Offseason Roster Thread 2025-26

[jmomcc]

1 hour ago, John_Havok said:

I guess there's a non-0 chance that Berrios bounces back a bit with recovery from whatever elbow thing was bothering him starting in the mid-to late part of the season. his May/June was actually pretty solid and more in line with his norms

But the continual/gradual decline in stuff over the past is rather noticeable, especially the breaking balls. 

But yeah, if I'm Atkins I'm not relying on Berrios to be the #3, he's a 4/5. 

 

He is also only 31. And his stuff dropped even when his velo didn't. 

I hope he goes to driveline or something in the offseason and see if there are changes he could make. 

[Eat My Shatkins]

I cringe at the thought of Santander out there phucking up the outfield defense, hopefully he at least brings his 35+ HR bat with him. One more season though, and the plan is probably for him to take over as DH for George when his contract ends.

[Terminator]

Almost every team in the league would have use for Lukes, a player with good OBP and pretty much average at everything else while batting from the left side. And he makes almost nothing.

He can start in a strong side platoon or he can be a good bench player.

Just as an example, he probably would have started for the Mariners and/or Dodgers. For the Yankees he would have been a good bench player.

He's not worth a ton but he could fetch a reliever, his infield equivalent, or maybe MLB/AAA starting pitcher depth.

[Eat My Shatkins]

Hopefully the bench is made up of Heineman, Straw, Lukes and Schneider this season.

They provided 6 fWAR last season on roughly 1100 PA's in 2025.

If Varsho and Santander are healthy, they will take away a good chunk of those PA's but they still provide solid depth.

Signing either Bo or an OF bat like Belly/Tucker will make that happen.

[John_Havok]

43 minutes ago, Laika said:

Also, keep in mind that Atkins likes to plan ahead to fill holes.

Varsho, Springer, and Gausman are free agents after 2026. 

Given the awkwardness Santander presents for any kind of bat signing, I would not be surprised to see a bat traded. And it might be a little bit of a gut-punch trade where a 2025 favourite is sent somewhere. Nathan Lukes should probably be trade bait... Ernie Clement has real, significant value now but he's almost 30. 

I would personally find Ross Atkins and chop his legs off if he did it, but on paper you can justify a Clement sell-high and you should be trying to sell-high on Lukes

Thats the sh*t part of the offseason. All the emotion wears off and it's back to realizing that some pieces inevitably have to go. 

I'm rather okay with moving Lukes as I think he's in a bit of an over-achiever category who's likely to take a step backwards. Sell high on that kind of guy for sure if you can. Can you parlay him into a potential backend reliever? If so... do it. If not, he's a great bench guy. 

Clement I'd have more trouble parting with just from his defensive flexibility in the infield, but... yeah he and Lukes are so identical in their overall profiles it's kinda scary.   Both are high contact, lower power hitters (lukes with more power though than Clement for sure), both play very well defensively in multiple positions in the OF and IF respectively..., Clement better on the bases. 

Both are quite obvious sell-high candidates, but I'd rather keep Ernie over Lukes. 

Ernie

 

Lukes

[glory]

Lukes is a 31 year old journeyman who had a 89 wRC+ in the 2nd half of the season. I don't think anything the Jays do should have him in mind. Ideally he would be the 4th OF but with Straw here I don't think that happens, so he probably is trade bait. 

 

[Brownie19]

4 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I think a more pressing question for the FO is centered around Barger rather than Bassitt; not a question of whether he'll be there or not, but whether his emergence would pump the brakes on signing a guy like Kyle Tucker for the OF. 

Does Barger check enough boxes to forgo a serious push to sign Tucker?

Hypothetically... chasing down Tucker would be great, BUT if they do, they likely don't have money for Bo plus a front line pitcher. I think their target splashes are going to be either Bo or Tucker plus a top-end pitcher. 

