Laika

Nah he has about as much versality as Davis Schneider He has basically just been an emergency SS. Only played 3B meaningfully back in 2022. Dude is a LF/2B. And he's even a minus OF by OAA, and a minus 2B by DRS. 27th percentile sprint speed and consistently negative baserunning... I hate him.

But who are you benching for him? I dunno. Dude hit 10 homers last year. He has THIRTEENTH percentile bat speed. He has below average sprint speed. He has a noodle arm. Despite the defensive versality he has negative OAA. I'm out, man. This is a dude with soft tools who builds most of his value on singles and not being a butcher at a few different positions. You take playing time away from someone like Ernie or Barger for him, you are actually just REDUCING the productive ceiling of the roster!

Brendan Donovan has projections between 2.5 and 2.8 fWAR in 520 to 580 PA That's probably quite a mild upgrade on the roster. Maybe 0.5 to 1 win?

I mean good thing they didn't let Vlad walk and think they could just sign Tucker and Bo instead lol

he's worth that lol it's fine

It's definitely a novel tactic that only the richer teams can use. The gaps widen.

In a lot of ways these short term high AAV contracts JUST MAKE MORE SENSE. The old standard for desirable players was you hook them on some long term contract that UNDERPAYS THEM immediately in exchange for OVERPAYING THEM at the end. Why? Who decided to do that? Did the teams want to stretch out the money? Did the players prefer predictability and security? Did nobody care about the politics of the last few years? Bo Bichette projects for about 4 WAR. We know the market price of one win, for most player archetypes, is up over $10M now. $42M makes sense. He is expected to be worth that in 2026, and perhaps also 2027 and 2028 given his age. It's not really a "deal" for the team or the player in the immediate term. How much will he be worth from 2029 onward, when he is 31+? Who the f*** knows. Why pay for him so far in the future? Especially give his hacker plate discipline, lower tier athleticism, and injuries in recent years.

Maybe the era of the 10 year contract is over, aside from true Superstars? Teams have seen how agonizing some of those deals become and want no part of them - they would rather almost double the short term AAVs.

I'm not assuming Bo will be bad at 3B. If someone can hang at SS at all, they can probably play an average 3B.

Bo Bichette: cannonballs into Austin Wells at Yankee Stadium "why would the Skydome turf do this to me"

Dude should a) sign somewhere else and b) learn how to slide

This is officially Kyle Tucker Cope Day Grab some haterade What is your least favourite thing about Kyle Tucker? No chin weak bat speed lazy defense doesn't even like baseball fricking 10 ply bud (soft)

One more point on the "they need to add a bat" argument. Last year they did desperately add TWO bats and neither worked out. Gimenez and Santander. Instead, what worked out last year was their ability to produce and develop talent from AAA. The heroes were Barger, Clement, Lukes, and to a lesser extent Heinemann, Straw and Schneider. And improve what they had (Kirk, Springer). It may be reasonable for the organization to lean into that strength, not panic, and instead properly value their unseen but MLB ready guys like Kasevich and Schreck. Or properly project for internal growth from certain players.

Maybe more of a Bo vs Gimenez thing Steamer says Gimenez is fine and will be a 95 wRC+ bat but he was a 70 last year and 83 the year before. Clement's projection range is wild. 78 wRC+ from The Bat and 100 from Steamer. Logically Bo covers off THREE separate risks: That Ernie is a bench player who just had a good run from 2024-2025. He's 30 soon, so this is possible. That Gimenez just cannot hit anymore. Obviously possible. That Okamoto won't transition to MLB. Obviously possible. Without Bo the Blue Jays can only cover one of these downsides, probably by sliding Barger to 3rd and moving other parts around. You also don't really want Barger to be a critical depth piece for both the OF and IF, and he presently is one in the OF because Santander is a pile of poo.

