Roki Sasaki signs with LAD

[tazsub3]

6 minutes ago, Abomination said:

It's possible the agent played us. He may have told the front office that Sasaki would sign if they could up the offer, then went back to LA after they did and told them that he'd sign with the Jays unless they could add  extra.

It's also possible that the Jays felt the "risk" was in eating a relatively small bad contract and adding some talent to the minors in exchange for the chance at a franchise changing signing.

Straw also seems like someone Atkins would like. He can't hit, plays good defense, and doesn't strike out a lot. Maybe the Jays think they can tweak something and get him back to where he was in 2021.

Bro this is MLB, a multi billion dollar industry. If you can be fooled by negotiations tactics 101 then you dont belong as Gm or president

[glory]

9 minutes ago, Abomination said:

Straw also seems like someone Atkins would like. He can't hit, plays good defense, and doesn't strike out a lot. Maybe the Jays think they can tweak something and get him back to where he was in 2021.

Traded his best prospect for Varsho, gave IKF 2/15, re-signed KK for $10.5M last year when there was no chance in hell he'd repeat his 2023 season, absorbed nearly $100M of Gimenez, etc. If any team in baseball is going to value Straw at 2/11, it's the Jays. I think you're right on what the Jays were thinking in making this deal.

[Rusty_Savage]

3 hours ago, Terminator said:

Why did the Padres sign international free agents early yesterday? They must have gotten some indication that they were out.

Why didn’t the Jays get that indication? 

I'm guessing Ross figured he could win him over with his undeniable charm.

[Stangstag]

7 hours ago, SuperBlackhawk said:

Atinks gives off serious cuckold vibes. He will eat the sandwich when his wife allows it, and not before her bull adds his own special sauce. 

Connorp??

[saskjayfan]

17 hours ago, tazsub3 said:

Bro this is MLB, a multi billion dollar industry. If you can be fooled by negotiations tactics 101 then you dont belong as Gm or president

This was a monumentally stupid blunder.  Every broadcaster in the US and Canada are making fun of this.  Even the one's employed by Rogers that usually don't criticize anything are saying Ross...WTF?  A quick phone call to the agent saying I've secured an extra 2 mil in bonus space to pay Roki would have done the same as actually securing the money.  If he wants to sign with us let me know and I'll make the trade would have done just as much as Ross saying. Let's trade for 2 mil and show Roki how much I really really love him! 

[Rusty_Savage]

6 minutes ago, saskjayfan said:

This was a monumentally stupid blunder.  Every broadcaster in the US and Canada are making fun of this.  Even the one's employed by Rogers that usually don't criticize anything are saying Ross...WTF?  A quick phone call to the agent saying I've secured an extra 2 mil in bonus space to pay Roki would have done the same as actually securing the money.  If he wants to sign with us let me know and I'll make the trade would have done just as much as Ross saying. Let's trade for 2 mil and show Roki how much I really really love him! 

I haven't seen any reporters, especially ones employed by Rogers criticizing the move?  Not that I especially like the move but I'd like to see what some in the industry have to say.  Any links?

[rydermike]

With the MLB investigation into his positing process about whether he had an under-the-table deal with the Dodgers, the agent probably just had it planned. What team could we reasonably use as a pretend competitor - oh the Jay's, after Ohtani, Soto, etc it'd be totally believable. So they just strung Atkins along the whole time to make it seem believable so they would pass the investigation. 

[SuperBlackhawk]

Always a brides maid, never a bride. 

[Angrioter]

Tanner Scott to Dodgers. 

 

4/72M

[Stangstag]

On 1/18/2025 at 12:00 AM, jaysblue said:

2010: Blue Jays went 85-77 shockingly haha. Breakout season from Jose Bautista, Wells with a solid bounce back season. Great season after the disastrous 2009 season. Strong rotation with Ricky Romero building off his rookie season, Shaun Marcum coming back from injury and an impressive first season from Brandon Morrow with the Jays. Even Brett Cecil had a solid year out of the rotation. 

2011: 81-81 not bad. Bautista 8 WAR season; Yunel solid first season in Toronto; Brett Lawrie makes his MLB debut and rakes. Solid years again from Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow. Casey Janssen solid first year as closer.

2012: 73-89. Romero started to suck; Henderson Alvarez was awful; Jose Bautista only played 92 games; Yunel s*** the bed; Lawrie didn't really blossom. Breakout season from EE however.

2013: 74-88. Exciting offseason but a lot of trades backfired. Dickey wasn't in Cy Young form, Josh Johnson missed most of the season; Morrow got injured. Rasmus had a solid year haha. 

2014: 83-79. Improvement from 2013, but still fell short of expectations. Stroman came on the scene and was really solid. Hutchison also wasn't that bad. Bautista and EE had awesome years, and Melky had a great year as well. Lawrie disappointed. 

