The Jays might have made the right move in not signing Vladdy

[Laika]

We basically know Vlad's demands because of the David Ortiz comments. That's probably a direct leak. He wanted $585 million. 

It's such a stupid ask that it doesn't even matter what Toronto offered on the other side. 

[Brownie19]

21 minutes ago, Laika said:

We basically know Vlad's demands because of the David Ortiz comments. That's probably a direct leak. He wanted $585 million. 

It's such a stupid ask that it doesn't even matter what Toronto offered on the other side. 

Completely agree - although the only thing we don't know is if that was with, or without deferred money.  If it was somehow the equivalent of $450M after deferrals, then that's much closer to a realistic ask.

That said - I suspect they're talking $585M without deferrals - and that's a ludicrous number. 

In the end, Vlad has really no reason to come down from some astronomical number right now.  He can ask for the moon and if the Jays say no, he can just go test free agency.

[ValiantJaysFan]

Vlad is taking a huge risk. If he gets hurt, he's gonna wish he took the offer. If he struggles, he's gonna wish he took the offer. The stars have to align for him for a second year in a row, something he's never done before. Personally, I like him but he's annoying and childish at times. He also makes dumb decisions and gets caught sleeping (like getting picked off at 2B during the playoffs). Considering what they could probably get for him if they traded him before the season starts and giving another team exclusive negotiating rights all year, I think he could be replaced. 

Bichette just needs to go at this point as well. He's never wanted to be here and I can see him and Vlad going somewhere else together as free agents. May as well get what you can for them and start building a new culture. The fans are already pissed, not like there's much left to lose as far as sentiment goes.

[polar bear]

2 hours ago, Vladdywagon said:

We've already been test driving the car for 6 years already, don't you think it's time we commit to purchase? 😂

Trade in,far better option.😜

[max silver]

39 minutes ago, Laika said:

We basically know Vlad's demands because of the David Ortiz comments. That's probably a direct leak. He wanted $585 million. 

It's such a stupid ask that it doesn't even matter what Toronto offered on the other side. 

This is Vlad negotiating tactics 101. Lets suppose that the Ortiz comment represents something that approaches Vlad's actual asking price. Vlad insists he'll keep "negotiating" (I use that term very lightly) if the front office makes him a reasonable offer, despite this reasonable offer amount almost certainly being so high that there's no team in MLB that would be willing to pay it.

More Vlad negotiating tactics:

• state repeatedly that he wants to be a Blue Jay long term, but liking social media posts with him photoshopped in other team's uniforms. This came along with a generous serving of negotiating through the media as he directly stated the team's initial offering price in an interview.
• stating that he set a spring training deadline to avoid becoming a distraction but failing to realize this would set off an inevitable shitstorm of media attention and speculation as soon as the deadline came and went. Despite not wanting to be a distraction he continued  liking posts showing him in other team's uniforms. That sort of feels like maybe it would be a tiny bit distracting, but then I've been told I need to stop looking through "Shatkins blinders" so what do I even know.

[Terminator]

10 minutes ago, ValiantJaysFan said:

Vlad is taking a huge risk. If he gets hurt, he's gonna wish he took the offer. If he struggles, he's gonna wish he took the offer. The stars have to align for him for a second year in a row, something he's never done before.

Not only that, but he needs to:

• Buck the trend on on right-handed bats not getting big deals, especially 1B
• Get another team other than the Jays to go bonkers for him and there might not be a fit for him among the high spending teams

In addition, the market is looking suspect. No one else got an explosion in cash after Soto signed, it was just him. Plus, all these TV deals are up in the air and ESPN is no longer forking over $550 million a year. 

[Terminator]

Aside from the money, I think a lot of this is him simply raising his profile. He just likes being a star and likes the attention.

Getting to go through free agency Aaron Judge/Juan Soto style is going to give him headlines all season and then he'll be one of the biggest names in all of sports this offseason.

Normally a guy like that might shy away from TO but I think having him here it will actually help. Dominicans don't exactly light the world on fire in the US with endorsements. I bet Vlad can get more of that in Canada as a homegrown star than he can anywhere else. 

[Delete_My_Account_Thanks]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

We basically know Vlad's demands because of the David Ortiz comments. That's probably a direct leak. He wanted $585 million. 

It's such a stupid ask that it doesn't even matter what Toronto offered on the other side. 

That's a pretty big stretch to assume that was his ask.