So it's like... Barger + Bo at, lets say around 25 million AAV, plus front line pitcher at 25-30 million AAV... is that better than Barger + Tucker at 30ish million AAV and front line pitcher at 25-30 AAV? 

There's lots of domino effects that would happen if they signed Tucker instead of Bo regarding Springer, Santander and the DH spot, not to mention Lukes and Clement, since signing Tucker would put barger at 3rd most days, pushing Clement to 2b, and making Lukes LH bench bet kinda ... not overly useful backing up 2 LHH, a switch hitter and Springer, the RH backup OF would be more in play (aka Schneider/Straw). 

Keeping Bo at 2b, stickong barger in RF and Clement at 3rd would be doable, creates fewer issues for Lukes, but really Lukes' role shouldnt be a factor in whether or not you sign a guy like Tucker. 

There's so many moving parts and what-ifs and this-is-what-happens-if-X-guy-signs that it's hard to discuss it all in a single post. 

Yeah - this is a huge question for them.

I believe Barger's defense is better at 3rd and we know that quality 3rd basemen don't grow on trees.  It's also much easier to fill a corner OF spot - so in a vacuum, you'd want to develop Barger at 3rd base.

But of course, the Bo decision complicates matters.  You could still sign Bo to play 2nd and then let Lukes/Schneider platoon in the OF, with Santander in the other corner, but that pushes Clement to a true utility role.  Honestly - that's probably a PERFECT fit for Ernie on a WS contending team, but it's REALLY hard to do that to him based on the way he's played the last 2 seasons - and especially coming off his incredible performance in the 2025 playoffs.

If they do sign Bo, I fully expect we'll see Barger split time between 3rd and RF again next year.  Kudos to that kid - he seemed to switch position remarkably well.  He's an easy guy to root for.  This whole f*cking team is quite frankly.

[Brownie19]

Jesus Christ - there's absolutely not way this team trades Ernie Clement.  He's a heart and soul guy in that clubhouse.

[Stangstag]

13 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Jesus Christ - there's absolutely not way this team trades Ernie Clement.  He's a heart and soul guy in that clubhouse.

Yes, he needs to stay. He can be platooned and provides backup for all 3 INF spots. Useful player even if the bat regresses

[John_Havok]

18 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Jesus Christ - there's absolutely not way this team trades Ernie Clement.  He's a heart and soul guy in that clubhouse.

I'm not advocating for it, just discussing the possibility and identifying the best sell-high candidates. Clement and Lukes are the two best. Lauer would be too honestly, but they kinda need people to throw baseballs towards the plate next year. 

[Brownie19]

1 minute ago, John_Havok said:

I'm not advocating for it, just discussing the possibility and identifying the best sell-high candidates. Clement and Lukes are the two best. Lauer would be too honestly, but they kinda need people to throw baseballs towards the plate next year. 

Unless there is a huge wave of teams wanting to copycat the Jays and move the ball forward with a high contact approach, it's doubtful you're going to get anything significant for Clement or Lukes anyway.  I suspect you just let them do their thing for this team for the next few years and see what happens.

We don't really have a ton of ML level trade candidates IMO.

[Jonn]

53 minutes ago, glory said:

Lukes is a 31 year old journeyman who had a 89 wRC+ in the 2nd half of the season. I don't think anything the Jays do should have him in mind. Ideally he would be the 4th OF but with Straw here I don't think that happens, so he probably is trade bait. 

 

They can literally just bury Straw in the minors until they can decline his option. No way should he be the 4th OF over Lukes.

[GoBlue41]

2 minutes ago, Jonn said:

They can literally just bury Straw in the minors until they can decline his option. No way should he be the 4th OF over Lukes.

Straw plays good D and is a good base runner but if you use him to replace a starter at the end of a game, you better win the dang game because he offers absolutely nothing with his bat., 

[SeranthonySantander]

29 minutes ago, GoBlue41 said:

Straw plays good D and is a good base runner but if you use him to replace a starter at the end of a game, you better win the dang game because he offers absolutely nothing with his bat., 

How often do games really go deep into extras though?

