General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2025)

[Terminator]

Yeah Vlad has generational tools in that he hits the piss out of the ball so you can always hope for video game numbers too

Pete doesn't actually have great exit velos, he just pulls it and has a good launch angle

[Laika]

And we all know that in any given season Vlad could literally hit 50+ homers

I don't think anyone would be shocked if he turned into a 180 wRC+ guy. Aaron Judge career path. Why not? It could happen. You pay for the upside, sort of. 

[Terminator]

1 minute ago, Carlos Danger said:

It’s not just Pete. It is everyone else they are signing or absorbing contracts or will need to before start of season. Plus, the SPs who are FAs etc will need to be replaced. That will cost $$$$$

 

By the way, I have heard Vlad is not interested in deferred money. 

We run a top 5 payroll and have very little long term money on the books

[Perfect Game]

8 minutes ago, max silver said:

I believe it's just a matter of time before Vlad and the club hammer out an extension. 

I agree. I sense they're waiting for the dust to settle on the others so they can figure out the financials/structure with Vladdy.

[Perfect Game]

4 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

It’s not just Pete. It is everyone else they are signing or absorbing contracts or will need to before start of season. Plus, the SPs who are FAs etc will need to be replaced. That will cost $$$$$

 

By the way, I have heard Vlad is not interested in deferred money. 

LMAO 🤣 🤣 🤣

Carlos Danger out here acting like we're the MF'ing Pirates & not the second richest owner in baseball.

[mphenhef]

18 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It blows my mind that teams are struggling to pay Alonso 3/75 but there seems to be a line of teams wanting to pay Vlad 450M... make it make sense lol

Age.  Vlad is so much younger and hasn’t shown signs of bat speed slowing down that Alonso has.

[max silver]

6 minutes ago, Laika said:

And we all know that in any given season Vlad could literally hit 50+ homers

I don't think anyone would be shocked if he turned into a 180 wRC+ guy. Aaron Judge career path. Why not? It could happen. You pay for the upside, sort of. 

That's exactly what Vlad did for the last 5 months of the season after the poor start for the first 4 weeks.

[Angrioter]

1 hour ago, 204Jays said:

Hector legit?

Omar Minaya close friend 

[Jays24]

33 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

Age.  Vlad is so much younger and hasn’t shown signs of bat speed slowing down that Alonso has.

43 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Vlad will be 26 entering free agency. He has elite K/BB ratios while doing everything else Pete does (whether good or bad) at a similar level. Two seasons with wRC+ above 160 and WAR above 5.5. Pete on the other hand has eclipsed 140 wRC+ twice and only beaten 4 WAR in his rookie season, 5 years ago.

While paying Vlad $450M would be a mistake, he's a significantly better player and much younger. He has the same WAR in his ages 20-25 season as Alonso did in his 24-29 age seasons.

Ya I wasn't saying that Vlad isn't better than Alonso but just noting the massive difference between the two in terms of dollars.  I would rather have Alonso for the next 4 years at 100M than having Vlad at 450M and deal with the backend of that albatross. 

There was a reason why no 1st baseman cracked the 300M mark and now there are reports Vladdy might even get to 500M.  Would love both but was just making a comment from an outside team like the Mets.  

[Carlos Danger]

43 minutes ago, Terminator said:

We run a top 5 payroll and have very little long term money on the books

I don’t think we have been top 5. Top 10 yes.

There is also money owed vs roster salary for the luxury tax.  The $11 million to Straw is still owed even if not on the 40 man. 
 

This X post was from August.

 

 

[Terminator]

6 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

I don’t think we have been top 5. Top 10 yes.

There is also money owed vs roster salary for the luxury tax.  The $11 million to Straw is still owed even if not on the 40 man. 
 

This X post was from August.

https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/breakdowns/payroll

We are 5th right now and still adding. Our '26 through '28 commitments are in line or lower than the other teams grouped around us. 

[Perfect Game]

That post from August has nothing to do with this years salary. Seriously dude, just the slightest amount of research would've confirmed this.

[Bojangles]

Polar bear or bust now 

[Jays24]

13 minutes ago, Bojangles said:

Polar bear or bust now 

*Polar bear/Bregman or bust 

[Terminator]

Hector is doubling down

[Laika]

Hector edging hard here 

Edge King

[BatFlip]

5 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Hector is doubling down

Hector is intensifying

[Brownie19]

10 minutes ago, Bojangles said:

Polar bear or bust now 

I am super interested to see the terms of this one...

[jaysblue]

I would rather have Alonso at 3/$75M or 4/$100M over Vladdy at 450M. 