 

[Jonn]

7 hours ago, Jimcanuck said:

Looking for reasons to criticize the FO, this is as weak as it gets

I don’t need to look for reasons to criticize them. They bring the criticism on themselves.

It doesn’t take a smart person to know if you aren’t going to retain your stars you need to move them for assets. You can’t bury your franchise into the ground. You take a hit on the front end but you minimize the amount of time you suck. When you lose your best players for nothing. That’s when you become s*** and mediocre for 10+ years.

That is the trajectory the team is currently on. Star players are pending free agency. Very weak farm system. Retain the stars or trade them for talented assets. It’s pretty simple.

[Jimcanuck]

5 hours ago, Jonn said:

I don’t need to look for reasons to criticize them. They bring the criticism on themselves.

It doesn’t take a smart person to know if you aren’t going to retain your stars you need to move them for assets. You can’t bury your franchise into the ground. You take a hit on the front end but you minimize the amount of time you suck. When you lose your best players for nothing. That’s when you become s*** and mediocre for 10+ years.

That is the trajectory the team is currently on. Star players are pending free agency. Very weak farm system. Retain the stars or trade them for talented assets. It’s pretty simple.

Running a MLB franchise is simple, huh?

[Delete_My_Account_Thanks]

27 minutes ago, Jimcanuck said:

Running a MLB franchise is simple, huh?

[Jonn]

1 hour ago, Jimcanuck said:

Running a MLB franchise is simple, huh?

No its not simple. It’s actually very hard to deal with individuals with evaluations that don’t match up to yours. It’s not easy when you have to make choices that project the direction of your franchise. And none of them should be made lightly.

But at some point you have to make tough decisions so you don’t put your organization in a position that’s tough to recover from. These negotiations according to Vladdy have never been close.

So were they expecting him to cave to their demands and sign a team friendly contract that close to free agency? It’s fine if they didn’t want to give him what he wanted. I respect that. I don’t like that they are doing that but not making the best decision for the future of the franchise.

Is making the playoffs this year more valuable than losing Vladdy for nothing. That’s what they are risking ultimately. 
 

As someone who is a fan of the team I can only sit back and watch on how things unfold. But I can certainly have an opinion on it.

I would like to see Vladdy retained but not at the number that has been floating around. It will be interesting to see what kind of year he has. And what his market will actually be like.

[SuperFuzzBigMuff]

17 hours ago, Vladdywagon said:

We've already been test driving the car for 6 years already, don't you think it's time we commit to purchase? 😂

To be honest, I think once Vladdy gets a long term deal he will stop working as hard and eventually go back to his fat self. 

[Brownie19]

Vladdy details talks with Jays: Asking price was 'much less than Soto'
https://thescore.com/mlb/news/3235167

Vlad says his "last counter offer" was 14 years and didn't exceed $600M.  Sounds to me like his original request was over $600M - which is crazy.

But it is encouraging to see he did seemingly negotiate with the Jays (somewhat).   

But it seems obvious he was asking for a huge bag of $$$.  Can't blame Atkins or Rogers for walking away from that demand.

[BB17]

Yeah there is no upside to signing him to a deal for over 500M. He'd have to have like a 7-8 Win MVP type season for him to get that in FA and even then who knows if a team would actually pay him that.

Aren't the owners pushing for a salary cap after the next CBA expires in 2026? With that on the horizon not sure you'd want to be handing out 500M contracts.. I think Jays made the right move on this one.

[Laika]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Vladdy details talks with Jays: Asking price was 'much less than Soto'
https://thescore.com/mlb/news/3235167

Vlad says his "last counter offer" was 14 years and didn't exceed $600M.  Sounds to me like his original request was over $600M - which is crazy.

But it is encouraging to see he did seemingly negotiate with the Jays (somewhat).   

But it seems obvious he was asking for a huge bag of $$$.  Can't blame Atkins or Rogers for walking away from that demand.

So 14 years at 42 million or so per 

Cool cool cool 

[glory]

Sounds like his initial ask was 15 years and over $600M, and he lowered it to something like 14/585 (based on the total value Ortiz brought up a few weeks ago). 

Having Vlad under contract for big money at age 40-41 seems like a really, really bad idea. We might be saying that for his early-30's, so his 40's is insanity. 

[saskjayfan]

9 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Vladdy details talks with Jays: Asking price was 'much less than Soto'
https://thescore.com/mlb/news/3235167

Vlad says his "last counter offer" was 14 years and didn't exceed $600M.  Sounds to me like his original request was over $600M - which is crazy.

