Key22

Well - you would also be freeing up $30 million for 2025. So, conceivably, it would be that package plus say Santander or Hernandez and $10 million for maybe 2 quality relievers or 1 closer etc. The Jays have too many holes. Unless they're willing to rock a $300m payroll (and they aren't) then I don't see them finishing any higher than 4th. We would need to get lucky - Vladdy would have to do exactly what he did last year (preferably with 10 more home runs), Bo needs to have one of his best two years, Manoah will have to come back as an all-star starter, and no major player can regress or get hurt. And we still don't have a closer or decent back up catcher - and by back-up - I mean 1b since he will catch like 70-80 games with Kirk. I'd rather get a decent package than lose him next year. Vladdy's contract is going to be $400m, so if the khakis in Toronto don't know that and think they're signing him cheap, like $175 million, then they should be fired for incompetence. Boston has a a solid minor league system. Get two of their top 10 prospects and one more, and let them have their next Man-Ram.

I am Canadian and live in Nanaimo BC - went to University there. The joke was that Nanaimo was Surrey by the Sea. Surrey was (maybe still is) a dump. That was 2000 when I moved there. I always took the bus because I was a student. I moved to South Korea in 2006, China in 2008, back to BC for 2 years then Hong Kong since 2011. I go back to visit family and friends in Nanaimo every summer. I take the bus - and Holy crap it's disturbing. Nanaimo was recently ranked the 6th highest crime rate in Canada. The buses are trainwrecks. I am sitting there and a guy stumbles onto the bus with no money - the driver gives him a free ride (no doubt to avoid getting stabbed with a needle). He takes his seat and begins to sleep leaning forward and dropping his baggie of brown "presumably crack" balls on the floor. Next stop another one gets on - without paying - and is practically falling over dropping his bottle and having it leak out all over the floor. And this was not a one-off - I was home for 4 weeks and took the bus every day and it was like that at least every other trip! Back in 2000-2005 - there was never anyone like this on a bus. Oh sure you have some mentally ill people but not like this. At the Bus Station (first stop) downtown - there was a guy so stoned he was walking around screaming - his pants were down ass hanging out and security guards staying 20 feet away from him. Now to be fair, main and hastings in Vancouver was a complete trainwreck through the entire 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s and still is, regardless of which party was in charge of Canada or The province of BC or which party the mayor belonged too. It has always been heroin central. That's why I sort of laugh at videos trying to blame whoever the current political party is - well in BC both parties were in control for decades plus long runs and didn't do jack squat to fix it. They Kind and the "nice" solution is to build a massive facility in the middle of nowhere northern Manitoba and round up all the druggies and put them in there - have a complete no drugs tolerance policy and teach these people for a full three years how to function properly in society - get them educated and job trained - get them some decent clothing - how to open a bank account - basically start at grade 4 again. The alternate is the Duterte plan which is to just walk through Main and Hastings and shoot them all - and find and kill every member of every gang. The cops know who they are - shoot them all - no court. Duterte dropped the crime rate by over 30% in like his first week. Duterte was massively popular with the God Fearing Catholics in Phillippines - they all would have voted for him again if they could. I like giving people chances so I prefer the first approach - but I have no problem with 3 strikes and you get a bullet. The car thieves in Ontario - look for every one crime they get caught for, you know they committed at least 10 they didn't get caught - so 3 strikes means they probably stole 30 cars - maybe 300. enough. Shoot these bastards. They cost us taxpayers so much damn money. The good of the many outweighs the good of the one or the few. Hell - Star Trek is a Liberal lefty show and even Star Trek knows this common sense stuff. Meanwhile in Singapore - the streets are clean, the people are all educated, vanishingly low crime rates, no drug problems (because they'll kill you if you have any). Japan? Bloody hell - the homeless guy I met in Tokyo (all one of him) was wearing a better suit than I own. Again spotless city. Even Hong Kong is mostly great - low crime, the only drugged-out guy on a road that I have seen in 13 years was a Westerner! Oh sure you get to vote every 4 years in the West - big fat hairy deal - 2 choices in America and 1/2 the population is always pissed off when the other side has their guy in. When your guy isn't in charge you feel like you are living under an oppressive dictatorship anyway.

