Jays trade for OF Myles Straw, cash, and international bonus signing pool space

[Carlos Danger]

The only other positive spin I can put on it is that they think Varsho will be out longer than originally estimated and they like Straw’s upside vs internal options..

Disseminated on behalf of Shatkins LLC Public Relations Firm

 

[BB17]

Like did no one in the Front office stand up and say hey maybe this isn’t a good idea? Just doesn’t make sense at all.

Shows how poor judgement the Jays FO had during the whole thing. I bet Sasaki never even hinted about coming to the jays either.

[Brownie19]

53 minutes ago, glory said:

Only way this makes sense is if Atkins actually wanted to acquire Straw, and the international money was just icing to him, which if true actually makes me more sad because it would prove that Ross has lost his damn mind.

Can you imagine being in the depths of trying to lure in a franchise altering player and deciding to spend time and resources to acquire Myles Straw in the midst of it because you thought he'd fill an important role in your bench for the upcoming season?  

That would be f*cking insane.  I would guess he was trying to block LA somehow, or, he didn't understand that he could wait until it's official you got him until you had the internation $$$ in hand.  That would be really embarrassing and possibly the last straw (pun intended).

[Brownie19]

7 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

The only other positive spin I can put on it is that they think Varsho will be out longer than originally estimated and they like Straw’s upside vs internal options..

Disseminated on behalf of Shatkins LLC Public Relations Firm

 

I read this in Ross Atkins voice and can confirm it sounds exactly like what he's going to say about this horrible trade.

[Terminator]

When Varsho comes back he can move to LF which after the past two seasons is now his more comfortable position anyway

Straw can solidify the 2nd lead off spot in the lineup with his speed (and .270 OBP) while providing GG defense in CF

We can just DFA Steward Berroa to make room for Straw on the 40 man

The team GG award will be easy to make

[GNick92]

15 hours ago, saskjayfan said:

He has a point.  This trade makes no sense if it's not happening.

Never heard of Straw before.  But looking at his statistics this trade seems puzzling. Atkins doing Cleveland a financial favor it appears to me

[mphenhef]

Taking on Straw’s salary to get international bonus pool money they won’t even use is just next level incompetence from this front office.  They honestly probably could have got Cleveland to throw in a prospect just to take that dead salary off their hands.

When you compare this to the Dodgers approach where they traded for the pool space AFTER Sasaki made up his mind despite being the 90% favourites it just further accentuated how bloody incompetent the Jays front office is.  They are like the thirsty guy at the bar buying drinks for all the tens at the bar despite zero chance to go home with them.  I wonder what 2s they will end up with.

[glory]

7 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Can you imagine being in the depths of trying to lure in a franchise altering player and deciding to spend time and resources to acquire Myles Straw in the midst of it because you thought he'd fill an important role in your bench for the upcoming season?  

That would be f*cking insane.  I would guess he was trying to block LA somehow, or, he didn't understand that he could wait until it's official you got him until you had the internation $$$ in hand.  That would be really embarrassing and possibly the last straw (pun intended).

I don’t want to believe that Shatkins did not know that they could acquire international money later (after getting a commitment from Sasaki). That’s next level incompetence. Unfortunately the alternative is they just really liked Straw at 2/11, but that’s also a sign of incompetence, so I’m not sure what is going on at this point.

I remember when Rob Babcock traded Vince Carter for literal garbage, my first thought was there’s no way he can make another trade because every GM is going to try to fleece him now. That’s my feeling with Atkins now. This wasn’t Carter bad, but this does feel like the end for him. Taken advantage of by another team who saw your desperation and pounced in a very public way. Atkins is done but unfortunately he may not be done adding future payroll to this roster, which is now terrifying.

 

 

[Sorrow]

Im of the belief that this is now the team knowing that Varsho is going to be out longer than originally thought and going to be running a likely really weak defensive LF with an average at best defender in RF. They have Berroa and they have Classe and the have Loperfido but they’re all unproven and we don’t really know what we have defensively while Straw has historically been a really good defender. They got money for the international pool which still has 14 of the top 50 free agents available including all the Jays top wants.

im still upset that we didn’t get Sasaki and I’m not thrilled about the state of the team but I know for a fact we have offers out to Bregman and Santander and they’re open to signing multiple larger contracts. We should be getting our best player back and healthy next season as well.

[Laika]

9 minutes ago, Sorrow said:

Im of the belief that this is now the team knowing that Varsho is going to be out longer than originally thought and going to be running a likely really weak defensive LF with an average at best defender in RF. They have Berroa and they have Classe and the have Loperfido but they’re all unproven and we don’t really know what we have defensively while Straw has historically been a really good defender. They got money for the international pool which still has 14 of the top 50 free agents available including all the Jays top wants.

im still upset that we didn’t get Sasaki and I’m not thrilled about the state of the team but I know for a fact we have offers out to Bregman and Santander and they’re open to signing multiple larger contracts. We should be getting our best player back and healthy next season as well.