I mean overall, the 2012 and 2013 seasons were s***. In 2010 and 2011, Jays actually weren't that bad. In 2014, they were meh. It wasn't like 4-5 years of awful baseball. 

My point was that 2009-2014 was not more exciting than 2020-2024.

Sure last year was bad, but overall this is the longest stretch of the team being competitive since the WS days.

[Brownie19]

18 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

My point was that 2009-2014 was not more exciting than 2020-2024.

Sure last year was bad, but overall this is the longest stretch of the team being competitive since the WS days.

It's super hard to see or admit that given the current state, but if you did the same summary for 2020-2024, it's much better than 2009-2014. It's not even close.  2015 was magical though....but as I tried to point out, it was only magical from like August onward.  Before that it was frustrating as f*ck.

2016 was a really awesome year. It just ended prematurely, like 2021 and 2022 also did.

[Rusty_Savage]

1 minute ago, Brownie19 said:

It's super hard to see or admit that given the current state, but if you did the same summary for 2020-2024, it's much better than 2009-2014. It's not even close.  2015 was magical though....but as I tried to point out, it was only magical from like August onward.  Before that it was frustrating as f*ck.

2016 was a really awesome year. It just ended prematurely, like 2021 and 2022 also did.

Yeah, weren't we 50-51 @ the trade deadline or something.  I think our pythag may have better but I remember there was a lot of people who wanted AA gone 

[Carlos Danger]

2 hours ago, Rusty_Savage said:

I haven't seen any reporters, especially ones employed by Rogers criticizing the move?  Not that I especially like the move but I'd like to see what some in the industry have to say.  Any links?

Both Ben-Nicholson Smith and Shi David highly criticized the move in multiple articles. They both cited other MLB executives.

In one article one MLB executive says that the Guardians schooled us and are astatic  in getting us to take all their dead money contracts off their hands. Freeing up that money up for their own upgrades. 

[Carlos Danger]

17 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

It's super hard to see or admit that given the current state, but if you did the same summary for 2020-2024, it's much better than 2009-2014. It's not even close.  2015 was magical though....but as I tried to point out, it was only magical from like August onward.  Before that it was frustrating as f*ck.

2016 was a really awesome year. It just ended prematurely, like 2021 and 2022 also did.

While the first half of 2015 wasn’t what we expected. The Jays had still traded for Josh Donaldson and signed Russell Martin the previous off season. 

They also were plus 150 or something in the runs column. So, it wasn’t all doom and gloom the first half of 2015/2014 off season, going into ST etc. 

[Brownie19]

6 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

While the first half of 2015 wasn’t what we expected. The Jays had still traded for Josh Donaldson and signed Russell Martin the previous off season. 

They also were plus 150 or something in the runs column. So, it wasn’t all doom and gloom the first half of 2015/2014 off season, going into ST etc. 

Certainly not doom and gloom, but it wasn't all roses and rainbows either.  It was frustrating as f*ck.  Lots of worries we were pissing away a good team.

AA just had to sell the farm to create the magic.  I'm super happy it worked.

[Jays24]

2 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Certainly not doom and gloom, but it wasn't all roses and rainbows either.  It was frustrating as f*ck.  Lots of worries we were pissing away a good team.

AA just had to sell the farm to create the magic.  I'm super happy it worked.

The first half of 2015 was like most of 2021.  We didn't even need to sell the farm but most will agree that was our best Shatkins team and we wasted it by not adding bullpen arms sooner and that's when we had a stacked farm system.  Sigghhh 

[Rusty_Savage]

32 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

Both Ben-Nicholson Smith and Shi David highly criticized the move in multiple articles. They both cited other MLB executives.

In one article one MLB executive says that the Guardians schooled us and are astatic  in getting us to take all their dead money contracts off their hands. Freeing up that money up for their own upgrades. 

Well I'm glad some Rogers lackeys panned the deal.  It makes no sense especially if they plan on signing a LF and have Clase and Loperfido already waiting in the wings.  There's an article on MLBTR about the trade and while it didn't quote Dannon directly, it did say that "The Blue Jays believe Straw could be a worthwhile addition in his own right..." If so the pro scouting dept along with Dannon himself should be let go.  Helen f***ing Keller would have  known that Straw sucks.  

[Brownie19]

12 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

The first half of 2015 was like most of 2021.  We didn't even need to sell the farm but most will agree that was our best Shatkins team and we wasted it by not adding bullpen arms sooner and that's when we had a stacked farm system.  Sigghhh 

Agreed. It was also early in our contention window - whereas 2015 was at the end of AA's window.  Different strategies would be expected and that's what we saw.

2015 was so awesome because we hadn't had any playoff baseball in decades.  But they ultimately came up short too.

[PitaBaby]

Bring back Gibby.

[mphenhef]

On 1/18/2025 at 2:55 PM, Laika said:

Objectively speaking what is $2M in international money worth?

