Laika

No? How about you make better posts in the future

Haha. Not sure why he would even mean Springer in that context though, so it doesn't seem like a typo. Toronto is going to add like, four more good free agents, aren't they...

Attacked! Hopefully you're okay, mate.

I don't think there's anything to that. Bauer will play for whichever competent organization offers him the best contract.

Baseball contracts are so weird. In some ways they have inflated a lot over recent years - look at contracts for uber-elite players. In other ways they have been sort of flat - look at contracts for second tier position players like Springer or non-Ace pitchers. In some ways they have GONE DOWN - look at contracts for older average players and role players...

Injuries happen. There's nothing wrong with having four OF. If they sign Brantley and a starting IF that bumps both Grichuk and Tellez to the bench. A bit awkward but there's also nothing wrong with that - again, injuries happen and even if everyone is healthy the team can play some platoon matchups. I do think the team will try to trade Grichuk, in any event, but I'm not confident they will find a taker. A bad contract swap for a SP or SP/RP could make sense. I'm not a huge fan of doing something ham-fisted like signing an ancient Brantley and then flipping Gurriel or Teoscar for a SP. Gurriel and Teo are core building blocks with tons of value and upside - they should only be traded thoughtfully and deliberately for maximum value, they should not be flipped willy nilly because one old LF/DH is brought in.

You can talk about whatever you want within the rules of the message board. It would be wise however to wait for final confirmation of the contract details before picking it apart. For all we know right now, there is a reasonable buyout on year 6, or something like that. In general, I don't think any Blue Jays fan should worry much about a big contract like this. To say that fans should not care about the money because it is not their money is a trite point... fans should care when the deal could reasonably hurt the organization in the future by limiting their ability to retain players, sign new players, and stay competitive. There are many examples of bad contracts severely restricting baseball organizations. But here, the Blue Jays are wonderfully positioned to take the risks involved with these big silly contracts - they have little in guaranteed payroll commitments over the next few years and you have to squint uncomfortably hard to imagine a future where one $25M contract in 2025/2026 will prevent the team from doing anything meaningful. The Blue Jays should carry high payrolls given their ownership structure and market. And even if the Springer contract does go bad and Toronto does not get their money worth, the plain fact that Rogers was willing to write this cheque should be an exciting thing for Blue Jays fans going forward. It's a signal (along with Ryu last year) that the team is ready to cement its place as a big player (likely in the second tier of teams, behind the really big spenders). That's all to say - to immediately hone in on year 6 and discuss how the contract is an overpay by about one Tanner Roark is just kind of sad right now. Like, a depressing way to see the world, man.

Yeah you can lose a deal by trying to get too cute and perfect. If they offer 135 maybe Springer sits on it and tries to get other teams involved...

Troy Tulowitzki's final entitlements had zero effect on the Blue Jays rosters

Lmao at you all immediately analyzing the sixth year. Who cares!!!

I know several Jays employees so it's possible

No doubt in my mind anymore. Springer is a Blue Jay. Also - Kolten Wong is retweeting Blue Jays news (Yates signing).

Here is the deal: None of these guys/girls are liars. They have people who work for the Jays (or whatever) who tell them stuff. That's not a big deal. These twitter people are honest and they are right when they go out on a limb. What they DON'T tend to do is follow journalistic standards... someone like Rosenthal will wait until something like this is verified by two independent sources, or he has been told by someone who would absolutely not be wrong. So it's possible these Jays twitter people are being mislead. That's the problem.

This is the woman who posted the first tweet about the Donaldson trade, FWIW. Something like "I hear something big is happening" on the morning of the trade.

Rosenthal was wrong!

Bit of an overpay IMO. He's probably only worth 7.89M

I don't know how this person would know but... This guy is not a reporter or insider. I think just a blogger type. But he's always seemed like a straight shooter

Kind of hoping it's a two year deal and I don't care about the money, within reason. They aren't going to be up against any actual payroll ceiling next year either. Yates is old enough that he might not be thinking of a pillow contract. He might be looking to just lock in the biggest guarantee he can. Guarantee him an extra mill or two to get an option on year three while you're at it. Why not?

Seager > Lindor >> Correa > Story >>> Baez Baez is clearly the 5th talent. He is in tier 3. Story is a bit overrated as a hitter (Coors) and there are mild K concerns as he ages. Correa has scuffled a bit in the last couple of years and had injury problems. I think he's fine but that puts him below Seager/Lindor. Correa is two years younger than Story though, which is the main difference for me between then. Not a huge gap for me between Correa and Story - they make up tier 2. Lindor is an excellent defender and well-rounded, without glaring injury or strikeout concerns. Has the best single season of the whole bunch. I have a lot of confidence that he will age gracefully. I think Seager is the best all things considered. I think he's the best hitter of the bunch. He's still only 26. I don't really care that he probably moves to 3B at some point - he might be a slugging 3B when Lindor is a light hitting shortstop. Seager and Lindor is super close. Near coin-flip.

Do you mean in AAV? The total of Hand + Yates' contracts might be like half of what Hendriks was guaranteed.

Barfield had the talent to be a Hall of Famer, with better luck and aging. He was so bad in 1992 that his career swiftly ended. Wikipedia will tell you that he sucked in 1993 in Japan because he only hit .215, but he hit .215/.357/.477 which we would recognize now as a solid enough line. That was 15th out of 68 qualified hitters in the JPCL that year. Makes you wonder if he still had enough juice left to be a platoon OF in MLB. His OPS that year in the JPCL was better than a 19 year old Hideki Matsui and a 25 year old Matt Stairs! I don't know how Stairs ended up in Japan that year but it seems like the Expos sold his rights to Chunichi Dragons and then later sold him to the Red Sox. Stairs would play 1895 MLB games, 467 more than Jesse Barfield (1428 games). In that many less games Barfield's career WAR of 39 is almost 27 full wins higher than Stairs'. There's a different cosmos where Barfield has one more elite season in his 20s and then plays a productive but average corner outfield until his late 30s, adding WAR and counting stats, and then he ends up in Cooperstown by a hair.

Really nice to see the organization making a good impression on pitchers. That's two obvious ones now - Ray and Walker.

Dick Fiasco is a great name.

not sure that's exactly what they mean when they call you little piggy

Porter said the dick pick wasn't his dick. Maybe it was Springer's agent's dick!