Laika

Yeah it's a good risk. They have the payroll space to take the risk. If he's good and healthy they could trade him at the deadline and elite relievers tend to get good returns. If he likes Toronto and he's good and healthy maybe he sticks around. I wonder if he would sign a deal that guaranteed him 1/$10M if it comes with a team option for year two.

*decent Hall c'mon Spanky

Yeah. Or the question is maybe what is the public not understanding about Clase's projected value AND/OR Kluber's correct projections? I hate all of this "bad for baseball" s***. A team doesn't want to spend a lot of money and it's always "bad for baseball". It's a wonderful irony that all of the left wing baseball twitter pinkos basically hate the poor teams.

The added info on the Kluber trade hints at what it might have taken Toronto to land him. Cleveland basically views Clase as a top 100 prospect. Seems like they would have asked for something like Groshans + I dunno, Zeuch or SRF or Pardinho or Thornton, who knows.

That’s so bad that you have to assume Kluber’s medicals are not good

jesus christ #thoughtsandprayers for your parents, man

That's a terrible route. Price is owed like 3/$96 and is over 34 years old. JBJ is a free agent after 2020 IIRC. Does not make any sense whatsoever and would nothing but be a desperation move. I don't see any reasonable way that the trade balances out and makes sense vs. just signing Ryu or Keuchel

If getting Ryu entails an $80M+ investment then I would more than happy with Toronto turning their focus to Keuchel. Keuchel has not been getting a lot of focus in Blue Jays land because the need is a top of the rotation starter and Dallas Keuchel ostensibly seems to be trending towards a mid-rotation option, or worse. He is almost 32, averaged about 88mph on the fastball last year, and he had a 4.72 FIP. Based on the negatives MLBTR said in their Ryu article today that their initial prediction of a 3/$39M contract for Keuchel still seems reasonable. That's a stone's throw from tacking one extra year onto the Tanner Roark contract. But I think there is some under the radar value with Keuchel. He has averaged 89.1mph in his career so his 88.4mph mean in 2019 was not far off his normal - he just was not able to reach back for the 90mph+ as often. The late start and abnormal spring might have had something to do with it. Keuchel's K and BB numbers in 2019 were generally in line with his career marks. He still had an ERA under 4 and on his bWAR was a healthy 2.1 in his 112.2 IP. His DRA on BP was a decent 4.25, good for 1.9 WARP in his abbreviated season. So if he had have pitched a full season with his rate stats he would have approached or surpassed 3 wins by any measure other than fWAR. He's a year younger than Ryu. He offers the promise and potential of stability that Ryu lacks. Yeah, there is less upside - Ryu is coming off a 5 WAR season and that upside is palpable for him and very likely not part of Keuchel's package anymore. Remember that Toronto's main goal is rotation stabilization, it's not exactly to add a playoff Ace. Even if Keuchel is a #3/4 for the rest of his career, if he could reliably be that for the duration of his contract then he'd be a great signing, and in 2019 he could be the veteran leader the pitching staff needs. Toronto traded for Mark Beuhrle before his age 34 season and I think we can all agree Buehrle's 3 years with the organization were excellent. If we think about a 3 or 4 year contract for Keuchel it's not hard to envision him being the grizzled veteran lefty that stabilizes the 2021 or 2022 rotation as this young core finally blossoms into a playoff team. The new Bark Meuhrle.

looks the same which is fine - his body is not going to transform - but maybe he is shedding some of the flab and tightening everything up.

It seems like that's what it will take though. Nearly every top FA is getting one more year and/or a higher AAV than predicted. People thought Ryu might get 3 years with an AAV of 16M or 17M - it might take four years and closer to 20M. Five years would be batshit. A $25M AAV is batshit. But 4/$80 might be what he gets. Or we might see something approaching the Arrieta contract - high AAV on a 3 year pact.

That's possible but quite optimistic. There's a decent chance that some of these guys suck in 2020. I could see Roark, Anderson, and Thornton all getting murdered. Shoemaker could barely pitch.

It was 97 innings with a horrendous K/BB. He also missed basically all of 2019 so even if he is good the kid could use some time in AAA to get back in form. Relax, Carlos.

He'd be their 6th SP. He has an option. He'd probably start ~25 MLB games if he's healthy. Do you know how baseball works?

Andrew "Chicken" Tendis has huge upside though. Kid is 25 - he could have multiple 6 WAR years; he already has a 4.4 WAR year on his resume while only poking 16 home runs. I can't see Boston ever moving him to save salary.

Meh. That's just a convenient narrative. From what I've read it's more or less impossible to tell who will be a capable NHL goalie. Was riding with Garret Sparks or Michel Hutchinson an unreasonable decision? I doubt it

It's hard for me to understand how a team with Toronto's core could be under .500. It seems like they have, on paper, a really strong top 4 forwards, a good goalie, two strong D. Is the rest of the roster that bad? Do players like Muzzin and Nylander just blow?

Hard to see why a guy like Yoshi would see the Rays as such a good fit. Does he want to just platoon forever and get treated like a strat-o-matic card?

It might not mean much. This regime has done some things to optimize gate revenues - maybe that's all Shi is referring to, the modernized and streamlined business practices of the team. In theory that's more revenue and a slightly higher payroll could be a result but for all we know Rogers will want to just keep to money.

Well there are a lot of options left. Could even sign a RHB like EE or Todd Frazier, or someone who plays a different position like Cesar Hernandez then have Biggio bounce around the field more. Dickerson, Calhoun, Smoak, Avisail Garcia, Souza, Shaw, Maikel Franco, Cron, Domingo, Thames. Zobrist, Bird, Zimmerman, Jerko, Pence.... They need to add a bat though and Yoshi was such a great fit and a nice mix of upside and low cost.

That's f***ing awful. Too bad. Toronto better end up with a viable LHB for a better deal than that.

Not to mention Mark Buehrle who was in the same rotation. One guy throws 86 and gets outs - amazing television! The other guy throws a 79 mph knuckler and gets outs - horrible to watch!

They are trying to improve the team. It's a noble goal, you complete and utter coward. "let someone else take the risk!" said the spineless worm.

The 2015 Blue Jays rotation was an amazing group of shitballers.

Yes And I don't think it's a big overpay. Jordan Lyles got 2/16 and his career best season is 1.6 fWAR