How about Austin Jackson?

[BTS]

the comment of signing jackson is useless without attaching a price at which you want to sign him. I would prefer cespedes is dollars don't matter.

 

The thread has weirdly taken a turn towards the "Jackson is redundant here, I don't want him" opinion.

 

I find his contract difficult to project. He could get 2/15 or 3/40, or anywhere in between and I wouldn't bat an eye. Towards the lower end of that I think he's a no-brainer.

[Brownie19]

It appears Jackson is heading towards a contract well below market value (after seeing Span get 3 years $10+ AAV). Signing him would be a shrewd, prudent move by Shatkins with would cement my opinion that these guys are a great addition to the organization.

 

116 wRC+ vs. LHP last year (111 in 2014).

 

I'm not sure there's any pitchers left who would provide the value Jackson could for this team. My concern is he's probably looking for a fulltime gig to try and rebuild his value (could be looking for a show me 1 year deal) and there could be better situations out there for that.

 

Any guess one what he'll cost? 1 yr $5M? Man - 2 yr $7-$8M would be sweet.

[glory]

If Jackson signed here he'd probably start in LF (and lead off because "speed"). Saunders is such an uncertainty.

[CHRIS]

To get a feel for how important it is to have depth beyond the 4th OF, you really just need to have been paying attention to this team.

 

2015

pre-season Top 4 = Bautista, Pillar, Pompey, Saunders

time in OF for Pennington, Tolleson, Valencia, Carrera, Goins, Diaz, and Colabello = 182 games, 1118.2 innings

* team had to trade for Revere mid-season

 

2014

pre-season Top 4 = Bautista, Cabrera, Rasmus, Sierra

time in OF for Encarnacion, Mayberry, Reimold, Diaz, Tolleson, Gillespie, Gose, Mastroianni, Glenn, Pillar, Pompey = 202 games, 1247.33 innings

 

2013

pre-season top-4 = Bautista, Cabrera, Rasmus, Davis

time in OF for Bonifacio, Gose, Sierra, Pillar = 150 games, 1037.32 innings

 

We're talking about over 1000 innings per season being played by guys who weren't in the opening day 4-man OF rotation. Someone gets hurt, and the carousel of replacement-level garbage revs up. As things stand now, those innings are going to Junior Lake and Ezequiel Carrera. There is going to be plenty of playing time for Austin Jackson this year.

 

I seemed to have completely missed the Gillespie era. This name rings no bells for me.

[KingKat]

If Jackson signed here he'd probably start in LF (and lead off because "speed"). Saunders is such an uncertainty.

 

Uncertainty around Saunders, the fact that Pompey still has options, the flexibility to give Bautista some DH starts, Lake/Carrerra sucking. All those seem like compelling reason to be interested in Jackson or a similar player.

[KingKat]

I seemed to have completely missed the Gillespie era. This name rings no bells for me.

 

Mostly played in Buffalo IIRC.

 

 

Edit: O.K. only 26 games in Buffalo but he really killed there. Made a lot of Bisons highlights.

[Dr. Dinger]

Guys, the OF depth chart right now is:

 

1. Bautista

2. Pillar

3. Pompey (probably fine, but 23 and has 146 MLB PA)

4. Saunders (just had his meniscus removed and missed pretty much the entire season)

5. replacement level trash

 

The team is one injury away from Saunders being forced to play every day, and the 4th OF being some combination of players from the 'replacement level trash' pile. There are only four outfielders in the org that are any good, and two of them will have huge error bars on their 2016 projection. OF is not an area of depth right now.

 

It is very likely that a group of players that isn't currently in the top-4 gets at least 300 PA next year. Giving them to Jackson instead of Junior Lake or Ezequiel Carrera adds wins.

 

Elephant in the room: Kevin Pillar probably won't be nearly as good this year.

[Jonn]

Were already paying the walking corpse of Michael Saunders were set in the OF apparently.

[Grant77]

Elephant in the room: Kevin Pillar probably won't be nearly as good this year.

