Terminator

I was going to vote #4 but I didn't want to be associated with Jim so I'm going with #3. I'm a little bullish on him anyway. The change in pitch mix has given him a true talent change. The curve had great movement but it was a slow breaker that hitters could see from a mile away and lead to major home run problems for him. This fastball/split combo gives off Gausman vibes and I think he can remain effective with it. The curve and slider are solid 3rd and 4th pitches for him.

Yeah this is a big part of it. I've hated them for a while. Back in the Bautista days they were a bunch of crusty no-fun prudes ran by Buck Showalter and would always throw at him. They sucked so bad they couldn't even do that and he'd homer off them later that game or even in the same AB. I think even the Orioles simps around here understand the "f*** 'em" attitude when it comes to the Yankees. I don't care if they are good or not, f*** 'em. I will always enjoy pointing out their demise when it happens. It's similar to the Orioles, only on a Blue Jays message board of all places we have active Orioles fans who actually cheer for them. I mean geez, we've dealt with Orioles trolls from Orioles Hangout before who would brag about their real life celebrity posters. But now we've got our own homegrown Orioles terrorists/trolls. Sad stuff.

How good is Bowden Francis going to be moving forward?

The Orioles simps are too easily triggered (except for MikeM). Point out any sort of flaw about their favorite team and they immediately clutch pearls and start throwing rocks at their second favorite team (the Blue Jays). Bizarre behavior from very sad people.

I don't think we have enough money to sign all of those guys.

Yeah, it's possible. Their AAV would probably just inch below 50 mil which I think fits. This is a franchise that has a Top 5 payroll in MLB now, spends big on FAs every offseason, and we just reset the luxury tax penalties. The trade deadline was also pretty telling in that we kept everyone who could contribute next year, targeted AA and AAA players, and the overall message was that we are going for it in 2025. I don't think the team would take that direction if they didn't plan on spending this coming offseason. On another note, if we are actually serious about Soto and pulled off a miracle to sign him, then all bets are off and we would probably just blow the payroll out altogether. There'd be no point in signing someone to the biggest contract of all-time and then pinching pennies everywhere else.

I'm glad I was able to get you guys to join me and BTS on Team Snell. This will go better than the last team I put together (Team Not Panicking Yet), surely.

1. Snell 2. Gausman 3. Bassitt 4. Berrios 5. Francis LR- Yariel AAA- Bloss, Macko IL- Manoah, Tiedeman Nice little 120 million dollar pitching staff we'd have there

Failing signing Snell or someone of that caliber I wonder if we should just pass on a major SP signing. Seems like anyone worth a damn is going to cost an AAV of 12M+ and it bumps Yariel out of a spot. I think he's done quite well after being a reliever in '22 and not pitching in '23, so any mid tier signing is going to cost a pretty penny and won't improve the team a whole lot. That said, signing a FA and moving Yariel to a swingman role is a good way to build depth, but I think we could address that by trading a Buffalo Boy for an equivalent AAA pitcher to go with Bloss and Macko as the depth. We can always add an arm at the trade deadline if we prove we are contenders.

Bring me Blake Snell. Rare situation where you can sign an ace to just a 4 or 5 year deal. The Jays can keep him healthy.

I'd probably just take Soto and call it an offseason. But nice things don't happen to the Blue Jays so I imagine we will finish as one of the finalists. So barring that I would be in on Snell and one of Santander or O'Neill. I'd also kick the tires on signing Kim and trading Bo.

It seems like Fisher was trying to purposely tank the team in the final few years to force the move to Vegas. Now that he got that deal done, they might not be as cheap as they once were. I doubt he starts writing blank checks, but they may try and be respectable the next 3 years so they can try and be competitive in Vegas.

