up for debate). Not sure what kind of interest the Phillies would have in Happ. They did draft and develop him so there might be some attachment on the part of the org.

[wardhenke1]

According to various sources our payroll right now is about $102m. I still personally believe that after last year's high of $140m it's going to drop significantly to around $100-120m. Last year the pattern was pretty obvious: no-one of significance signed in the off-season, no-one of interest signed during the season and nobody picked up before the trade deadline. $138m was our absolute limit as set by Rogers and in fairness the money was not spent well.

 

All the factors are against our splashing out the cash this off-season:

 

1) Rogers love of all things hockey

2) The presence of significant salary albatrosses for 2015 that no-one else will want without a large portion of their salary being eaten (Buehrle, Reyes, Dickey, Romero)

3) AA's dislike of long contracts (again to be fair I tend to agree with this one)

4) The total lack of achievement by this core group of players for 2 years suggests that a few 'tweaks' would not dramatically improve the situation. Why throw good money after bad?

5) The number of teams that are looking to reload and retool who actually have money to spend. It's not just the usual suspects (LAD, NYY, BOS etc.), but also the Royals, Orioles, Detroit, Rangers etc. who are potentially genuine contenders.

6) The general undesirability of the Toronto market for free agents, that can force overpay or lead to suspect trades as an alternative

 

Not overly optimistic to be honest.

[glory]

Yeah, I could see Happ for Bastardo being a real possibility. It seems the team is ready to roll with Sanchez/Estrada in the #5 spot, and Bastardo can become the closer (or Cecil becomes the closer and Bastardo replaces Cecil's role....no difference).

 

As far as this "rumor", Hamels and Utley are both 4 win players, and Bastardo is probably a 1 win player at best. That would be a significant improvement if they made that deal without losing anyone on the MLB roster except replaceable parts (Happ, Romero, etc, for salary reasons + top prospects). Not sure the Jays should be making a deal like that given what they did two years ago, but at least the improvement figures to be great enough to add nearly 10 wins to the roster depending on how healthy Utley stays and whether Hamels can transition to the AL East (which I think he would). Very expensive and short-sighted though, which is right up AA's alley.

[Dick_Pole]

 

1) Rogers love of not having their stock price tank further than it has in the past two years starting the day after the Marlins trade so they need to find cost savings where they can.

 

Not overly optimistic to be honest.

 

I tend to agree with you say except for the fix above, and I disagree about Dickey's contract. $12M is very reasonable for a 200+ IP 2+ WAR pitcher. It's just that the return won't be as good as what AA gave up in the first place.

 

I'm like a broken record occasionally dispersing this information on this board, but the payroll constraints have 99% to do with how Rogers is doing overall and maybe 1% to do with hockey. At the time of the Marlins trade, some genius in the company probably forecasted 5% or more growth on their wireless and cable businesses. Then they had to re-rate all their US roaming plans which was a gold mine for them and their stock price tanked.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=RCI+Interactive#%7B%22range%22%3A%222y%22%2C%22scale%22%3A%22linear%22%2C%22comparisons%22%3A%7B%22SPY%22%3A%7B%22color%22%3A%22%23cc0000%22%2C%22weight%22%3A1%7D%7D%7D

 

Rogers' stock price was $45 when the Marlins and Dickey trades happened in Dec 2012. Now it's $38 but keep in mind that during that time the stock market in general has gone up 50% so the drop looks even worse in comparison. If Rogers' stock was at $55 or something and the business was doing well, the payroll would probably be $200 million with an inefficiently-built playoff team.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Dick_Pole