General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2025)

[Jays24]

If this is true then the Straw embarrassment might be the best thing to have happened to our off-season.  

[max silver]

5 minutes ago, glory said:

Bregman's market seems to involve more teams, and he's not looking for a pillow contract from the sounds of it. Probably just asking for too much in general. He's probably the best positional fit for the Jays but will almost certainly involve the most years and dollars, and there's real "Years 3-6 George Springer" potential with whatever deal he signs. 

Alonso's market is probably the Mets and the Jays. I don't see any other obvious fit. On a pillow contract he makes way more sense for the Mets since they won't lose a comp pick + international money to get him like the Jays would. 

Have no clue on Profar's market. Recent report had the Jays and Astros involved. Profar willingly signed with the Rockies at one point so I don't think he gives a damn where he goes, it will be about the contract. 

I do believe the Mets would stand to lose a compensation pick if Alonso were to sign elsewhere but it wouldn't be until the end of the 4th round so no big deal.

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

If this is true then the Straw embarrassment might be the best thing to have happened to our off-season.  

The team has reportedly been Santander's primary pursuer for the entirety of the offseason, and they've reportedly been involved in nearly every major free agent on the market as well. I don't think the Straw miscue really has any significant effect on their overall offseason plans aside from eating up a tiny chunk of the overall team payroll.

[Omar]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

The team has reportedly been Santander's primary pursuer for the entirety of the offseason, and they've reportedly been involved in nearly every major free agent on the market as well. I don't think the Straw miscue really has any significant effect on their overall offseason plans aside from eating up a tiny chunk of the overall team payroll.

I get the sense this off-season is now turning towards a buyers market. The orgs patience and unwillingness to over pay may start paying dividends, starting with the Santander signing. Maybe Bregman doesn't get AAV he's looking for?  Maybe Alonso has to settle for something other than the optimal outcome. Could be good news for the Jays.

[Stangstag]

3 hours ago, Jays24 said:

If this is true then the Straw embarrassment might be the best thing to have happened to our off-season.  

I’ll believe it when it happens, but I like what im hearing 

[Key22]

Anthony Santander is the same age as Pete Alonso (30) Tony Taters had a slightly higher WAR last year.

Can folks explain why it would take so much more money to land Alonso?

If the Jays offered Alonso the exact same deal opt out after 3 with a club option to buy out the opt out etc would he take it?

If other teams saw the Santander deal why would the massively overpay Alonso now? Alonso's body shape looks far worse too FWIW so perhaps he overplayed his hand a bit.

I mean, if the Jays could get Alonso, that would add the much-desired thump to the lineup, and if Bo bounces back to form, he is, in effect, another star you're adding to the lineup that we didn't have all last year. Again, $14 m AAV for Alonso seems like a good deal if it can be had. With defence up the middle and power on the corners, Varsho can make up for weaker defenders on the sides. 

 

[Terminator]

5 minutes ago, Key22 said:

Anthony Santander is the same age as Pete Alonso (30) Tony Taters had a slightly higher WAR last year.

Can folks explain why it would take so much more money to land Alonso?

You're right, there isn't really a good explanation. Pretty similar players. 

I think Pete is finding this out along with the rest of baseball. His market has cratered. 

[Eat My Shatkins]

Could be fun to sign Alonso on a discounted type of deal.

Jays might be in the running for the most home runs if Bo bounces back.

Maybe 3 guys hit 40+ dingers?

[glory]

Alonso has no market (or a very, very limited one). That's likely why the Jays are allegedly showing interest even after signing Santander. They don't necessarily need another 1B/DH given the current roster, but if his price becomes more reasonable due to lack of interest, then you can rationalize it making sense for a team that could still use more power in the lineup. 

Would Shatkins do a high AAV short term deal with an opt out after year 1 for a 1B/DH attached to a  QO? That's where I don't really see it happening, but a FO trying to win in 2025 might be open to do things that they normally wouldn't do. 

[G-Snarls]

18 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Could be fun to sign Alonso on a discounted type of deal.

Jays might be in the running for the most home runs if Bo bounces back.

Maybe 3 guys hit 40+ dingers?

I sure do miss the Donaldson Encarnacion Bautista bombfest days 

[Jays24]

19 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

I sure do miss the Donaldson Encarnacion Bautista bombfest days 

We will never have a better offensive trio than that imo.  3 f***ing elite hitters with 2 of them being MVP caliber players.  f*** I miss them lol

[G-Snarls]

9 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

We will never have a better offensive trio than that imo.  3 f***ing elite hitters with 2 of them being MVP caliber players.  f*** I miss them lol

2015:

 

[Brownie19]

49 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

2015:

 

Man - 2015 was so awesome 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

We will never have a better offensive trio than that imo.  3 f***ing elite hitters with 2 of them being MVP caliber players.  f*** I miss them lol

The 2-4 hitters were likely the best trio in club history, but I think the 2021 team may have featured a deeper lineup as the 2015 squad was pretty top heavy. 

[Jays24]

19 minutes ago, max silver said:

The 2-4 hitters were likely the best trio in club history, but I think the 2021 team may have featured a deeper lineup as the 2015 squad was pretty top heavy. 

Agreed but my god was that top 3 so f***ing great.  Every time they came up, you just knew something good was going to happen.  

Donaldson/Bautista/Edwin >> Vladdy/Bo/Semien

Springer/Teo/Gurriel/Kirk/Jansen >> Tulo/Martin/Collabello(lol)/Revere/Travis

[BatFlip]

53 minutes ago, Jimcanuck said:

White supremacist from South Africa.  Who knew?

Do we need this in a baseball chat?  Please save your politics for elsewhere.

[Terminator]

51 minutes ago, max silver said:

The 2-4 hitters were likely the best trio in club history, but I think the 2021 team may have featured a deeper lineup as the 2015 squad was pretty top heavy. 