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

There is a market for fundamentally sound baseball players, even if they are platoon guys like Lukes. 

There is always a team like the Reds or whatever trying to trade for respectable bats. Heck, last offseason they traded a pick and a recent draft pick for Gavin freaking Lux, who is like a crummier version of Lukes. 

All I am saying is people should be prepared for the gang to get slightly broken up.

Lukes for a quality reliever might even be a good trade! 

 

Lukes for Tony Santillan. 

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Unless there is a huge wave of teams wanting to copycat the Jays and move the ball forward with a high contact approach, it's doubtful you're going to get anything significant for Clement or Lukes anyway.  I suspect you just let them do their thing for this team for the next few years and see what happens.

We don't really have a ton of ML level trade candidates IMO.

I think Clement is more valuable to the Jays than what he would bring in trade.

Trading Lukes for a reliever could be possible. 

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

Almost every team in the league would have use for Lukes, a player with good OBP and pretty much average at everything else while batting from the left side. And he makes almost nothing.

Lukes had a .323 OBP and a 8.7 BB% this season. 

[L54]

Dodgers gave up a pretty interesting arm in Eriq Swan for Alex Call who is actually pretty similar to Lukes other than handedness 

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

He can start in a strong side platoon or he can be a good bench player.

He's not worth a ton but he could fetch a reliever, his infield equivalent, or maybe MLB/AAA starting pitcher depth.

Yeah you either need a strong platoon partner with him or he's good to keep around as a 4th OF, bat of the bench, but that's it.

Lukes at most brings back a reliever in a trade. You're not cashing in on either Lukes or Clement this offseason as some have suggested. 

[hanton]

If you're taking another run at it in 2026 then gotta stick with the same low whiff/low k philosophy - which means bringing back Ernie and Lukes.  and add to fill holes.   

SHUT DOWN CLOSER

[Terminator]

18 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Lukes had a .323 OBP and a 8.7 BB% this season. 

Ok? 

[Terminator]

17 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Yeah you either need a strong platoon partner with him or he's good to keep around as a 4th OF, bat of the bench, but that's it.

Lukes at most brings back a reliever in a trade. You're not cashing in on either Lukes or Clement this offseason as some have suggested. 

Yes thank you for doing that thing where you agree with everyone while using an argumentative tone

[Spanky__99]

14 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Yes thank you for doing that thing where you agree with everyone while using an argumentative tone

aSsOmEhAvEsUgGeStEdwtfbbq??? The passive aggressive book is out in full force. Both of you guys said a proper sell high of Lukes for a reliever in your posts, lol... 🙄

[G-Snarls]

58 minutes ago, SeranthonySantander said:

How often do games really go deep into extras though?

In the regular season hardly ever anymore 

[jmomcc]

I wouldn't trade lukes for a reliever. 

[Omar]

Hard to believe there is some consensus about trading Lukes. For those with a keen memory, will recall this past September I brought up trading Lukes in the off season; I'm still picking away at the tar and feathers I was inundated with. 😎

 

[ComeTogether]

[Blair & Barker] Post-World Series Priorities with David Samson #blairBarker 

https://podcastaddict.com/blair-barker/episode/209971277 

 

 

 

[SuperFuzzBigMuff]

Any love for Edwin Diaz?

[newhere]

Who's up for pointless predictions as another way to pass time besides wallowing in anguish? 

Who will make up the Jays bench on opening day?

[SeranthonySantander]

10 minutes ago, newhere said:

Who's up for pointless predictions as another way to pass time besides wallowing in anguish? 

Who will make up the Jays bench on opening day?

I mean yea, he wants more than 20 million a year though and more than 2 years.  We probably can't do that.

Sorry meant to quote the guy above asking about Edwin Díaz