I don't think the Cap is that big of a deal since the Jays have been hopeless at drafting and player development for like 10 years now. They can spend their way to contention. If they sign Burnes and one of Teo/Santander and get a bounce back from Manoah and Bo - sign a closer and a decent backup catcher they can probably make a run. Bo comes off the books next year and Giminez moves to Short Stop. Maybe Orelvis Martinez becomes something and he takes 1B when Vlad leaves for $600million to join Soto in NY. Buck Martinez said the Jays are very high on Wagner at second - if true then maybe Bo is shipped out early. If he proves he is healthy in Spring Training - maybe someone will give us a good package.

The Jays brass certainly likes defense and if the Yankees had any they might have won the WS - so it matters. The old-school thinking in baseball was defence up the middle and hitting comes from the corners. So you want defence first at catcher, SS, 2B, CF (and good pitching). Power from RF/LF/1B/3B/DH Giminez and Varsho are Elite defenders, and Kirk is solid. Bo is the letdown defensively, but he makes up for it with the bat (in a sense, Bo's offence makes up for Springer's lack of offence in RF, and Springer offers above-average defence). Horwitz was made redundant with Wagner. So the old school was five bats and four defenders. If the Jays land two bats—Hernandez and Alonso or something—then with those two and Vladdy and a Bounceback from Bo, you have four bats and five defenders. It's respectable. It should be enough to compete for a WC, assuming they land a closer and top-of-the-rotation starter. (Or maybe a Manea (3.0 WAR) type since he has almost the same war as Fried (3.5 WAR) but won't cost nearly as much.

Well he was 8-0 so maybe like D&D he has a high luck factor - or he's really good when he needs to be and sucks when the game doesn't matter - the Jack Morris of relievers.

The same people who don't understand how tariffs are going to cost them far more money. The Dodgers are playing within the system - period. If you are a free agent and baseball is your life and the money is roughly the same - you are going to either your hometown team or the team that has the best chance to win - or where all the hottest women live - LA is pretty damn hard to beat. Oh and the weather VS Toronto is an added bonus.

The thing is the Jays have multiple holes to fill and as great as one hitter can be - it didn't help the Angels who had two hall-of-fame bats in the line-up or the Yankees - sure they made the WS but they would have been like the 7th best team in the NL. The Mets can buy Soto and then add three more $200m contracts - the Jays probably won't (though they can and probably should) do that. I am not really sure why the Jays say they are "going for it" because they have way too many holes to fill and they don't seem to be a team ready to outbid the field.

I think you have to build a better lineup than having all your money in one player. The problem with Vlad and even Soto is that you are paying huge money for somewhat one-dimensional players. Neither is good defensively, and neither can run well. You are paying for a bat. Soto is an elite bat - is Vladdy? maybe. But for similar dollars and fewer years, you could sign Santander, Alonso/Henandez, and maybe Adames. Move Bo to 2b. Then next year if Vlad leaves and Bo leaves - you still have those three guys and you can add. I can't really see the Jays wanting to pay Vlad $400m when Freddie Freeman is a FAR better player and signed for a little over half that. I know ages and all - but so what - older guys you can sign for fewer years and fewer years means less of an albatross if things go badly. The Dodgers were largely better than the Yankees because they had far more depth 1-9 - everyone in their line-up can hit - while the Yankees have arguably 4 bats. When I see fans here making out the line-up with Springer batting 5th - it's meh. He should be no higher than 7th with Kirk (at best) 8th, and Varsho 9th. That's not too bad for the bottom of the order. In fact, if it were not for his contract, they would be happy to replace him with Hernandez (oops) or Santander. I can see paying Soto because he is maybe the best hitter in baseball and you can live with him in the OF, preferably LF to avoid exposing his noodle arm.