But aren't there guys like Harrison Bader and MAT just sitting there in FA? Kike Hernandez? 

[Sorrow]

24 minutes ago, Laika said:

But aren't there guys like Harrison Bader and MAT just sitting there in FA? Kike Hernandez? 

Yes but it didn’t get cap room and they also get 3.75m in cash now as well.

 

i don’t think it’s a good trade but I think the complete picture makes a bit more sense if we assume Varsho may be out until May or June.

[Pendleton]

26 minutes ago, Laika said:

But aren't there guys like Harrison Bader and MAT just sitting there in FA? Kike Hernandez? 

 

Bader is still available, but the projections have him in line for around 10M per, not sure if he'll actually get that obviously. 

[JaysfaninFL]

8 hours ago, Terminator said:

The team GG award will be easy to make

That's really all that's left to shoot for in 2025...

[Jimcanuck]

Anything that helps the Jays finish 30th overall is a good move

[BatFlip]

2 hours ago, glory said:

I don’t want to believe that Shatkins did not know that they could acquire international money later (after getting a commitment from Sasaki). That’s next level incompetence. Unfortunately the alternative is they just really liked Straw at 2/11, but that’s also a sign of incompetence, so I’m not sure what is going on at this point.

This pretty much sums it up.  

[Funky]

20 hours ago, SuperBlackhawk said:

I wish Bo would come to terms with the fact that he doesn't have the arm for SS and should be on 2B. 

He won’t be here long enough  for us to worry about anymore.  But agreed. 

[jerb]

 

[Pendleton]

19 minutes ago, jerb said:

 

I wasn't sure if this was a joke, but it's actually there https://www.milb.com/transactions/2025-01-17 

[saskjayfan]

15 hours ago, Terminator said:

When Varsho comes back he can move to LF which after the past two seasons is now his more comfortable position anyway

Straw can solidify the 2nd lead off spot in the lineup with his speed (and .270 OBP) while providing GG defense in CF

We can just DFA Steward Berroa to make room for Straw on the 40 man

The team GG award will be easy to make

We can't have a light hitting left fielder....give me a break.  We need to DFA Straw the moment Varsho can return.  I'd rather see what Barger and Loperfido have in the outfield than to run out someone I know can't hit. 

[saskjayfan]

7 hours ago, Jimcanuck said:

Anything that helps the Jays finish 30th overall is a good move

We're not eligible for a lottery pick next year.

[Laika]

1 hour ago, jerb said:

 

"I can fix her" - Ross 

[Rusty_Savage]

Such a weird trade....

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, saskjayfan said:

We can't have a light hitting left fielder....give me a break.  We need to DFA Straw the moment Varsho can return.  I'd rather see what Barger and Loperfido have in the outfield than to run out someone I know can't hit. 

[Rusty_Savage]

8 hours ago, Sorrow said:

Yes but it didn’t get cap room and they also get 3.75m in cash now as well.

 

i don’t think it’s a good trade but I think the complete picture makes a bit more sense if we assume Varsho may be out until May or June.

The guy hit .240/.321/.329/.650 in AAA last year in 123 games and is now 30 years old.  The better options are infinite.  

[SuperBlackhawk]

Richest man in AA?

[saskjayfan]

So at this point, we have 8 mil that in cap space and all the top 200 to 250 guys are already gone. We have until Jan14 2026 to spend that money.  You can't carry it over.  I mean you might sign a couple guys but don't overpay.  All the unsigned guys who were eligible will play ball this summer.  Those under the radar guys who didn't stand out who take a big leap this year should be ours.  Teams have spent 95% of their budget already.  There's got to be a couple guys who were over looked that didn't get signed that take a big leap.  We may as well wait until after the season until we have more information.  Beef up the international scouting department. 

[JaysfaninFL]

2 hours ago, saskjayfan said:

So at this point, we have 8 mil that in cap space and all the top 200 to 250 guys are already gone. We have until Jan14 2026 to spend that money.  You can't carry it over.  I mean you might sign a couple guys but don't overpay.  All the unsigned guys who were eligible will play ball this summer.  Those under the radar guys who didn't stand out who take a big leap this year should be ours.  Teams have spent 95% of their budget already.  There's got to be a couple guys who were over looked that didn't get signed that take a big leap.  We may as well wait until after the season until we have more information.  Beef up the international scouting department. 

Embarrassing that this is the situation the Jays find themselves in, but yeah....that's the sensible approach.  I swear a group of reasonably intelligent 7th graders could've run this process better as a school project.

[Brownie19]

There's no possibility that running a MLB franchise is more difficult than it looks eh?  

[L54]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

There's no possibility that running a MLB franchise is more difficult than it looks eh?  

Plz stop

[Brownie19]

13 minutes ago, L54 said:

Plz stop

You agree?