Ehjays

s***....he would have been a great minor league signing

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/02/blue-jays-sign-craig-breslow-minors.html The Blue Jays are in agreement with left-handed reliever Craig Breslow on a minor league contract, tweets Robert Murray of FanRag Sports. Breslow, who is represented by the Baratta Partners, will vie for a bullpen job in Major League Spring Training. Toronto has been stockpiling bullpen options on minor league deals lately, as they’ve now added Breslow, John Axford (link) and Jake Petricka (link) in the past week alone. Toronto also added Al Alburquerque on a minors pact earlier this winter. The 37-year-old Breslow will give the Jays an option to compete alongside Aaron Loup, Matt Dermody, Tim Mayza and fellow non-roster pitcher Chad Girodo for a spot as a lefty in the ’pen. Breslow opened the 2017 season with the Twins on the heels of a winter in which worked to alter his mechanics and lower his arm slot. He didn’t fare particularly well in Minnesota (5.23 ERA in 31 innings), although that was largely due to the fact that other injuries throughout the bullpen (and some short outings from the rotation) early in the season forced the Twins to use Breslow against right-handed opponents far more than would be preferable. Breslow faced twice as many righties as lefties in 2017, and they clobbered him at a .330/.393/.542 clip. However, lefties were utterly befuddled against Breslow, hitting just .196/.294/.286.

You'd ditch both of them??

Blue Jays Reportedly Interested In Andrew Cashner By Steve Adams | February 9, 2018 at 10:45am CDT The Blue Jays are showing “continued interest” in free-agent righty Andrew Cashner, tweets MLB.com’s Jon Morosi, though he’s one of several starters they’re eyeing. The Jays have a need for a fifth starter to round out their rotation, and Morosi suggests that they’re hoping to fill that vacancy on a one-year deal. It’s not a surprise to see the Jays (or any team, for that matter) preferring a one-year term on the free-agent market, but Cashner reportedly entered the offseason in hopes of securing a three-year pact. It’s possible that the crawling pace of the offseason has lessened his demands to an extent, but there’s been no indication that Cashner is willing to jump on a one-year offer to date. The 31-year-old made 28 starts for the Rangers last season and posted a 3.40 ERA, albeit one that looks to be largely smoke and mirrors. Cashner’s 4.64 K/9 rate was the second-lowest in the Majors, and his 3.46 BB/9 rate was worse than the league average. Overall, his K%-BB% of just 3.1 percent was the worst of any qualified pitcher in baseball, leading fielding-independent metrics like xFIP (5.30) and SIERA (5.52) to paint an unflattering picture of his work. The said, Cashner’s fastball averaged better than 93 mph, his 48.6 percent ground-ball rate was comfortably above the league average, and he demonstrated the home-run suppression skills he’s shown for much of his career despite a move to a hitter-friendly setting in Arlington (0.81 HR/9). Cashner did rely less on his four-seam fastball with the Ranges than he ever has in previous seasons, instead favoring more cutters/sinkers. Some clubs may believe that altering that pitch selection a bit could restore some his strikeout prowess. The Blue Jays currently project to have Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, J.A. Happ and Marco Estrada in the top four spots of their rotation. Joe Biagini was their most frequent fifth starter in 2017, though he struggled in a move to the rotation after enjoying success as a reliever in his 2016 rookie season, when he was a Rule 5 pick. Prospect Ryan Borucki is close to big league ready and could conceivably step into the mix, though it stands to reason that the Jays would prefer to ease him into a big league job rather than throw him directly into the fire in the season’s first couple of weeks (without much of a veteran fallback option in place, should he struggle).