So there were 7 big contracts signed by SS's in the past couple of years. Some can already be written off as disasters as early as year 1 or 2. Others are trending that way. And there is still time for all of them to turn out bad. Awful Story-Disaster Baez- Disaster Not looking good Bogaerts- With 9 years left this could be a bigger disaster than the two listed above. He's already sliding down the defensive spectrum and swinging a noodle. Dangerous Turner- I'd be worried as heck about this one. These 4 WAR seasons are nice and all but he put up 13 and a half WAR in the 2 seasons prior to this deal. His xStats suck which suggest he's not even this good and with these giant contracts you generally want to get some surplus value early on because this will not be a team-friendly deal for his Age 36-40 seasons. Holding up their end of the bargain, for now Correa- His vesting options make this one more tolerable but I wouldn't be surprised if he missed more games than he plays from here on out Lindor- Putting up monster seasons early on will soften the blow that the decline years will bring. Seager- Similar to Lindor but I trust him a lot less long term. Swanson- This one is actually trending pretty well. He's out-WARd Turner so far and he'll have two very solid years in the bank with just 5 to go. But it seems like his bat is on the verge of cratering out and if that happens, or his defense slips, this one could still blow up.

Think of all those high dollar short stops that signed a couple of years ago....yikes

Agree with everyone on Kepler. He would be good one a one year deal if he was our second bat added. Conforto is similar.

Must win game and this idiot is going to blow it

Bases loaded, 1 out and a 3-2 count. This could be the season right here.

Yeah that lineup would bang. Wagner and Schneider are pretty big question marks right now but my thinking was more along the lines of using the Santander money on a SP like Snell or Eovaldi. But this would work too.

Also, fans seem to have warped perceptions on trading their own team's players before they leave in free agency for some reason. Let's say we trade for a good player with one year of control this coming offseason. Are people really going to be upset simply because that player is likely to walk at the end of the year? It would depend on who it was and what we gave up, of course, but trading for a FA-to-be in itself wouldn't be frowned upon. But somehow when our own players are FA's, we need to trade them and get something for them before they leave. Why is that scenario any different? Both players have 1 year of control.

How they handle Bo will be interesting. They could try and trade him and then turn around and sign Adames or Kim. But it's going to be hard to replace Bo's expected production on an 11.2 AAV. And I don't really care if he walks to be honest. If the plan is to contend in 2025 he will help with that and FA's walking is something small market teams need to be careful of. Glad to take the 2025 production and the comp pick.

Yeah of all the corner OF bats out there he seems like the best fit. He won't break the bank but he still has the talent of a 100 million dollar FA. We should have a pretty good bench as well so if we can get 100-120 games out of him we should be able to get 3+ WAR out of LF still. He has a lot of upside so if he was able to play 130+ then you could get 4 WAR.

I think if they sign one corner OF bat they could probably get away with it so long as the Buffalo Boys finish the season strong and the teams feels confident that they can be good backup and platoon options. C- Kirk/FA backup 1B- Vlad/Horwitz 2B- Wagner/Schneider platoon with Horwitz mixing in 3B- Clement/Barger with Vlad mixing in SS- Bo/Jimenez (If Bo is healthy Leo could be in AAA and just use Clement as the rarely used backup) LF- FA signing/Schneider CF- Varsho/Loperfido RF- Springer/Loperfido/Barger DH- Horwitz and rotate regulars It's tempting to put Horwitz in at 2B full-time but Wagner also projects really well and we can take advantage of Horwitz and Vlad's positional versatility (who thought we'd be saying that) by moving Horwitz to first and playing Vlad at 3B. It's also one less bat we have to sign and we can use that money on the bullpen and rotation and can always try and upgrade at the trade deadline too.

Why do front offices across MLB hate Blake Snell so much? I'm sure they have their reasons but it seems like a short term high AAV deal could get him. Is he really that much worse than other 100 million dollar pitchers? He seems like one of the most dominant pitchers out there. Maybe a 4 year deal with some sort of vesting option for a 5th would be worth exploring with him.

This would be one of the most boring signings you could come up with but Conforto wouldn't be a bad option. His defense is just a tick below average and his numbers are better than they look as the Giants' home park kills his power. His xHR for Toronto is 19 compared to his actual 14 homers.

Yeah we kind of need any starting pitcher added in the offseason to be a #3 or better. I suppose a #4 or 5 could make sense but it would only add depth in that it would push one of Yariel or Francis to the swingman role but it could make the rotation worse if they aren't any better than those two.