Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[glory]

34 minutes ago, BTS said:

That's the bones of a last-place team in the ALE, especially if Vlad doesn't remember how to hit 

Yeah, the same lineup with a one armed Santander who has missed essentially two straight seasons in his 30's replacing Springer isn't going to make a dent even with internal improvement. Vlad would have to be a 5 WAR player again, and he's done that exactly twice in his career. Signing Arozarena or Suzuki (both 32 next season) would improve the team but seems pretty risky given their age. Not many other real options in free agency. They'd also need rotation help with Cease, Yesavage, and Ponce coming off a lost season being their only SP's.

 

[Orgfiller]

2 hours ago, BTS said:

That's the bones of a last-place team in the ALE, especially if Vlad doesn't remember how to hit 

If Vlad doesn't remember how to hit we might be irredeemably f***ed lol. A $500M 1B who doesn't hit is a franchise breaking type of anchor. Even Pujols was cranking 20+ HR when he fully lost his legs, prime Vlad can't even crack .100 ISO jfc.

[John_Havok]

9 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

This season has gone down the pishadoo, what are the building blocks for next season?

About $200 million estimated luxury tax payroll according to fangraphs, key arb eligible guys are Sanchez, Varland, Ernie, Lukes..

C - Kirk / Valenzuela

1B - Vladdy

2B - Clement

3B - Okamoto

SS - Giminez

OF - Barger, Santander, Lukes, Sanchez, Clase, Pinango, Straw (if $8m option picked up)

SP - Cease, Yesavage, Ponce, Miles

RP - Varland, Rogers, Hoffman, Fisher, Fluharty

Should have lots of money to spend if Rogers doesn't cut back on the budget.

Hopefully they can get some lottery tickets for Springer, Varsho, Gausman and Bieber.

Arb wont be a big deal. Clement, Lukes and Sanchez dont have the right stats that arb rewards. Varland only has 1 season of saves, so his counting stats will also not be overly impacting. 

[hanton]

12 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Arb wont be a big deal. Clement, Lukes and Sanchez dont have the right stats that arb rewards. Varland only has 1 season of saves, so his counting stats will also not be overly impacting. 

are you sure about this? 

I remember seeing some unexpected significant arb bumps

I don't know what the formula is but I think Ernie should be due for a big raise, same with Loui who went from a middling reliever to a top 3 closer in the league

Jesus Sanchez went from 4.5M in 2025 to 6.8M this season

[BTS]

17 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

If Vlad doesn't remember how to hit we might be irredeemably f***ed lol. A $500M 1B who doesn't hit is a franchise breaking type of anchor. Even Pujols was cranking 20+ HR when he fully lost his legs, prime Vlad can't even crack .100 ISO jfc.

I still can't believe he's slugging 0.349 in late July. Like, that doesn't even feel like it should be possible in his age-27 season. 

[Terminator]

Probably need to get next year's CFer at the trade deadline. Mitch Bannon floated these mock trades involving CFers:

• Sean Keys to the Colorado Rockies for OF Brenton Doyle
• Jeff Hoffman and Daulton Varsho to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF Justin Crawford
• Kevin Gausman to the Chicago Cubs for SP Brooks Caple (AA) and OF Brett Bateman (AAA)

And here's the other 2 he made:

• Shane Bieber to the Tampa Bay Rays for INF/OF Ryan Vilade (MLB) and P Joe Boyle (AAA)
• George Springer to the Boston Red Sox for LHP Jojo Ingrassia (A+)

[Terminator]

1 minute ago, hanton said:

Jesus Sanchez went from 4.5M in 2025 to 6.8M this season

That's chump change to us

[Terminator]

1 minute ago, BTS said:

I still can't believe he's slugging 0.349 in late July. Like, that doesn't even feel like it should be possible in his age-27 season. 

0 home runs in 210 plate appearances at home is a stat so wild that it's hard to believe

[BTS]

1 minute ago, Terminator said:

0 home runs at home is a stat so wild that it's hard to believe

It's completely asinine. I hope he's deeply embarrassed about what has happened this season. 

[Brownie19]

1 minute ago, Terminator said:

Probably need to get next year's CFer at the trade deadline. Mitch Bannon floated these mock trades involving CFers:

• Sean Keys to the Colorado Rockies for OF Brenton Doyle
• Jeff Hoffman and Daulton Varsho to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF Justin Crawford
• Kevin Gausman to the Chicago Cubs for SP Brooks Caple (AA) and OF Brett Bateman (AAA)

And here's the other 2 he made:

• Shane Bieber to the Tampa Bay Rays for INF/OF Ryan Vilade (MLB) and P Joe Boyle (AAA)
• George Springer to the Boston Red Sox for LHP Jojo Ingrassia (A+)

I certainly don't want Brenton Doyle at that cost.  He looks closer to a DFA candidate than a guy who's going to cost Sean Keys.

I'd do that deal for Justin Crawford today if we could.

[Brownie19]

Jacob Melton, Jett Williams, Kevin Alcantara would all seem like trade targets who "could" fill the CF hole and won't cost the farm.