Looking at the draft, pick #46 has a bonus cap of $2M and I found an article from 5 years ago that says pick #46 in the draft has a present day surplus value of $6.6M (above the bonus you have to pay the player). So it was/is worth something like that.

I know the draft and international scene are not directly comparable but let's just say we can directly do it just to estimate. This means Toronto got $3.75M plus something worth $6.6M ($10.35M total value) in order to assume a contract committing $14.75M to Myles Straw, who doesn't even have to be given a 40 man spot.

Okay, there Ross. I did the explaining for you again, you loser. 

Obviously this assumes Toronto can spend the money appropriately on actual international prospects...

 

2 million in bonus pool money on Jan. 16 has nowhere near the value of the 46th pick because 100s of players are already committed or signed by that point.

[Brownie19]

29 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

2 million in bonus pool money on Jan. 16 has nowhere near the value of the 46th pick because 100s of players are already committed or signed by that point.

100%

[Laika]

But it's just so ostensibly stupid that I think there must be some angle we haven't discussed.

Did Cleveland not have this money committed to anybody? Maybe since Toronto failed to sign Sasaki they intend to spend it on IFAs that Cleveland was going to sign? 

I dunno bros 

[wilko]

What a shitshow. 

[Terminator]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

But it's just so ostensibly stupid that I think there must be some angle we haven't discussed.

Did Cleveland not have this money committed to anybody? Maybe since Toronto failed to sign Sasaki they intend to spend it on IFAs that Cleveland was going to sign? 

I dunno bros 

Yeah I'm trying to think of all the angles here too.

Maybe Ross has some trades lined up for the Buffalo Boys and likes Straw enough as a 26th man?

[BTS]

15 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Yeah I'm trying to think of all the angles here too.

Maybe Ross has some trades lined up for the Buffalo Boys and likes Straw enough as a 26th man?

Even then - Straw isn't worth more than a MilB deal and spring training invite. 

It's kind of funny though, because Ross Atkins has given us an all-time offseason that will be a part of Blue Jays lore for decades (for the wrong reasons):

- Losing the Sasaki sweepstakes so bad it actually cost the franchise $12M. 

- "We are definitely interested in figuring out a way for it to be a possibility." 

- After two years of fan complaints about offense, making his big offseason move a 100M commitment to a slap-hitting glove-first 2B. 

- Literally turning the Jays into an industry-wide meme for being so undesirable a location that they can't close any free agent deals despite waving a wad of cash around. 

[Terminator]

Another angle is that Straw's money is so insignificant Ross just didn't give a s***.

It let him throw one last offer at the biggest surplus value FA in a generation and we'll go on to add to the payroll anyway. 

[Abomination]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

But it's just so ostensibly stupid that I think there must be some angle we haven't discussed.

Did Cleveland not have this money committed to anybody? Maybe since Toronto failed to sign Sasaki they intend to spend it on IFAs that Cleveland was going to sign? 

I dunno bros 

It looks like Manny Cedeno, Ayden Johnson, Jhoan De La Cruz, Cristopher Polanco, Carlos Taveras, Deivid Coronil, Carlos Alvarez are still not signed from MLB's top 50 list.

Polanco was already a guy rumored as signing with the Jays. It's possible they use the extra to try and snag one or two of those other guys. It's use it or lose it, so they may as well back the extra truck up one someone.

[Jays24]

Shatkins never got to truly go big fish hunting in Cleveland/here and were too stupid to realize they were being played.  It's like a hot girl using a nerd to pass tests and then ignoring him afterwards.  Let's move on rather than trying to rationalize their stupidity because some of these takes are bad lol.  

[Brownie19]

3 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Another angle is that Straw's money is so insignificant Ross just didn't give a s***.

It let him throw one last offer at the biggest surplus value FA in a generation and we'll go on to add to the payroll anyway. 

That or they decided if they failed to get Roki, they'd be rebuilding anyway and it won't matter.  Perhaps they were trying to block LA from being able to acquire the international pool money they needed and expected that Philly wouldn't help LA out like they did?

It's extremely hard to find logical explanations LOL.

[Rusty_Savage]

3 minutes ago, Abomination said:

It looks like Manny Cedeno, Ayden Johnson, Jhoan De La Cruz, Cristopher Polanco, Carlos Taveras, Deivid Coronil, Carlos Alvarez are still not signed from MLB's top 50 list.

Polanco was already a guy rumored as signing with the Jays. It's possible they use the extra to try and snag one or two of those other guys. It's use it or lose it, so they may as well back the extra truck up one someone.

 As long as they use the money on something then it makes the deal at least somewhat palatable.  If they don't use it then it will just leave more of a sour taste in fans mouths.  

I did read somewhere that we are in agreement with Polanco and that De La Cruz and and either Tavares or Alvarez signed with the Padres. 

I wonder what guys the Dodgers had lined up...