 

Why do you say that?

[Brownie19]

Why do you say that?

 

common sense?

[baseballsss]

And here we goooooo

[Grant77]

common sense?

 

27 years old, injury free, normal BABIP, nothing out of line with minor league stats. Common sense would indicate a similar season if his fielding numbers were accurate, but we won't know that for a couple more years.

[Cyborg]

27 years old, injury free, normal BABIP, nothing out of line with minor league stats. Common sense would indicate a similar season if his fielding numbers were accurate, but we won't know that for a couple more years.

Just like Aaron Sanchez as a reliever.

[Olerud363]

27 years old, injury free, normal BABIP, nothing out of line with minor league stats. Common sense would indicate a similar season if his fielding numbers were accurate, but we won't know that for a couple more years.

 

I think Grant is right on this one.... Pillar was a good minor hitter, he seems to be projected for a similar offensive season.

 

His defense is projected to regress a bit. But even if it does Pillar would still be a good player.

[Grant77]

I'm not sure how a BABIP of .306 could be construed as a warning sign for a fast player with a strong LD%. If I had to put money on it, I'd bet that it gets higher, not lower.

[Terminator]

We do need another OF but Jackson isn't very good IMO. He can't hit very well and his WAR is tied to his defense.

 

That said, if the price is right he's not a bad fit. We've got 2 decent options for LF/4th OF but I agree with BTS that another one should definitely be added. Pompey can just start the year off in AAA to start the year IF everyone is healthy or Saunders could start the year off on the DL if he's not ready.

 

If Jackson costs too much then Denorfia could be a decent add for a couple million bucks. He's better than Carerra/Lake.

[saskjayfan]

Why do you say that?

 

I don't see why a relatively young player would have any significant decline in his defense or base running abilities outside of an injury situation. Kevin Pillar hit .278 last year with a .314 on base percentage. He doesn't take many walks. The unique thing is he only struck out 85 times. He rarely strikes out either. Pillar never met a pitch he didn't like. He swings at far more pitches outside the strike zone than the average player. He also makes contact with more pitches outside the strike zone, as well as inside the zone, than the average player. He has good bat control with almost zero patience. He did however show more patience last year relative to his previous 2 campaigns.

 

I don't know why people are ignoring the upside to Kevin Pillar. He has a lot of strength and bat speed. He has a team of patient players to learn from and he showed moderate improvement himself last year. If he continues to develop better plate discipline and gets himself into better counts he is good with the bat. He could be become a very good offensive player. Maybe he just is what he is already as an offensive player, but I'm not convinced he can't improve his approach. 860 major league plate appearances is not very much and player's with that amount of appearances usually see growth in their approach and swing as they get more opportunities.

[BigRed]

So we just traded away a guy who's averaged 2.0WAR over the last 2 years who was projected to get 6.7M in arbitration, signed under that for 6.25M, and now people want to sign a guy who just made 7.7M coming off a 2.3WAR season. Seems about par for Jays fans.

 

Now people are concerned about LF depth with just Saunders/Pompey -- I said the second Revere was traded it was risky.

 

My guess is Jackson gets at least 2/15, if not 3/20, and I doubt the Jays have room to take on that kind of salary, and doing something like dumping Dickey to pick up a similar player to what they just traded is absurd. In a perfect world Saunders returns to his 2014 self and puts up 2.0WAR, making Jackson expensive, and redundant.

 

With trading Revere the Jays have to hope one of Saunders or Pompey work out. They aren't just going to add a similar player to what they just deemed expendable.

[KingKat]

So we just traded away a guy who's averaged 2.0WAR over the last 2 years who was projected to get 6.7M in arbitration, signed under that for 6.25M, and now people want to sign a guy who just made 7.7M coming off a 2.3WAR season. Seems about par for Jays fans.

 

Now people are concerned about LF depth with just Saunders/Pompey -- I said the second Revere was traded it was risky.

