Terminator

Trade seems ok for both teams. As far as it relates to the Jays, we just aren't as motivated to get Polanco because we have a need at 3B and he's 2B. Mariners can just slide Rojas/Urias combo over to 3B and everything fits. If we got Polanco, 3B is still broke and we've got a glut of options at 2B. We could have made it work but it wouldn't make sense to give up a package like that for another 2B.

Yeah and to add Arizona was clearly one of the teams in on the ~10 mil DH's as well. So we might not have gotten Joc, but he does take Arizona out of the market. The musical chairs will continue and we'll get one eventually.

Best bat moved at the deadline was Pham who probably ends up blocking Schneider, thus causing us to miss the playoffs altogether.

With a good spring it could happen.

Imagine starting 3B Josh Donaldson taking Stroman deep at Yankee Stadium

Correct

I guess there is a scenario where we sign a DH only, Horwitz gets pushed to AAA, Barger shines in ST and beats out the other glut of infield options to start the season as the everyday 3B? Seems a lot less likely than Horwitz's various paths to playing time.

Well if we really are in "one bat only" territory and Chapman ends up being that guy then we may not have the luxury to sign JDM.

He makes some sense as he provides another option at 3B. But at this point in his career is he even a better 3B than Schneider? They are both probably awful but if Schneider is comparable then it kind of kills the argument to bring Turner on board.

Chapman would be a good fit. And I know you guys are going to hate this but if we brought him back a DH signing wouldn't be totally necessary. Horwitz is a lefty who projects for a 113 wRC+. It might be worth giving this guy a half season of ABs to see if he can do it. If not we can make a deal at the deadline. Chapman at 3B frees up IKF to play all over. He can play plenty of 2B which frees up Schneider to DH more (who also projects for a 113 wRC+). IKF could also be the 3rd Catcher which would allow the team to feel more comfortable to bat Jansen (110 wRC+) and Kirk (122 wRC+) in the DH spot more. Now compare the above names with everyone's favorite DH targets like Soler (projects for a 119 wRC+) and JDM (107 wRC+), both righties.

Josh Donaldson, on the other hand, now that's a guy whose former team should bring back. He's got 80 games and 15 homers in him before his calves explode for one final time.

He seems pretty cooked. I read somewhere that they are trying to do him a solid. He has almost no chance to crack the Guardians but by letting him pitch in ST he can try and show some improvement and land with another team who has bigger SP needs.

BNS and Zwelling are probably right but there's a chance they are being fed info from the FO who would like to sign remaining free agents for as cheap as possible. Whether that's Soler or even Chapman, they could be signaling that it's time for the remaining FAs to lower their asking prices if they want to sign with the Jays. And whatever threshold they want to be under, I don't think it's really THAT big of a deal if they go slightly over as the penalties only apply to the overages right? So the penalties just don't amount to that much money if you are 1-3 mil over. Though they do likely want some wiggle room for in-season adds which could play a factor.

What is this unhinged rant about?

Starting Pitchers need to average more than 65 innings per year during their career in order for me to count it as significant. Sorry Tyler.

I wouldn't say this is a 100% done deal just yet but this guy is somewhat credible and lots of other reports are that it was close. Takes a DH off the board but also takes probably our main competitor out of the DH market so overall this is a good thing I would think. It would have been bad if some team that was unexpected to sign a DH jumped in and got him.

It's crazy. The other day I posted a clip of him in high school. He and Davante Adams were both WRs on the same team and Joc Pederson was actually WR1. These guys specialize and their training changes their bodies. In baseball, this is partially due to neglect as well.

Just running through last year's standings and it seems like a good number of teams should be interested. The Jays are probably the least likely. Corporate owners who don't like offending anyone, a history of discarding "problematic" players (Yunel Escobar, Bass, Osuna) and an extremely anti-Bauer fanbase (this is my way of pointing out our fanbase's politics without getting political). The Giants are probably right up there with us and maybe surpass us bc Bauer is an ex-Dodger. The Dodgers are also a team that couldn't sign him, obvi. Maybe the Padres because the false accuser is from there so maybe that takes them out of it? Couldn't see Seattle either. Almost any other team in the league I could squint and see it as a possibility. But even then they would either need an owner with the balls to deal with the blowback, a fanbase that's not going to care and/or be desperate for pitching. The Rangers seem to check the most boxes. Could also see the Astros but not sure they need him. And then any of the Central teams finally spending money also make sense (KC, Detroit, Cincy, Pitt). Rays would normally make a lot of sense as well but given the Wander fiasco they probably want to hold off on guys like this right now.

It depends on how you grade it. On a curve with the understanding that both the FA market and trade market both suck I don't think it will end up being that bad. There are few teams that have had good offseasons. The Dodgers shoved a billion dollars at players and are considered one. The Yankees are another but it relies almost solely on trading for one year of a player, so how good of an offseason is it? Other teams that have had good offseason are smaller market teams spending nominal amounts on FAs for the first time in forever. But I suppose if you had high expectations, which got even higher after that fateful Ohtani Friday night, then yeah at best this offseason will be an emotional letdown. But after that there just wasn't much else to do which would stave off a letdown except trading Tiedemann and others for Soto or signing Bellinger to a 7 year deal.

We aren't the only ones being patient. It's an extremely slow moving market. 4 of the Top 10 FAs are still unsigned. Can't even think of a single significant trade other than Soto? I think we'll still see some action from the Jays.

Yeah I agree but Bauer is even more of a hot potato (for very stupid reasons). We would never sign either. The Oriole should definitely sign one or both of them though.

We aren't signing Eddie Rosario lol

Yeah he would. If we signed him then we'd actually have some good SP depth. 1. Gausman 2. Berrios 3. Bassitt 4. Kikuchi 5. German LR- White AAA- Manoah AAA- Yariel (or maybe he's a multi-inning reliever) AAA- Francis AAA- Tiedemann AAA- Dallas

Ok it makes complete sense then. I didn't look at the individual accolades just the overall numbers and saw his BA was high.

It is interesting to see how little WAR the Twins HoF crew accumulated. Fernandez, Delgado and Stieb are comparable players. Puckett's career at least was cut a little short but Oliva just flat out stinks. Has to be one of the worst HoFers. No glove and no base running hitter with 220 career homers. If his career BA is .298 instead of .304 he probably doesn't get in.