Laika

It's a tough situation to handle, we can all agree on that. On paper is Vlad "worth" $420M or more? Based on his age and projections he might be by a $/WAR calculation. The market seems to say he is if you use the Soto contract as a measuring stick. However, by a ton of other precedents the market has said for a long time that he shouldn't be worth that much. Regardless, how many players like this are ever available, at all? 25/26 year olds with a 5+ WAR projection. He is young enough that you could give him a 13 year deal, suck for two years right away, and still have him for two cycles of competition in the remaining 11 years. How much do you just begrudgingly overpay to lock up the rare asset?

"The Anthony Santander Sweepstakes" This is really a depressing and gross thing to be involved in tbh

Teams still position themselves in relation to the thresholds. Toronto may try to be slightly above the first threshold for example then they can go either way in season depending on how s*** goes

228M is what I read as the Jays' CBT payroll. So $13M more to spend right to the first line, $33M to spend right to the second line. I don't think the Spotrac numbers are accurate but they might still actually have $21M to spend if they want to end up past the first line but a healthy distance from line #2. If they even care about the CBT payroll lines this year, who knows.

CBT Payroll is at like 228M if I remember correctly from the articles after the Gimenez/Garcia additions. So $13M to the luxury tax line but another $20M past that to the second threshold. I think they probably are willing to throw around another $23M or so. Maybe a bit more, maybe less. End up somewhere between the first two luxury tax lines but not so close to the second line that any in-season addition would put them over that. Also possible they care more about actual payroll than CBT payroll since they reset the penalties and got under the line last season. Gimenez' 2025 salary is like $9M under his CBT payroll allocation for example. So maybe they have a bit more in the 2025 budget than the above guess... ?

It is painful to watch man. All they can generate are perimeter shots. Almost no high quality chances despite getting 40-50 shots. Easton Cowan is not a star.

Canada is horrible this year. Same mistake they always make in team selection - they shoot themselves in the foot by trying to put together a role-based team and they leave too much talent off the roster. Top 4 points collectors in the OHL are all Canadian, none are on the team. A 96 point D man from last season in the O, Zayne Parekh, is not on the team.

Scherzer, Sewald, Kimbrel, Rizzo, JDM. Bring in all the old farts. Geezer revenge season.

On the Fangraphs depth chart it says Toronto projects for 39.4 WAR, which would presently make them a team with a mid 80s win a count. I don't remember if the theoretical zero WAR team wins 45 or 47 games off the top of my head but either way it's like 84 to 87 wins. However, Fangraphs has the Jays 18th in WAR which doesn't line up with a mid 80s win count. The 18th best team in the league tends to be below .500 and win like 79 games, eyeballing it. Sometimes they win 81 games sometimes less than 79 games. This is probably where Toronto presently projects if you account for quality of competition and schedule imbalances. The spread between team projections is tight. The 12th team, Padres, are at 41 WAR and the 22nd team, Brewers, are at 38 WAR. Toronto is in the middle of this and with some bigger additions they could end the offseason as the 11th best projected team or something like that. The 11th best team in MLB seems to win 87 games or more most of the time. Sometimes 90 wins. Obviously, actual win totals get skewed by in-season moves. You can project for 85 wins pre-season then have a tough couple months to begin, end up as a seller, and win way less which is what Toronto did last year. The only point of this post is that it's hard to say what kind of impact the eventual moves will have. Adding Tony Taters to a 79 win team is stupid. Adding Tony Taters and two good relievers to an 85 win team is important and wise. Who f***ing knows?

They will do something, yes. Max Scherzer

Not Bo, if he bounces back And if Vlad is beasting and some team needs him the return could be the same as this off-season. Who knows. It's not like Juan Soto fetched a massive return from the Yankees - one good SP with some control and then depth slop.

They can still trade them at the deadline

They still have lots of choices. Profar is still out there and projects for a hair less WAR than Teoscar. Guys like Verdugo, Bader, Dylan Carlson are shittier options but if you pair them as cheap hole pluggers in the OF with a veteran DH signing of say JDM or Winker, you might get a bit more mileage for your money without having to commit so many years to an old player. Example, Verdugo and Winker for $11M each. Honestly this is what Toronto should do. Handing out a big deal to a 30+ year old FA at this juncture is kind of insane, unless that player is a total star. Better to just do their best on 1 year deals and see what happens. If it doesn't work, deadline firesale.

It needed to be burned with fire anyway

Adames got more than expected and it was a huge deal. Teoscar has the pick attached which is worth a lot of money - his deal is more or less as projected. O'Neill got his projected deal, which I would have done, but there are valid reasons to not really like him.

If we are being honest, Toronto probably didn't even want any of the free agents signed to date at the prices they fetched. Well, most of them. Sure there are a few 1 year deals Toronto would certainly have liked to do but most of the big names have been quite expensive. Remember, guys like Walker and Teoscar had the QO penalty attached so they cost more than the dollar figure. The idea that free agents are "not picking Toronto" is speculation.

Bownie?

(solved!)

holy smokes

Will the full page popup mobile ads be gone?

Zero Jays pods. I don't think there are any of value unless you are a casual fan. Rates and Barrels is the best baseball pod generally

Speculation is this could have been Toronto or Baltimore Can't rule out the Red Sox or Yankees though. They could have offered that before pivoting to Fried Pickles and Crotch Rocket

There is no rule that says something can only be posted once

Profar is the cutoff though. Below him it's guys like Verdugo, Winker, Jorge Polanco... 1 WAR players.

I could see Profar getting a one year prove it deal tbh