Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[Brownie19]

5 hours ago, Laika said:

I think people are underestimating how significant it was to Toronto to have entire seasons from Barger and Santander wiped out, along with almost 50% of the season for Kirk. 

There is this impression that the offense just plain sucks and is hopeless and Shatkins put together a woeful slap-hitting team with no path forward, but I dunno. It could be better than people think, even without any significant additions, just assuming a somewhat healthy year from the incumbent hitters and some reasonable amount of regression to the mean for Guerrero. 

Having the worst offense in baseball will do that...

[Eat My Shatkins]

Thing is that after having the offense crater the way it did, the Jays FO can't really sit on their hands and put all their hopes in the return of Santander and Barger can they?

Santander is in his 30's and hasn't been healthy for two full seasons now.

Barger doesn't have a long track record of success in MLB to point to.  

If these guys actually come back and give you 120 wRC+ or better it should just be icing on the cake. If it's something you count on you might be setting yourself up for another tough season offensively.

Even if they only brought in Suzuki I'd be much happier with the outlook for next season. 

[jaysblue]

14 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Thing is that after having the offense crater the way it did, the Jays FO can't really sit on their hands and put all their hopes in the return of Santander and Barger can they?

Santander is in his 30's and hasn't been healthy for two full seasons now.

Barger doesn't have a long track record of success in MLB to point to.  

If these guys actually come back and give you 120 wRC+ or better it should just be icing on the cake. If it's something you count on you might be setting yourself up for another tough season offensively.

Even if they only brought in Suzuki I'd be much happier with the outlook for next season. 

Agreed. That’s why adding another proven bat is so important. It raises the floor of the offense.

If Santander and Barger come back healthy and produce, great, but you don’t want the lineup depending on that. Add someone like Suzuki, and suddenly those bounce-backs become upside rather than necessities.

[G-Snarls]

Happy Halloween from Hawaii 

No trick or treating tonight no handing out candy

And that's fine 

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, G-Snarls said:

Happy Halloween from Hawaii 

No trick or treating tonight no handing out candy

And that's fine 

Nice humble-brag Snarls.  Enjoy!

[jaysblue]

13 hours ago, G-Snarls said:

Happy Halloween from Hawaii 

No trick or treating tonight no handing out candy

And that's fine 

If you're in Honolulu and are into cigars, definitely visit Brix and Stones. One of my favourite cigar lounges. Wish we had places like that here in Ontario. 

[Olerud363.354]

On 10/30/2026 at 12:58 PM, Laika said:

There is this impression that the offense just plain sucks and is hopeless and Shatkins put together a woeful slap-hitting team with no path forward,

They basically tied the world champs in homers with 152.  Champs were only 2 ahead.   So they could be successful as a slap hitting team if they got on base 30 points more.  Clement and Giminez would only have to improve to a .315 on base percentage to make a big difference.  Some replacement for Clement can probably pull off a .340 at least. 

Lenyn Sosa, Josh Smith, Pinango, Sean Keys and a couple of others were like combined another 500 PAs of like .270 on base percentage if Sean Keys (2027 version), R.J. Schreck, Kasevich, Josh Smith (2027 version) pull off even a .310 that is another huge leap forward. 

 

[Terminator]

The end of that tweet says that we also declined Straw's option.

[Spanky__99]

44 minutes ago, Terminator said:

The end of that tweet says that we also declined Straw's option.

The comments, lmao

[Eat My Shatkins]

No need for Straw after they trade for Kwan. 😁

[glory]

The Guardians are on the hook for Straw’s buyout, so picking up that option would have been foolish. Either bring him back now for much less than $8M or move on. 

[Spanky__99]

4 hours ago, glory said:

The Guardians are on the hook for Straw’s buyout, so picking up that option would have been foolish. Either bring him back now for much less than $8M or move on. 

That'll likely happen if they feel the same way, you could like get both Straw and Grichuk at 10 Million, but you cock block a lot of other guys. Off-Season should be interesting.

 

[John_Havok]

8 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

That'll likely happen if they feel the same way, you could like get both Straw and Grichuk at 10 Million, but you cock block a lot of other guys. Off-Season should be interesting.

 

Straw can be my 5th OF anytime. High floor, excellent D, baserunner, clubhouse guy. Doesn't get any better really. 

[Brownie19]

58 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Straw can be my 5th OF anytime. High floor, excellent D, baserunner, clubhouse guy. Doesn't get any better really. 

I agree, but based on the current construction of this team, I really think you need a RH hitting bat off the bench who can punish LHP.  That isn't straw unfortunately.

[John_Havok]

22 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I agree, but based on the current construction of this team, I really think you need a RH hitting bat off the bench who can punish LHP.  That isn't straw unfortunately.

I feel like they need that guy to be an IF/OF capable player. Still allows Straw to be carried on the bench along with backup catcher and Clement (assuming a FT 2B is acquired via FA or Trade). 

Defense still has to be considered on the bench, despite the team's needs for RH power also 

[Laika]

5 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

I agree, but based on the current construction of this team, I really think you need a RH hitting bat off the bench who can punish LHP.  That isn't straw unfortunately.

Yeah like an Amed Rosario 

[Terminator]

22 hours ago, glory said:

The Guardians are on the hook for Straw’s buyout, so picking up that option would have been foolish. Either bring him back now for much less than $8M or move on. 

Yeah if anything, declining Straw's option makes the Guardians pony up $1.75M to buy him out. That's like 20% of their offseason budget. 

[glory]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

Yeah if anything, declining Straw's option makes the Guardians pony up $1.75M to buy him out. That's like 20% of their offseason budget. 

Made the cheapest owner in sports have to pay up. They don't call him Boss Atkins for nothing.