Blue Jays To Sign Jake Petricka By Jeff Todd | February 8, 2018 at 10:25am CDT The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty Jake Petricka, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). He’ll have the opportunity to earn a $1.3MM base salary with $500K in incentives if he can crack the MLB roster. Petricka, 29, is a former second-rounder who has delivered good results at times in the majors. Between 2013 and 2015, he posted a 3.24 ERA with 6.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 over 144 1/3 innings. Despite the middling strikeout and walk figures, Petricka allowed only five home runs in that span. With a mid-nineties sinker, he has traditionally delivered big groundball rates (61.5% career). Unfortunately, injuries and performance lapses arose more recently. A hip procedure cost Petrickamost of 2016. And he managed only 25 2/3 innings last year, allowing twenty earned runs but also posting a 26:6 K/BB ratio. He ultimately underwent a nerve transposition and flexor tendon debridement procedure in October of 2017. At the time of that surgery, it was estimated Petricka would need to lay off for at least three or four months. The White Sox ended up non-tendering him rather than working out an arbitration salary. (He projected to earn $1.1MM.) With just over four years of MLB service on his clock, Petricka could still be tendered a contract in the future. Petricka’s current status isn’t fully clear, but in all likelihood he’ll be handled with some care as he works back to full health. Whether or not he’ll have a real shot at earning a MLB pen job in camp, Petricka could well represent an interesting option for the Jays at some point in the coming season.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-prospect-thomas-pannone-went-outfield-mound/ article on Pannone .... I'm lookin forward to watchin his results this year

Kevin Towers Passes away https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/01/kevin-towers-passes-away-cancer.html

Instead of the Indians removing Chief Wahoo from their uniforms, why don't we just remove the Wahoo in the MLB commissioners office.

Pillar had to be involved

Stroman will be a Royals fan now

Royals Sign Ryan Goins To Minor League Deal By Steve Adams | January 24, 2018 at 3:18pm CDT The Royals announced that they’ve signed infielder Ryan Goins to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Goins is a client of Octagon. Goins, 29, has spent the past half decade as a reserve infielder for the Blue Jays, appearing in 449 contests and coming to the plate a total of 1397 times at the big league level. He’s never been much of an asset at the plate, however, batting a combined .228/.275/.335 with 20 homers and six steals in that time. To Goins’ credit, he did hit a career-best nine homers last year, though that small spike in a power came during a historically high home-run environment for Major League Baseball. While Goins isn’t a big threat at the plate, he’s been an asset in the field over his first five big league campaigns. Defensive Runs Saved credits him as an above-average shortstop and a superlative defender at second base (+6 in 1362 innings and +24 in 1870 innings, respectively). Ultimate Zone Rating, meanwhile, feels he’s been roughly average at shortstop and nine runs above average at second base. Goins also has limited big league experience at third base, first base and in both outfield corners, though he’s totaled fewer than 50 innings at each of those positions. Toronto non-tendered Goins earlier this*winter in his first offseason of arbitration eligibility. If he makes the Royals’ roster and the team likes what it sees, he can be retained for at least the 2019 and 2020 campaigns via*arbitration.

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I agree, the Cutch deal is very bad....and now with hearing they sending money with him just makes it worse.

They are now reporting that Pittsburgh will send some cash as well LOL 5:15pm: MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that the Pirates actually will pay “a portion” of McCutchen’s salary.

Jos h agrees to terms The Blue Jays and third baseman Josh Donaldson have avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a $23MM salary for the 2018 season, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (via Twitter). That massive payday represents an all-time record payout for an arbitration-eligible player on a one-year contract. Donaldson, a client of MVP Sports Group, is entering his final*year of team control and will be a free agent following the season.

Archer is next.

Well, Machado has already stated his preference is to play Shortstop this year. Not sure if its a problem to remain at 3rd.

https://www.milb.com/milb/news/vladimir-guerrero-jr-bo-bichette-lead-toronto-blue-jays-organization-all-stars/c-263689728 Just a nice little article on some up and coming young Jays Prospects. Which is always nice to read....especially in this slow off season.

I thought we passed or is this the triple A version? Funny we take another Giant, that's where Biagini came from

lol...as a pitcher

did we lose anyone?

did the jays pass?

Oh god, Just heard something that Atkins still hasn't ruled out bringing GOINS back.

The Blue Jays are engaging with multiple starters and relievers, GM Ross Atkins told Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet and other reporters Monday. They “will most likely add an infielder,” too, and are looking at outfielders, Atkins said Other teams have asked about wide range of #BlueJays. "We have a lot of good players," Atkins said. "There aren't many players that don't get talked about, there really aren't"

This is a great pick up