I think there must be something to the idea that "elite players are more likely to perform against elite opponents" and that those situations would come up more often in the playoffs but it's just a premise, and of course anecdotes and problematic sample sizes make it noisy to examine

It would mostly be an October signing. In the playoffs you want the peak talent guy who can hit a 3 run homer off Ohtani

The Roster Resource payroll pages have the annual breakdown and it is even worse. Dude could make $152m in two years and then opt out and try for a $300m contract into retirement. At $76M I don't even understand it for the Dodgers. You are paying a guy to be worth 6+ WAR and he has never done it? And that's before the luxury tax cost. $76,000,000 $76,000,000 $44,000,000 $44,000,000

At least some of these Dodgers contracts are actually massive, and the league has appropriately price-enforced. They are rich as hell but every organization has a limit and who knows, maybe some of these players crumble and they end up with an inflexible and less competitive roster for years. Ohtani could break. Mookie already looks a bit old. Scamamoto is a pitcher. Tucker doesn't even like baseball and might be the biggest Rendon risk since Rendon himself. Snell is a stoner frog.

The deferred money would be specific to a year and earned in that year, just paid later. If there is $5 deferred from 2026, then yeah he earns that money in 2026 by playing so he gets it down the line.

I just don't think they need to panic for a bat. Bo and Bellinger and flawed players. There is a price point where they make sense. Let's see what they get first. I would hate to see a panic contract for Bo where he gets some massive 8 year deal from Toronto. There will be other chances to add talent. Trades, etc. The free agency lists in 2027 and 2028 look weaker but a lot can change, players develop etc.

You could say that his plate discipline skills are elite. Maybe "barrel control" or something like that. As far as traditional tools go, no nothing is elite. One of those soft five tool guys where it is more 50s and 60s across the board. He's actually quite similar to Alex Bregman, except Bregman has the plus 3B defense as an additional carrying tool.

Would not say needed. Here are the team fWAR projections: The Jays are already slight favourites in the AL. It would be nice to add 1 or 2 WAR there and become the favourites by a bit more, but I am not sure they need to be desperate to add those wins. The team is already solid and the depth chart is solid. Dodgers 32.6 21.9 54.4 Blue Jays 28.1 18.6 46.7 Braves 28.1 18.1 46.1 Yankees 29.8 16.3 46.1 Mariners 27.9 17.1 45.0 Red Sox 21.8 22.4 44.2 Mets 28.6 14.8 43.4 Orioles 29.1 14.0 43.1 Phillies 22.9 20.2 43.0 Astros 27.4 14.9 42.3 Cubs 27.4 13.9 41.3 Padres 26.4 14.6 41.0 Royals 24.0 16.8 40.9 Tigers 21.6 19.1 40.7 Brewers 23.7 16.7 40.4 Rangers 24.4 14.7 39.1 Twins 22.8 16.0 38.8 Diamondbacks 26.3 11.8 38.2 Rays 21.4 15.6 37.0 Athletics 24.9 10.7 35.6 Reds 19.4 15.9 35.4 Giants 23.6 11.3 34.9 Pirates 17.9 16.7 34.6 Guardians 22.3 12.0 34.3 Cardinals 23.8 9.4 33.2 Marlins 17.8 14.6 32.3 Angels 17.7 13.3 31.0 Nationals 17.8 11.5 29.2 White Sox 18.6 10.0 28.6 Rockies 12.3 7.1 19.4

The weird thing about this, and why it sits so poorly with MLB fans other than Dodgers fans, is that Kyle Tucker is NOT A SUPERSTAR. Why should a 4 win player with below average bat speed and average corner OF defense be setting AAV records? If someone like Soto or Ohtani took a bonkers AAV on a short term deal, sure fine, but this is just WEIRD. Much easier to wrap your head around a 10 year deal for a normal AAV like $35M, since he is young and should be solid for a while. But this contract is WEIRD.

Bo and Bellinger are salivating but the last thing you want is to see your team panic and overpay one of them