Alonso makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons, both in the short term and long term. If Vladdy walks, you still have a 30-40 HR middle-of-the-order power bat at 1B and could still likely be competitive with an Alonso/Santander middle-of-the-order over the next 3-4 years. 

[max silver]

1 minute ago, jaysblue said:

I would rather have Alonso at 3/$75M or 4/$100M over Vladdy at 450M. 

Alonso makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons, both in the short term and long term. If Vladdy walks, you still have a 30-40 HR middle-of-the-order power bat at 1B and could still likely be competitive with an Alonso/Santander middle-of-the-order over the next 3-4 years. 

[jaysblue]

4 minutes ago, max silver said:

For this season, definitely want both haha. But yeah sure why not, it's not my money lol. 

Alonso at least is a good insurance policy if Vlad walks at the end of the season. 

If Vladdy could play a passable third base for over 100 games per season, that would be pretty sweet! 

[Laika]

I don't really think they are comparable purchases

Like, Alonso is a hired gun, short term, one dimensional player 

Vlad would be a 10+ year commitment and just so much more than Alonso both as a hitter and as a marketing asset 

[Terminator]

Vlad is criminally underrated 'round these parts

If we traded a bunch of stuff for Kyle Tucker and extended him to a 400M+ offer everyone would be jumping for joy

The thought of extending Vlad has everyone shook even though he's 2 years younger and they project the same

[Spanky99]

13 minutes ago, Laika said:

I don't really think they are comparable purchases

Like, Alonso is a hired gun, short term, one dimensional player 

Vlad would be a 10+ year commitment and just so much more than Alonso both as a hitter and as a marketing asset 

Yeah, he'd be the face of the franchise, and he's 26, there's no comparable. 

[Chappy]

Guerrero signing an extension in inevitable at this point. 

[glory]

23 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I am super interested to see the terms of this one...

[Vancouverite]

3 minutes ago, glory said:

Seems fair

 

Profar had no market prior this year. There's risk here

[Carlos Danger]

44 minutes ago, Perfect Game said:

That post from August has nothing to do with this years salary. Seriously dude, just the slightest amount of research would've confirmed this.

You obviously don’t understand deferred and owed money. It is money that does not count towards the mlb roster spend but is still owed by the business. 

Steve Phillips when he was GM of the Mets agrees to pay Bobby Bonilla an amount every year for 100 yrs or something. That money doesn’t count towards the 2025 salary number. However, the org still needs to pay it. 

A lot of insiders have questioned how much is really available to spend apart from special cost centers set up for the Ohtanis and Sotos of the world. 

The industry speculation was that if the Jays did sign 3-4 of the big name FAs, it would be only with the anticipation that Vlad’s money would be coming off the books and using that allocation. 

Rogers being probably THE richest owner, has never translated to spend as such. 

Plus we have Shapiro, who seems to have a fiscal governor. 

Regardless, all speculation at this point. 

[mphenhef]

1 hour ago, Perfect Game said:

That post from August has nothing to do with this years salary. Seriously dude, just the slightest amount of research would've confirmed this.

He literally said it was from August in his post dude.  That being said, it is important to note that all of that 55 million is now off the books as it was mostly from traded players.

[BatFlip]

20 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

You obviously don’t understand deferred and owed money. It is money that does not count towards the mlb roster spend but is still owed by the business. 

Steve Phillips when he was GM of the Mets agrees to pay Bobby Bonilla an amount every year for 100 yrs or something. That money doesn’t count towards the 2025 salary number. However, the org still needs to pay it. 

A lot of insiders have questioned how much is really available to spend apart from special cost centers set up for the Ohtanis and Sotos of the world. 

The industry speculation was that if the Jays did sign 3-4 of the big name FAs, it would be only with the anticipation that Vlad’s money would be coming off the books and using that allocation. 

Rogers being probably THE richest owner, has never translated to spend as such. 

Plus we have Shapiro, who seems to have a fiscal governor. 

Regardless, all speculation at this point. 

 

I'm not sure where you're going with this, but isn't that $50M in deferred/retained salaries pretty much all final year contracts that were traded by the Jays for prospects last year? 

Before the Alonso contract, it looked like the Jays had a grand whopping total of $1M *gasp* in deferred/retained money for 2025 per Sportrac.

The $50M you're trying to point to is all gone my friend.  Sportrac (the data source of your post) broke out that $50M as any salaries that were allocated to players no longer on the team and included:

$10.6M - Justin Turner

$8.7M - KK

$7M - IKF

$6.6 - Kickuchi

$3.9M - Yimi

$3.7M - Biggio

$3.6M - Mayza

 

It's not ACTUAL deferred money that impacts the Jay's future spending.  Tell me I'm wrong (seriously, I don't mind being wrong).