[Jays24]

36 minutes ago, glory said:

Made the cheapest owner in sports have to pay up. They don't call him Boss Atkins for nothing.

We did pick up the salary of a guy who was in AAA and then Gimenez... lets not call him Boss Atkins for his deals with Cleveland lol

[Eat My Shatkins]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

We did pick up the salary of a guy who was in AAA and then Gimenez... lets not call him Boss Atkins for his deals with Cleveland lol

And the Jays got 6.3 combined fWAR from those two players in 2025 and 2026.

And all it cost them was what...Spencer Horwitz and money?

[Jays24]

8 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

And the Jays got 6.3 combined fWAR from those two players in 2025 and 2026.

And all it cost them was what...Spencer Horwitz and money?

If the budget is unlimited then sure, you can look at this that way.  Most would agree that the Gimenez money could be used for a better overall player.  Doubt the Jays could trade Gimenez for free right now to any team in baseball.  

[Eat My Shatkins]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

If the budget is unlimited then sure, you can look at this that way.  Most would agree that the Gimenez money could be used for a better overall player.  Doubt the Jays could trade Gimenez for free right now to any team in baseball.  

Well the budget has been pretty much unlimited or at least those two players salaries didn't stop the Jays from chasing down every big name FA under the sun, so I'd say Ross "The Boss" Atkins lives on for now.

[jaysblue]

23 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

And the Jays got 6.3 combined fWAR from those two players in 2025 and 2026.

And all it cost them was what...Spencer Horwitz and money?

Jays are paying Gimenez $23M next season 😬

I’m an Atkins fan, but let’s not make him sound like a god for acquiring Gimenez and Straw lol.

Both have value, especially defensively, but those were expensive solutions for players who don’t exactly move the needle offensively. There’s nothing wrong with giving Atkins credit when he deserves it, but those two moves aren’t exactly examples I’d use to praise his roster construction.

[jaysblue]

16 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Well the budget has been pretty much unlimited or at least those two players salaries didn't stop the Jays from chasing down every big name FA under the sun, so I'd say Ross "The Boss" Atkins lives on for now.

[jaysblue]

21 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

If the budget is unlimited then sure, you can look at this that way.  Most would agree that the Gimenez money could be used for a better overall player.  Doubt the Jays could trade Gimenez for free right now to any team in baseball.  

Funny how the budget suddenly becomes unlimited when it comes to Atkins spending big money on Gimenez and Straw lol. Apparently those moves are above criticism.

I’m an Atkins fan, but come on - paying premium dollars for defense-first players who don’t provide much offensive impact is absolutely fair game to question. You can’t complain about payroll limitations in one breath and then hand out a free pass for expensive roster decisions like these in the next.

[Eat My Shatkins]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Jays are paying Gimenez $23M next season 😬

I’m an Atkins fan, but let’s not make him sound like a god for acquiring Gimenez and Straw lol.

Both have value, especially defensively, but those were expensive solutions for players who don’t exactly move the needle offensively. There’s nothing wrong with giving Atkins credit when he deserves it, but those two moves aren’t exactly examples I’d use to praise his roster construction.

Where did I make Atkins out to be a god?

The problem here is that those moves were being used to detract from what Atkins has done. 

Those moves added wins to the team.

Far from being his best moves, but no reason to remove his Boss title.

[Jays24]

13 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Jays are paying Gimenez $23M next season 😬

I’m an Atkins fan, but let’s not make him sound like a god for acquiring Gimenez and Straw lol.

Both have value, especially defensively, but those were expensive solutions for players who don’t exactly move the needle offensively. There’s nothing wrong with giving Atkins credit when he deserves it, but those two moves aren’t exactly examples I’d use to praise his roster construction.

Ya thats all I meant but was scared id be tarred and feathered for simply saying Gimenez trade was a loss for the Jays even if i like the player... just not with his contract lol.

[Eat My Shatkins]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

Ya thats all I meant but was scared id be tarred and feathered for simply saying Gimenez trade was a lost for the Jays even if i like the player... just not with his contract lol.

Can you explain to me how it's a loss of a trade though?

I get that it's maybe not the best bang for the buck WAR-wise, but they still made the team better (6.3 fWAR combined), and I don't see evidence to support where the Jays FO or ownership said "you know, we'd like to pursue this high end free agent, but we can't because we have that darn Giminez contract to worry about".

[Jays24]

1 hour ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Can you explain to me how it's a loss of a trade though?

I get that it's maybe not the best bang for the buck WAR-wise, but they still made the team better (6.3 fWAR combined), and I don't see evidence to support where the Jays FO or ownership said "you know, we'd like to pursue this high end free agent, but we can't because we have that darn Giminez contract to worry about".

I dont get how this is hard to understand, the Jays dont have an endless budget and we have are paying Gimenez a lot of money for only his defense that could be used to get better players.  If you havent noticed, the Jays suck at hitting and Gimenez is part of that sucking.  

I have said countless times that defensive WAR is overvalued for me but thats a different discussion.  Both Gimenez and Straw are/were negative contracts and thats not even debatable.  I actually like both of them but at about half of what they were being paid.  

[Eat My Shatkins]

6 hours ago, Jays24 said:

I dont get how this is hard to understand, the Jays dont have an endless budget and we have are paying Gimenez a lot of money for only his defense that could be used to get better players.  If you havent noticed, the Jays suck at hitting and Gimenez is part of that sucking.  

I have said countless times that defensive WAR is overvalued for me but thats a different discussion.  Both Gimenez and Straw are/were negative contracts and thats not even debatable.  I actually like both of them but at about half of what they were being paid.  

If you get two players who give you 6.3 fWAR over two seasons and all you give up is Spencer phucking Horwitz, it's not a bad trade.

And paying for those two didn't stop the Jays from adding anyone. 

You're right, it isn't hard to figure out.