Here's how I'm looking at it:
If Edwin had signed for 4/80 we obviously wouldn't have been able to retain Bautista
It was always going to be one of them kept at most, not both. And maybe neither
Bautista for 2 years 38M is probably a better signing than Edwin for 4 years 80M
Silver linings
I guess in terms of winning what matters to the team is: is the drop in quality bigger if they use someone else at SS or someone else at catcher. Ie. Who will catch now??
Realistically he's a star player and he'll get to play where he wants
Even more so than Edwin, I would have hated to see what Bautista would do in a "revenge season" against our pitching staff if he was in Baltimore or something and pissed off at the Jays front office
Age + injured too much in 2016 + no longer an acceptable RF defender + unreasonable contract demands + draft pick comp + generally disliked player = we get him back on a nice short term deal cause no one else wanted to gamble
Works for me
Will listen and update this post with notes
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Goal to get younger. Have not accomplished much of this yet.
It has been an unsually slow off season for most teams
Most reports in the media about potential deals are "partial truths"
Lots will be done in the next 5 weeks
Wants to bring young "championship caliber" players into the farm system. Farm isn't as deep as he would like. "Just a few" of those types of players in the system
Edwin: Took exception to Blair asking if he would have done things differemntly with Edwin. Confirmed Jays offered "far more money" than he got from Cleveland. Could have gambled but
they had no idea where Edwin's market would go. They signed Morales knowing they MIGHT still be able to sign Edwin but knowing it was less likely
Need an OF
Bautista is the "most talented one out there"
Value in the free agent bullpen market is now terrible so they've avoided it
Better value in corner OF/IF types so that's what they've signed so far
Still looking at BP options though. "Yes we will add BP pieces, and it will have constant adjustment during the year"
Biagni an option for SP. He will go longer outings in ST at first "because there's no downside to that" and then decide if he's needed in the BP or starting rotation after a few weeks
Dumb question about trading Vlad Jr answered with platitudes
Extension for Gibby being discussed
That's it
I would also want to stay somewhere warm, where I can pitch 60-70 innings a year for 5 years and make 80 million dollars. Oh, and have a legit chance at winning a World Series while I'm at it.
Seems like a decent gig