[Orgfiller]

8 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Jacob Melton, Jett Williams, Kevin Alcantara would all seem like trade targets who "could" fill the CF hole and won't cost the farm.

The Cubs have had Kevin Alcantara ride the pine any time he's been up with the MLB club. He would be a decent target: big time power, hit tool risk, presumably might be able to play CF or at least is young enough that you might as well let him try.

[Stangstag]

Quite a bit of money off the books this offseason, im confident the FO will be able to plug most holes. Although the biggest wildcard is our 37mil per season 1B, he needs to turn it around for us to have any kind of chance.

Springer - 25mil

Gausman - 22mil

Bieber - 11mil

Varsho - 11mil

Garcia - 7.5mil

Straw - 6mil

Scherzer - 3mil

Obviously gonna be some raises, but we will have lots of money to work with

[Terminator]

Yeah I think we can reload pretty quickly. Lots of money coming off the books and there is a foundation to build on.

• Rotation: We've got the makings of a solid rotation. AAA depth will be better than it has been in years as well. I'm sure we will be in on Skubal but regardless we need to sign just one more starter.
• Lineup: Need to add a corner OF, DH and CF. CF is tough but the other spots are some of the cheapest and easiest to fill. We also have internal candidates.
• Bullpen: Varland/Rogers combo is as good as any in baseball. We've got some solid middle relievers and the AAA depth is decent. 
• Bench: We really needed a right handed bat this year. Perhaps Tony Taters is that guy next year. Kasevich could make for a good platoon partner with Gimenez. The AAA depth here is also decent as a new crop of Buffalo Boys are arriving. 

[Brownie19]

Dante Nori could also be a target for the Jays.  Philly definitely needs OFers and I'd have to think Varsho and Sanchez are potential fits?  There are also rumors that Philly is looking for rotation help, which also makes us a good fit.   Crawford and/or Nori would look good in a Jays uniform.

Can we pry Jakob Marsee away from Miami?

Is Washington ready to give up on Dylan Crews?

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, hanton said:

are you sure about this? 

I remember seeing some unexpected significant arb bumps

I don't know what the formula is but I think Ernie should be due for a big raise, same with Loui who went from a middling reliever to a top 3 closer in the league

Jesus Sanchez went from 4.5M in 2025 to 6.8M this season

Ernie is a slap hitting guy with a good glove. These guys dont hit the lottery in arb. ARB for hitters generally rewards HRs, RBIs, hits, slg, ops etc. One thing playing in Ernie's favour is that he was an All-Star which counts in the players column of "special achievments" but that doesnt guarantee a massive raise either.

Sanchez might only hit 10 HRs this year, not exactly a standout baseball card. 

Also, bear in mind we have to judge these new arb rewards based on the recent bumps in the minimum salary. They started their arb 1 cases with almost double the base salary of guys even 6 years ago. Thats a big factor to the actual $ they get now. I'd wager the % increases are roughly the same

[Brownie19]

We should probably get a look at Jay Harry before this season is over.  He might be the best internal option we have unless we're willing to role with Lukes in CF next year...

[John_Havok]

3 hours ago, Terminator said:

Yeah I think we can reload pretty quickly. Lots of money coming off the books and there is a foundation to build on.

• Rotation: We've got the makings of a solid rotation. AAA depth will be better than it has been in years as well. I'm sure we will be in on Skubal but regardless we need to sign just one more starter.
• Lineup: Need to add a corner OF, DH and CF. CF is tough but the other spots are some of the cheapest and easiest to fill. We also have internal candidates.
• Bullpen: Varland/Rogers combo is as good as any in baseball. We've got some solid middle relievers and the AAA depth is decent. 
• Bench: We really needed a right handed bat this year. Perhaps Tony Taters is that guy next year. Kasevich could make for a good platoon partner with Gimenez. The AAA depth here is also decent as a new crop of Buffalo Boys are arriving. 

Santander being the obvious internal candidate for DH who's cost is already on the books.

[Eat My Shatkins]

What's the QO on Varsho and would he reject it?

Looking at all the other potential options, getting Varsho back on a one year deal would be probably be the best possible outcome IMO.

[John_Havok]

5 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

What's the QO on Varsho and would he reject it?

Looking at all the other potential options, getting Varsho back on a one year deal would be probably be the best possible outcome IMO.

22.025 was the QO after 2025 so, probably around 23 million after 2026. 

[Terminator]

46 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

What's the QO on Varsho and would he reject it?

Looking at all the other potential options, getting Varsho back on a one year deal would be probably be the best possible outcome IMO.

Yeah we had some back and forth on that recently and to me it seemed like a possibility for both sides.

I wouldn't be upset with it but I think a lot of us are getting tired of watching his ABs and dealing with all his injuries.

But as frustrating as he can be, most of the options to replace him are with guys with even worse bats. We just need to improve the lineup so it's Varsho batting 7th, Clement 8th, and Gimenez 9th.