Terminator

We went with a 5 man bench (14 position players and 12 pitchers) in the World Series so I don't think we were necessarily carrying extra pitchers.

Myles Straw is like 3x World Series champ Terrance Gore on steroids. Regular season = useful 5th OF (Gore wasn't good enough to do this) Playoffs = should only be pinch running and a defensive replacement (the Gore role) I will say, however, that his 91 wRC+ season with the stick this year was a nice development for him. It wasn't built on luck or anything either, his xStats match. Hopefully he can keep that going. Clase has some tools but his defense actually sucks. Now that he's out of options I think we just gotta cut him loose. Could maybe get a lottery ticket from a bad team from him at best.

Spotrac says his agent is ISE

FA is so weak next year. Varsho might be the top position player. If I'm him it would be awfully tempting to play the year out. He's going to get 10M in his final year of arb which is a nice security blanket if everything goes to hell for him. But if he stays healthy it seems like 30 homers and a gold glove are both attainable and if he did that he'd get PAID.

It is ridiculous that the small group of Toronto writers who get to vote on this stuff are contrarian trolls who hate the Jays and churn out slanted articles for hate clicks. We need a total and complete shutdown of her and Steve Simmons' media credentials and voting privileges until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

We hear this every year, but Ben and Shi are usually the ones pumping the brakes on this kind of talk. The fact that they’re not this time might mean something.

I didn't dump that much cold water on you yesterday! But if we are playing in fantasy land I don't see the difference between signing Bo and Tucker or a megatrade with the Padres. Tucker and Bo are going to be more expensive, and will probably provide less WAR, than Tatis, Bogaerts and Darvish over the course of their currents contracts. Tatis is just that good on a 9 year 218M dollar deal.

Oh certainly. I was just shooting from the hip because I saw posts about trading for Tatis Jr. But in a vacuum I would take on Bogaerts and Darvish if it meant getting Tatis, as crazy at it sounds. It probably wouldn't work for the Jays because we are already pretty close to the threshholds and need to allocate resources to SP instead of putting all of our chips into one star player. But Tatis is only owed 9 years and 218 million. If he hit the open market what would he get? He was Fangraphs #15 most valuable trade asset so he's got a lot of surplus on that contract still. If you add Bogaerts (holy crap he still has 8 years, 203M left) and Darvish (3 years, 54M) you probably still come out ahead over what Tatis gets in FA as it would be a 475M total commitment. Plus you get whatever Bogaerts (a 3 WAR player for now) and Darvish (maybe a serviceable back end guy the final 2 years) give you.

They are such a mess. Losing Cease, King, Arraez and O'Hearn. Black holes at 1B and DH with zero bench. Rotation has Pivetta and Musgrove (coming off TJS) and that's about it until they move Mason Miller here out of desperation. Bullpen is good but top heavy, like the rest of the team. Nothing in the upper minors that can really help. I can see why they might move Mason Miller to the rotation. But that's dangerous as he only threw 60 innings last year and they'll be desperate for him to soak up as many as possible.

Someone take my coffee away

2012 Marlins-style trade, only this time it's the Padres. We unload a couple of bad contracts, throw in some cheap MLB pieces to help them “stay competitive,” give them $25M in AAV relief, and top it off with one prospect. Berrios 18.7 Taters 13.7 Lauer 4.4 Schneider Nance Loperfido 1 prospect for Tatis 24.3 Bogaerts 25.5 Darvish 18

He’s a Buffalo Boy for sure and sometimes those guys pan out

What the hell is her problem?

Yeah and on top of it he has deferrals in his contract so he only counts for 13.7M against the tax threshhold If he starts sucking you just move him to the bench and it barely makes a dent in the payroll

It's very very unlikely they get both but it is possible. I think there’s a real chance the team goes BIG this offseason. Coming off a World Series run, they can afford it. That said, going all in with Bo and Tucker could create a Padres type mess where you spend big in one offseason and then pinch pennies thereafter while trying to contend. The next CBA looming doesn't help either. So they’ll probably stay measured and spread the money around efficiently. Still, there’s a tiny chance they go really BIG and get them both, as remote as that might be.

At some point you wonder if the Player's Union would step in and exert pressure on these guys to go to the highest bidder. They can't all keep leaving money on the table to sign with the Dodgers.

Going to get tarred and feathered for this, but I might be coming around on Kyle Tucker. His market might not be as hot as expected. Passan says the Dodgers aren’t going to make a "massive financial splash". The Yankees might prefer Bellinger since he plays CF. The Mets won’t drop a billion on two outfielders. Those are the only teams that can outbid us, we can hang with the rest. Tucker might be better than we realize. On pace for 8–9 WAR seasons the past two years before injuries hit. You’re paying for a 5 WAR guy, but there’s upside for 6+. If we’re making a splash, now’s the time. The FA class next year SUCKS. Jizz Chisholm and Varsho are the two best position players. After a WS appearance, it’s perfect timing. He's a Florida guy We couldn't sign a California guy if our lives depended on it (their wives usually put the kibosh to it) Tucker and his wife are both from Tampa which is where our ST complex is. I wouldn't dole out $400M for him, but if the tally comes in closer to $300M I'm in.

Hell of a career for him 11 years, 27.3 WAR, about 85 mil in career earnings...all with a fastball that averaged 87.6 mph over the course of his career

Fun game. There's a few intriguing scenarios out there. It's Too Obvious ($49/51M) Bo 26 Imai/Ranger 23/25 Build Depth/Spread out Risk ($50M) Bo/Murakami 26/23 Cody Ponce/Zach Eflin 11/8 Tyler Rogers 9 Willi Castro 7 Dream scenario where Ed Rogers goes full Steinbrenner and starts writing blank checks (and honestly, there’s a non-zero chance of it). We add about $90 million to the payroll instead of just $50 million and suddenly we’ve got ourselves a legit super team. Bo 26 Murakami 23 1 of the top SP (Cease, Ranger, Imai) 23-27 1 of the top RPs that isn't Diaz (Devin Williams/R Suarez/R Helsley/T Rogers) 9-16

Yeah it's probably unlikely Clement is on the bench next year but if we added someone like Murakami I think the path to 400 ABs is still there for Ernie. Clement would start against lefties (for ethier Murakami or Gimenez) and could also pinch hit and be a defensive replacement. He'd play pretty much every day and if there was a major injury he would be on his way to 500+. He's coming off a 3.2 WAR season though so adding another 3B might not be the best use of our resources. This all hinges on whether the Jays think Murakami is a 40 homer bat or not. They may not.

Good point Spanky. If the Dodgers are even mildly interested I’m out. He’ll sign there for 70 cents on the dollar if the Dodgers come calling.

Yeah I agree he’s risky, that’s why I mentioned the Jays needing to do their due diligence. I’d only want them to sign him if they felt confident that they could help him make the adjustments to MLB pitching and that his defense was good enough to stick at 3B for a couple of years. I don’t know anything about swing changes and can only rely on what I read with regard to his defense. But I trust that the Jays FO can evaluate those things and if they like him I hope they are aggressive. Also, I’m not worried about outbidding the Mariners for anyone. They are notoriously cheap!

The upside with this guy is crazy. He could be Schwarber with the stick and he might be able to stick at 3B. And you’d get him in his prime years. Jays need to do their due diligence on him but if it checks out they should try to get him. I don’t think the Dodgers have a spot for him so we might have a chance.

Spotrac lists ISE Sports as his agent