But it is encouraging to see he did seemingly negotiate with the Jays (somewhat).   

But it seems obvious he was asking for a huge bag of $$$.  Can't blame Atkins or Rogers for walking away from that demand.

The problem is that if you compare Vlad to Soto you could make a case for his ask.  If you compare Vlad to everyone else in baseball, it's a ridiculous ask.  Soto screwed the market up. 

Vlad not only has to worry about injury and his own play.  He has to worry about Soto's play.  Soto could have a down year and put up a 5 win season and 1 year into that contract people would be saying.  Ok that was stupid.  Vlad could have the identical year and be like, OK.  Pay me my Soto money and it won't be there.  

Tucker also put up close to 4 wins in half a season last year.  If he has a great year that will effect Vlad's market.

Take Vlad at his word that he wants to be here.  If Jays win this year and they are competitive in his free agent market next year believe that you can get him where ever that market is.  Taking the insane risk of his financial ask this off season made no sense. 

[L54]

He’s asking for Steve Cohen money to sign away having his tires pumped during free agency  

Good luck Vlad  

 

[wilko]

1 hour ago, L54 said:

He’s asking for Steve Cohen money to sign away having his tires pumped during free agency  

Good luck Vlad  

 

Vlad and Soto can fight over 1B/DH for years to come. 

[Jonn]

Either Vladdy and his Agent know something the rest of us don’t know or he’s going to get extremely humbled on the Open Market.

That is an absurd figure.

[glory]

14 hours ago, BB17 said:

Yeah there is no upside to signing him to a deal for over 500M. He'd have to have like a 7-8 Win MVP type season for him to get that in FA and even then who knows if a team would actually pay him that.

Aren't the owners pushing for a salary cap after the next CBA expires in 2026? With that on the horizon not sure you'd want to be handing out 500M contracts.. I think Jays made the right move on this one.

I don't think the CBA/impending lockout is going to impact Vlad's situation. The lockout will be after the 2026 season, and Vlad will be a FA after 2025, so it will likely be business as usual this coming winter and he's going to get a market value deal with another elite season in 2025. The question is, what is or will be his market value in 9 months if he has another elite season? My guess is that no team is insane enough to give $600M to a 1B, but maybe that changes if he has consecutive great seasons for the first time ever. All it takes is one GM. 

Manfred basically admitted that off-season lockouts will be the new norm during CBA negotiations (not sure why he'd say that publicly), but I think that will impact the FA's after the 2026 season more than Vlad and Bo. In other words, don't expect Berrios to be opting out of 2/50 (he probably wasn't going to regardless but certainly not with a looming lockout). Vlad's still going to get his money. It's just a question of which side is closer to his true market value. My guess is the Jays are, but again, all it takes is one GM.

[Stangstag]

On 2/23/2025 at 3:07 PM, Delete_My_Account_Thanks said:

That's a pretty big stretch to assume that was his ask.

 

bump

[Delete_My_Account_Thanks]

On 2/23/2025 at 12:44 PM, Laika said:

We basically know Vlad's demands because of the David Ortiz comments. That's probably a direct leak. He wanted $585 million. 

It's such a stupid ask that it doesn't even matter what Toronto offered on the other side. 

Looks like you were way off.  500 mill

[Delete_My_Account_Thanks]

On 3/7/2025 at 2:41 PM, Stangstag said:

bump

Bump again.

 

Way to own yourself.

[Brownie19]

43 minutes ago, Delete_My_Account_Thanks said:

Looks like you were way off.  500 mill

I don't think you're following the chain of events very well.  Major issue in society right now to be honest.

[max silver]

51 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I don't think you're following the chain of events very well.  Major issue in society right now to be honest.

This is just an example of a simple mind that is only capable of thinking in absolutes. Therefore there is the need to assign 100% of the blame for a very complicated scenario on team management, and none of the blame on the player despite the multitude of question marks and inconsistency surrounding this player. Not to mention the astronomical asking price that would pay the player among the elites of the sport despite this player only being a top 10 level of player in the sport at best. 

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Delete_My_Account_Thanks said:

Bump again.

 

Way to own yourself.

Lol dude is english not your first language or something? Do you know how to read?

[BB17]

Worst part is I could see him not getting any offers close to that in FA and then not wanting to re-sign with Toronto because it's him not wanting to admit defeat and sign for less than what he was offered previously.