 

My guess is Jackson gets at least 2/15, if not 3/20, and I doubt the Jays have room to take on that kind of salary, and doing something like dumping Dickey to pick up a similar player to what they just traded is absurd. In a perfect world Saunders returns to his 2014 self and puts up 2.0WAR, making Jackson expensive, and redundant.

 

With trading Revere the Jays have to hope one of Saunders or Pompey work out. They aren't just going to add a similar player to what they just deemed expendable.

 

I don't understand what you're complaining about. It will be a lot easier to sign a 4th OF one a one year deal than it would be to nab a guy like Storen.

[BigRed]

I don't understand what you're complaining about. It will be a lot easier to sign a 4th OF one a one year deal than it would be to nab a guy like Storen.

 

I really doubt Jackson is jumping at a one year deal -- where he isn't even guaranteed an everyday job.

[BTS]

So we just traded away a guy who's averaged 2.0WAR over the last 2 years who was projected to get 6.7M in arbitration, signed under that for 6.25M, and now people want to sign a guy who just made 7.7M coming off a 2.3WAR season. Seems about par for Jays fans.

 

Now people are concerned about LF depth with just Saunders/Pompey -- I said the second Revere was traded it was risky.

 

My guess is Jackson gets at least 2/15, if not 3/20, and I doubt the Jays have room to take on that kind of salary, and doing something like dumping Dickey to pick up a similar player to what they just traded is absurd. In a perfect world Saunders returns to his 2014 self and puts up 2.0WAR, making Jackson expensive, and redundant.

With trading Revere the Jays have to hope one of Saunders or Pompey work out. They aren't just going to add a similar player to what they just deemed expendable.

 

Why not? Prices for relief pitching have been through the roof, and they may have been a lot more confident in their ability to reasonably add an OF than a late inning pen arm. In that case, trading Revere for Storen and then signing an OF is perfectly rational.

[BigRed]

I don't understand what you're complaining about. It will be a lot easier to sign a 4th OF one a one year deal than it would be to nab a guy like Storen.

 

And the Jays have a 4th OF. His name is Carrera (assuming Pompey stays in the minors to continue his development). If things get dire they can even though Colabello back out there while they look to make a trade or signing -- though that's less than ideal.

[BTS]

And the Jays have a 4th OF. His name is Carrera (assuming Pompey stays in the minors to continue his development). If things get dire they can even though Colabello back out there while they look to make a trade or signing -- though that's less than ideal.

 

Carrera is awful.

[Sammy225]

And the Jays have a 4th OF. His name is Carrera (assuming Pompey stays in the minors to continue his development). If things get dire they can even though Colabello back out there while they look to make a trade or signing -- though that's less than ideal.

 

Uhhhhhhh NO!

[BigRed]

Why not? Prices for relief pitching have been through the roof, and they may have been a lot more confident in their ability to reasonably add an OF than a late inning pen arm. In that case, trading Revere for Storen and then signing an OF is perfectly rational.

 

Like I said, I really doubt the Jays have 6.5-7.0M to add in salary. They also probably aren't looking to add somebody on a 2-3 year deal with Pompey waiting. They have Pillar, Bautista, Saunders and Pompey, and depth in guys like Carrera and Lake. Committing another 15-20 million over 2-3 years for a guy that likely slots in as a 4th OFer (maybe 5th) behind Pillar, Bautista and Saunders/Pompey seems silly.

[KingKat]

I really doubt Jackson is jumping at a one year deal -- where he isn't even guaranteed an everyday job.

 

Yeah but notice that I said a 4th OF not "Jackson". They can find someone if they need to and otherwise there's nothing wrong at all with adding Storen to the bullpen. Heck, even after the trade there are still some people who would still that the Jays spend on the bullpen before the OF.

[Jimcanuck]

I don't think you know what "likely" means.

 

And you personally know what douchebag means.

[Jimcanuck]

OF depth in Pompey, Carrera, and Lake > IF depth in Goins and Barney and >>> C depth in Thole and Jimenez

 

Ya, let's spend the remaining scarce dollars on an AJ.