Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[Omar]

39 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Lukes is criminally underrated. Seems like everyone wants to roll with Barger in one corner OF spot and a FA signing in the other, but I'm not sure why Barger is being penciled in over Lukes.

Term, you know Barger can be penciled in to hit 25 hr's whereas Lukes....

[Terminator]

22 minutes ago, Omar said:

Term, you know Barger can be penciled in to hit 25 hr's whereas Lukes....

He'll be 27 and he's never once done that

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, Omar said:

Term, you know Barger can be penciled in to hit 25 hr's whereas Lukes....

Yes and Santander can be penciled in for 40

[bluejaysinternNo5]

Lukes has a ceiling of a league average hitter. Barger has a greater ceiling than that. Jays are starved for offense so you give Barger the chance to start and hopefully hit his ceiling. If he doesn't Lukes slides in. Slotting in both of Lukes and Barger to start would not inspire confidence after the year they just had. I would be pretty disappointed with that.

[Carlos Danger]

1 hour ago, Omar said:

Term, you know Barger can be penciled in to hit 25 hr's whereas Lukes....

Barger had a pretty s***** August 2025 IIR.... He drank some of the same ju ju juice and sold his soul to the Devil along with Vlad and the rest of the team and was on fire end of season/playoffs. 

I would be very concerned about the sustainability of Barger to use him as one of your all in eggs in your basket to solve your offensive woes.

[Jays24]

2 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Spanky, you can send me that e-transfer anytime for our Clement bet. No rush though. 

[Jays24]

Jays needs:

1. Top 4 of the order bats at 2B and LF to make Clement our backup IF and Lukes our 4th OFer (e.g. Bo with the Mets paying some of his salary + Suzuki/Sato)
2. A front line starter as Soriano seems like a 3/4.  (Cease, ?, Soriano, Yesavage, Ponce)
3. High leverage lefty to make Flaherty our 2nd LHP out of the pen
4. Keep Miles as our 7th inning man
5. Bring Straw back as the 5th OFer

I dont think the Jays can get all that so id downgrade needing a top end starter to bringing back Gausman or Bieber instead.  Just hope one of our guys can become a #2 calibre starter on a contender.

Most important part is getting this done before the lockout happens on December 1  when things will probably become a lot harder for us to spend our way to contention.

[Omar]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

He'll be 27 and he's never once done that

He hit 21 in 135 games in 2025.  He has only had ~750 plate appearances.  He has all the potential to do it. Lukes cant. 

[Omar]

45 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Yes and Santander can be penciled in for 40

No faith huh?  

[jaysblue]

46 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Yes and Santander can be penciled in for 40

How many HR's can Vladdy be penciled in for?

[jaysblue]

21 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

Spanky is a man of his word. He's always paid up, so not worried. 

[Omar]

1 minute ago, jaysblue said:

How many HR's can Vladdy be penciled in for?

Double digits next year. Book it.

[jaysblue]

I think Barger has the potential to hit around 25-30 HR's, but he also has the profile as the kind of bat who could struggle putting up a 100 wRC+ / 700 OPS and be awful.

Think other power/bust bats like Matt Wallner, Brenton Doyle, Mickey Moniak or JJ Bleday, etc. They could either be solid or awful. 

[jaysblue]

When you look at majority of the Jays lineup this season (qualified min playing time PA's):

• Varsho: 78 wRC+ (6th worst)
• Clement: 80 wRC+ (8th worst)
• Gimenez: 81 wRC+ (10th worst)
• Guerrero: 95 wRC+ (24th worst)

Straw with an 83 wRC+ over 300 AB, so could throw him in there if you would like.

Overall, that's 3 everyday players who got significant playing time here in the Top 10 worst wRC+ in all of baseball. That can't happen again. 

[Eat My Shatkins]

I don't think you can count on Barger or Santander for anything next season. 

Santander has been out a long time and is no spring chicken.

Barger barely got his feet wet and then missed basically a whole season.

If you get anything from them it's a bonus in my books.

That's why I'd go hard after Arozarena.

I also wouldn't count on Bateman being this good either, again if he is it's a bonus. Because of that I'd try to get Kwan from the Guardians. He's going to be getting too expensive for them now.

[Omar]

Arozarena is really going to cost, moreover in a weak FA class.  Also maybe looking at his last contract for his career.  $$$$!!!!

[sliderguy35]

Arozarena should be absolutely no-touch. He had a nice season but every regression indicator out there is screaming that hes mid-decline.

Hes going to be 32 next season, already a bad defender, hard hit rate, barrel rate, bat speed are all down, chase rate & groundball rate are way up.

Id be shocked if anyone gave him more than 3 years and im certainly hoping it wont be us.

[John_Havok]

10 hours ago, Terminator said:

I wonder if the Jays will kick the tires on one of the Japanese pitchers. Seems like there are two main options: Hiromi Itoh and Kaima Taira.

Itoh is 5'9", 180 pounds and sits 92–94 with a deep arsenal, including a splitter, which is always enough to get Pete Walker to raise a glass.

Taira is more interesting. He's 5'8", 220 pounds, which makes the mound visits with Kirk reason enough to sign him. Apparently he's very analytically inclined and really into pitch data and biomechanics. He can touch 99 and throws something like eight different pitches. He'd be a fun guy to get.

