John_Havok

He likely won’t be a starter so he won’t get close to that anyways. He’s a backup

Any inkling as to the team that might be involved? Like…Cease and Robert from Chicago would be nice, though it would probably be more like Espinal, Manoah, Orelvis, Santos, Barger….pretty much anyone not named Tiedeman, and I probably wouldn’t even mind if he was included tbh. May as well just load up for the final 2 years of Bo and Vlad

As long as he’s a bench piece and not a starter…I’m cool with it, but I don’t see why they felt the need to sign a noodle bat defense-guy for more money than our current noodle bat defense-guy. I guess Espinal is about to get punted into the sun or traded, no reason to keep him at this point.

Isn’t Rosario just Espinal with slightly better speed?

My sources are telling me it's Ohtani. He requested a trade because he felt so bad about the whole plane thing and wanted to make it up to Canada. Return is apparently Espinal, Manoah, all the Jays international money for the next 10 years and a lifelong subscription for Friedman to the Jelly of The Month Club.

He’d be fine defensively there but then all of 2024 is the broken record from 2023, where’s the power in the offense? A bounce back from Vlad and regressions to the respective means from Varsho and Kirk still doesn’t really strike fear in hearts of pitchers everywhere. The only real 30 HR threat on the Jays right now would be a Vlad.

The voices in his head.

The move is one of those ones that makes sense and doesn’t make sense at the same time. There’s no doubt adding KK to the current roster makes the team better overall, but at the same time….not by a whole lot. The overall optics of this signing won’t really be clear until the solutions are for LF and 3b are known.

With Verdugo, Soto and Judge already out there and Stanton needing to be the primary DH...Rizzo at 1b. Where would he play?

Ok.

Yes, but just because one pro sports league does something doesn’t mean it’s remotely likely in another. Yes, I concede that it would be possible theoretically if Japan and Korea suddenly decided they wanted to have virtually no good baseball players left in their leagues, but I tend to deal in changes that have the chance of actually happening. It’s fine to just say “they should do X because it would be more fair” and that may well be true, but if the chances of something like that happen ending are between 0 and 0.1%, there not much point in entertaining the idea.

If they’re 18 …sure, they can already be signed as an international amateur free agent subject to international spending limits if they player agrees to not declare themselves eligible for their own countries amateur drafts to the pros. Ohtani almost that when he was 18 coming out of high school. Bi you can’t implement a draft of professionals from other countries pro leagues. You’d never get an agreement from other leagues to let that happen. Even kids that go undrafted from high school and college here and have never played pro ball become free agents, they don’t just keep remaining draft eligible. It’s like you want to lump every single player that isn’t from the US and Canada as a draft eligible amateur.

They’re free agents because they’ve played professional baseball in other countries for years and thus are not amateur draft eligible If you’re thinking an international draft solves international free agency with respect to the KBO/Japan thing, you have a faulty understanding of how that system differs greatly from the one that signs 16 year olds out of the Latin American and South American countries.

They’re free agents. What change to the free agent system would make any difference other than a hard cap and floor?

As another hockey fan, the cap is bloody amazing.

10:37pm: There’s a $50MM signing bonus, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (X link). The deal does not contain any deferred money, according to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (on X).

I see so theyre trying to make it so the one team doesnt send a a guy back out after finishing the previous inning, then warming up, only to have the opposing manager put in a pinch hitter, and then change pitchers again right away. Not sure what that changes since they can just change pitchers after the first hitter and still take up that time for the pitching change.

He could be a perfect candidate for an including an opt out clause after 2 years. Front load the first 2 years, then make the last 6ish years at lesser value to almost "encourage" the opt out if he wants to hit FA again. Something like 8/200, but make the first two years 30 million each, then the last 6 would average 23.33 per. The opt out keeps him here for the final 2 years of the Vlad and Bichette arb years, and then he can choose to either opt out and test FA again if he has 2 good/great years, and if he only have some average years, then the last 6 years are at lower AAV and doesn't really hamstring the Jays financially since he and Berrios would really be the only 2 big tickets left on the roster by that time.

The fact that any pitcher warming up prior to an inning MUST throw to at least 1 batter is interesting. Like, what would happen if you have 2 guys warming, but the first guy that goes in gets all 3 outs because the other guy was only intended to throw to the #4 hitter up that inning if it got that far? Would that mean that they would purposefully have to wait to start the second guy warming until the start of the inning? What if the first guy gets two quick outs and then a 1 pitch single? Will the second guy then have to come in without being ready or would the manager then have to just let the first guy try and get #4 in what's likely an unfavourable matchup? I have trouble understanding the purpose of that particular change.

No, I'm saying its delusional to think hes going to sign for well below his market value. He also catches balls hit at him; and both of those skills he does better than nearly every other 3B in the league. Hitting isn't the only skill in baseball that's worthy of being paid for. Also, please get back on your meds. Those are important for your ongoing recovery

You're delusional of you think Chappy is signing anywhere for 10 million.

So does the current free agent system. It's just a fact of life and reality. Without a hard salary cap virtually everything favours the rich teams in the long run.

An international draft doesn't solve anything to so with free agents from Japan or Korea who come over in their mid to late 20's. The only thing it COULD do is get those players over here when they are 18, but then MLB would have to have agreements with both the KBO and Japan's pro baseball that players from their home countries would have to exclude themselves from their home countries drafts. I tremendously doubt that kind of an agreement will happen anytime soon. There's too much money at stake in Japan. Side note, if one takes the Ohtani deal and converts it to Japanese currency, it's worth 100 billion yen.

I edited a my thoughts a few times, check it again and see if it makes sense to ya. I honestly think if they strike out on Bellinger, they might just grab Taylor and sit on their hands.

I don't necessarily subscribe to the theory they need to bring in a full platoon for LF. Biggio can already play out there if needed, as can Schneider (kinda), Otto Lopez, and apparently both Barger and Orelvis are being tagged as 2b/OF guys rather than 3b according to Sorrow, the poster who's friend gives him all kinds of seemingly credible inside info. Getting both sides of a platoon for LF seems unnecessary to me. First step, get Michael A Taylor as your 4th OF, then sign the best starting LF you can, regardless of handedness. I think it's Bellinger, and I will likely hate the dollars and years, but he doesn't need a platoon partner, and if a tough lefty comes in and you don't want both Belli and Varsho in the lineup, Taylor goes in for Varsho instead and Bellinger stays in LF. A guy like Taylor fits so perfectly as the 4th OF on the roster it's almost a crime he hasn't been signed yet. The myriad of IF/OF options that exist on the Jays bench really dont make signing a full platoon for LF necessary at all. As for 3b... f***ed if I know. If it's not Chappy at the same kind of too many years and too many dollars deal like Bellinger will get, what else is there? As a last resort maybe you throw Lopez, Orelvis, Leo Jimenez, Clement, Schneider, Biggio and Barger at 3B all ST long until you figure out which guy(s) can hold it down well enough with some kind of rotation. Hell maybe they rotate all of them through 2B, 3B and LF until they find a rental trade, just to keep costs down so they can go after Soto or Bregman in the next FA period, just like the Dodgers did last offseason.