The Blue Jays won the AL East by 6 games in 2015. Tulo played 41 games that year in the regular season and was basically a defensive specialist. He was also terrible in the playoffs that year (and in the 2016 playoffs). Tulo didn't move the needle whatsoever for this team. His acquisition was a massive mistake.
Buehrle - retired
Johnson - walked via FA
Reyes - moved in Tulo trade, Tulo was just released
Bonifacio - traded for cash considerations
Buck - included in Dickey trade
So, yes, the book is closed.
I don't want to make an long-term commitment to either of them at this point, so I'd trade them both. And given their recent performance and injury history, I'm not even sure I think we'd be tangibly worse if we traded them and replaced them with like Cahill and Fiers or something.
Minor league deal seems likely. Very hard to see more than a 1-2M commitment.
Is there any precedent for a buyout that wouldn't be for like 37M of the 38M he's owed, with maybe some kind of deferment?
A few players with as many or more career fWAR than Baines:
Ryan Zimmerman
Aramis Ramirez
Placido Polanco
Alfonso Soriano
Carl Crawford
Hanley Ramirez
Ryan Braun
Torii Hunter
Ben Zobrist
Jose Reyes
I wonder how many of them will be inducted?
It doesn't make any sense. Most of those guys played as long as guys like Baines and Morris, but were much better players. Baines getting elected given the information available now is ridiculous. I'd be embarrassed if I were him.
Baines had ONE season with more than 3.0 fWAR.
I see posts like this all the time, but I don't think it's human nature to start slacking as soon as you're given an opportunity to prove your worth. The idea that Gurriel is suddenly going to stop trying to be the best baseball player he can be because he's given a lot of playing time to start the season is pretty silly.