 

Funny enough, but Kaima Taira in English means "fire hydrant"

[Stangstag]

3 hours ago, Omar said:

No faith huh?  

I think he can definitely do it, I just wouldn’t go into the season expecting him to hit 25+

Just like a wouldn’t expect Okamoto to hit 30 again. He might, but its a lofty expectation.

I think both (and Santander for that matter) can reasonably be expected to hit the 20 mark.

If we can get 4 guys hitting 20+ next year (Vlad, Santy, Oka, Barger) that should go a long way towards a much improved offense 

[Stangstag]

3 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

I don't think you can count on Barger or Santander for anything next season. 

Santander has been out a long time and is no spring chicken.

Barger barely got his feet wet and then missed basically a whole season.

If you get anything from them it's a bonus in my books.

That's why I'd go hard after Arozarena.

I also wouldn't count on Bateman being this good either, again if he is it's a bonus. Because of that I'd try to get Kwan from the Guardians. He's going to be getting too expensive for them now.

That’s a good attitude to have. If you go into 2027 banking on bouncebacks/healthy seasons from 2 guys who missed all of 2026, it could blow up spectacularly.

I really like Suzuki as a potential signing, Arozarena could work too but im not so hot on his attitude problems. Suzuki + Arraez could be a nice way to bolster the offense and shouldn’t exactly break the bank.

[Landry_25]

7 hours ago, Stangstag said:

That’s a good attitude to have. If you go into 2027 banking on bouncebacks/healthy seasons from 2 guys who missed all of 2026, it could blow up spectacularly.

I really like Suzuki as a potential signing, Arozarena could work too but im not so hot on his attitude problems. Suzuki + Arraez could be a nice way to bolster the offense and shouldn’t exactly break the bank.

I think Suzuki/sato and Arraez/lowe any mix of them would be wicked additions. Love ern dog and Luke’s but they should definitely be off the bench options not starters 

[Sorrow]

I think if you pencil Barger as a bit of a utility player who gives you some 3B against RHP and RF against RHP and maybe some DH time and Santander as a DH and COF you’re okay. With that being said you need an improvement at 2B and one of the corners as an everyday player. I think a Clement and Smith platoon at 2B would work and someone like Suzuki in a corner means you can at least start the season with Barger and Santander doing something but you need a platoon mate for Barger who shouldn’t be playing everyday.

[Brownie19]

12 hours ago, sliderguy35 said:

Arozarena should be absolutely no-touch. He had a nice season but every regression indicator out there is screaming that hes mid-decline.

Hes going to be 32 next season, already a bad defender, hard hit rate, barrel rate, bat speed are all down, chase rate & groundball rate are way up.

Id be shocked if anyone gave him more than 3 years and im certainly hoping it wont be us.

You mean he won't get paid for what he's done already?  That's odd.

[Brownie19]

If we think it's necessary to push Barger, Lukes and Clement to the bench, and sign another top of the rotation starter and a top notch lefty for the pen - then I have some news for you guys.

 

[glory]

16 hours ago, Terminator said:

Seems like CJ Abrams' name keeps getting floated out there too

Yeah Abrams is an option as well though after trading Nimmala I’m not sure the Jays have enough in the farm to make a trade like that. Some of the older more expensive options that could be traded (Seager, Lindor, Bo, etc) should cost a lot less due to their salaries.

Arraez can’t be given the QO and his offensive profile is what Ross dreams about at night, so I could see that happening, but I’d shoot for more/higher impact if possible. 

[Terminator]

15 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Spanky is a man of his word. He's always paid up, so not worried. 

On a message board that many describe as being a wretched hive of scum and villainy, Spanky's strong integrity and morals serve as a shining example for the rest of us to follow.

Where others welch or are constantly negative, his positivity and commitment to honoring his word remind us that there are still good people among us.

We should all strive to be a little more like Spanky.

[gruber9292]

1 hour ago, glory said:

Yeah Abrams is an option as well though after trading Nimmala I’m not sure the Jays have enough in the farm to make a trade like that. Some of the older more expensive options that could be traded (Seager, Lindor, Bo, etc) should cost a lot less due to their salaries.

Arraez can’t be given the QO and his offensive profile is what Ross dreams about at night, so I could see that happening, but I’d shoot for more/higher impact if possible. 

Varland will have to be in a package for Abrahams 

[Laika]

Shane Bieber is shamelessly obsessed with coming back to Toronto

 

[Terminator]

41 minutes ago, Laika said:

Shane Bieber is shamelessly obsessed with coming back to Toronto

 

Remarkable how this franchise has turned around its reputation among players.

It wasn't that long ago that we couldn't even outbid other teams to get a MLB player (aka xenophobic southerners) to play north of the border and now they are begging to stay.

[glory]

The Jays came off one of the more infuriating seasons that I can remember, but on the last game of a lost season the stadium was packed, and the fans gave departing players the type of send off that players dream about. One thing that is understated aside from the obvious financial advantage the Jays have is that they've built a culture that players want to play for (like Bieber above). Obviously without money that wouldn't mean much to free agents, but when you combine culture with deep pockets, that's a huge competitive advantage. Hopefully the MLBPA wins and we don't see a salary cap (and I don;'t think we will).