Alomar/Olerud/Molitor were one hell of a trio but it was the good ole days when they didn't know who was actually good or not so they didn't bat back-to-back-to-back.

Olerud was hitting 5th behind Joe Carter with a slashline of .363/.473./599 lol

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, Jimcanuck said:

White supremacist from South Africa.  Who knew?

Why don't you create a Politics thread and leave these threads just for baseball? 

[L54]

Hey Jim leave the politics at the door buddy!

[Spanky__99]

On 1/16/2025 at 2:56 PM, Brownie19 said:

That's a really interesting article.  It's a good example of how a team like the Jays can 100% be "in the running" or "a finalist" for a star player and the next day, they have almost no hope in hell of signing him due to reasons that are completely out of their control.

Sounds like the Jays were 1 of 2 teams to put an offer on the table for Burnes and we may have been his preferred landing spot - until Arizona came out of the weeds and expressed real interest.  As soon as that happened, we had no chance in hell.

Yes, that was a cool insight, so close. 

[BatFlip]

4 hours ago, Key22 said:

I'm unsure how that is political - what government office does Elon belong to? He's a business owner. Henry Ford spent a lot of money to help Hitler gas Jews during World War 2 and was an outspoken anti-semite. Calling him out for that wasn't/isn't political

Can you go grab a sign and yell outside somewhere else? I get enough of this ******** everywhere else.  It'll be a damn shame if I have to listen to it here too.

[wilko]

14 hours ago, Key22 said:

Anthony Santander is the same age as Pete Alonso (30) Tony Taters had a slightly higher WAR last year.

Can folks explain why it would take so much more money to land Alonso?

If the Jays offered Alonso the exact same deal opt out after 3 with a club option to buy out the opt out etc would he take it?

If other teams saw the Santander deal why would the massively overpay Alonso now? Alonso's body shape looks far worse too FWIW so perhaps he overplayed his hand a bit.

I mean, if the Jays could get Alonso, that would add the much-desired thump to the lineup, and if Bo bounces back to form, he is, in effect, another star you're adding to the lineup that we didn't have all last year. Again, $14 m AAV for Alonso seems like a good deal if it can be had. With defence up the middle and power on the corners, Varsho can make up for weaker defenders on the sides. 

 

[Vancouverite]

What are your guys thoughts on likelihood that the Jays could strike a trade with the Dodgers for a SP, or even RP

I know health is a huge concern for them as all of Snell, Glasgow, May, Consolin and the 3 Japanese musketeers have missed either all of 2024 or large parts of 2024 but they're still 8-9 pitchers deep in the rotation.

You'd surely think some of their agents are probably going to the front office and asking "so what's the plan, will my client get any starts this year?"

 

Might be a good opportunity to pick up a guy like Dustin May as a #5 / #6 for us and build back up ?

[jerb]

 

[Orgfiller]

Just now, Vancouverite said:

What are your guys thoughts on likelihood that the Jays could strike a trade with the Dodgers for a SP, or even RP

I know health is a huge concern for them as all of Snell, Glasgow, May, Consolin and the 3 Japanese musketeers have missed either all of 2024 or large parts of 2024 but they're still 8-9 pitchers deep in the rotation.

You'd surely think some of their agents are probably going to the front office and asking "so what's the plan, will my client get any starts this year?"

 

Might be a good opportunity to pick up a guy like Dustin May as a #5 / #6 for us and build back up ?

This is great in theory, but we gotta have something of value to trade them for their assets. Only one that comes to mind is Bo Bichette, and that would just leave a hole for us elsewhere in the infield unless the contingency plan was to sing Alex Bregman.

The Dodgers don't even care that they have too many pitchers because they know half of them will be injured, and they have ridiculous riches in ensuring there's excellent depth behind every one that goes down. I doubt they'll even have more than 7 healthy starters to begin the season, and they only care about guaranteeing the ones on MLB FA deals spots in the rotation.

[Laika]

Yeah the Dodgers' top 6 SP are all glass cannons. Odds are 1 or 2 do not even break camp in the rotation. 

In the minors, they have Miller, Knack, Frasso, Wrobleski, and Casparius on the 40... the latter 3 are probably all RP anyway. 

Jays would have nothing to offer them at the MLB level so if there was any kind of deal it's probably like the Stripling and Mitchy White trades? Prospect for crusty MLB arm. I would consider May to be pretty crusty at this point - he only has one year of control left, shockingly. Tony Gonsolin also crusty. 

[Terminator]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

Yeah the Dodgers' top 6 SP are all glass cannons. Odds are 1 or 2 do not even break camp in the rotation. 

In the minors, they have Miller, Knack, Frasso, Wrobleski, and Casparius on the 40... the latter 3 are probably all RP anyway. 

Jays would have nothing to offer them at the MLB level so if there was any kind of deal it's probably like the Stripling and Mitchy White trades? Prospect for crusty MLB arm. I would consider May to be pretty crusty at this point - he only has one year of control left, shockingly. Tony Gonsolin also crusty. 

Future superstar

[Jays24]

7 minutes ago, polar bear said:

Nonsense.

Yo polar bear... are you signing with us or not? Would love to have your bat behind Vladdy in the lineup lol.

[Terminator]

God I want to see Pete Alonso in a Jays uni

Just bat them Bo-Vlad-Taters-Polar Bear and watch the dingers fly

 

 

[Jays24]

3 minutes ago, Terminator said:

God I want to see Pete Alonso in a Jays uni

Just bat them Bo-Vlad-Taters-Polar Bear and watch the dingers fly

 

 

Jays can literally go from a joke offensively into a must watch team if we land Alonso.  Would still prefer Bregman because of his fit defensively but I'd still be super happy with him.