If Soto gets $600m then you would have to believe Vladdy would get something like $400/13. He'd likely want to beat Devers and he'd want an AAV at least above his arbitration value. And he'd probably want to crack the $400m club. It's a lot when you could sign other good bats like Santander and Alonso for like 4 years and try to develop someone to take over. Maybe sign Adames for 6 years on top. Then trade Guerrero to beef up the farm system. Those three guys will cost but you save the $30m arb on Guerrero that can be put to those three guys. The line-up would be longer and more homerun power and you have a better defence (likely) in Adames as he should bounce back. You get three higher-end prospects than what we got for Kikuchi. Or if they feel like spending keep Vladdy for the year and let him walk for the draft picks. We don't know what Vladdy wants, but I suspect it's $400m. If Soto is $600m, that makes sense—Vladdy is more than half the player of Soto especially if Vladdy is viewed as a "competently mediocre" third baseman.

Mlb Trade Rumours predict where the free agents will sign For Toronto no one predicts Soto to the Jays. Here is who they think we have a shot at: 3. Alex Bregman: Seven years, $182MM Tim: Blue Jays / Anthony: Astros / Darragh: Astros / Steve: Mariners 9. Anthony Santander: Four years, $80MM Tim: Royals / Anthony: Blue Jays / Darragh: Giants / Steve: Yankees 14. Tanner Scott: Four years, $56MM Tim: Red Sox / Anthony: Blue Jays / Darragh: Red Sox / Steve: Mets 18. Jeff Hoffman: Four years, $44MM Tim: Blue Jays / Anthony: Red Sox / Darragh: Angels / Steve: Athletics 22. Carlos Estevez: Three years, $27MM Tim: Phillies / Anthony: Rangers / Darragh: Athletics / Steve: Blue Jays 24. Joc Pederson: Two years, $24MM Tim: Mets / Anthony: Mets / Darragh: Diamondbacks / Steve: Blue Jays 32. Michael Conforto: Two years, $18MM Tim: Rangers / Anthony: Pirates / Darragh: Blue Jays / Steve: Royals 38. Kirby Yates: One year, $14MM Tim: Yankees / Anthony: Blue Jays / Darragh: Blue Jays / Steve: Phillies 40. Andrew Kittredge: Two years, $14MM Tim: Athletics / Anthony: Twins / Darragh: Blue Jays / Steve: Rangers 41. Kyle Gibson: One year, $13MM Tim: Angels / Anthony: Rangers / Darragh: Nationals / Steve: Blue Jays 50. Spencer Turnbull: One year, $7MM Tim: Padres / Anthony: Rockies / Darragh: Blue Jays / Steve: Twins

Barker and Morosi (or Sampson I can't remember) both feel Alonso looked cooked even though he hit some bombs. They felt he couldn't get around on heat in and felt his bat looked slow. Both do not like the idea of giving him a long deal. Moreover his position doesn't help as both feel Vlad isn't good at third - okay for a now and then spot. They also both don't like Bregman. Both say the Jays need three aircraft carriers in the line-up - they have only one. They also need way more swing-and-miss from the pen and an elite closer - they don't have any of this. How can Ross land two massive bats AND an elite closer AND two upper tier arms in one offseason? I mean I suppose the good news if you are a "win it now" Jays fan is that Shapiro and Atkins has to "win it now" to keep their jobs. So maybe they will go in for Soto or make a some sort of Pat Gillick trade sending Vladdy and Bo (McGriff and Fernandez) for (Power bat, Hall of fame second baseman). Bwahahahaha - nice to dream. These two aren't Pat Gillick.

Flom listening to Blair and Barker and Morosi - the feeling is that he will get more than Ohtani on an AAV basis. $600m is a starting point - the Dodgers are said to be in on him and the Mets will possibly go to $800m with deferrals. Morosi and Barker agree that the problem in Toronto is that the best teams have three aircraft carriers while the Jays only have one (Vlad). For the Jays to make up ground they need two - and they both agreed that Alonso looks cooked (slow bat) and is NOT a guy you want to sign. When you look at LA - and you look at the Jays you really see a lot of holes - even with all their injuries and with us at full strength - they'd flatten us. Barker has been beating a drum that the Jays need to big thumpers and an elite closer (Romano is a possible DFA at $7.5m and bad arm). Basically, the exact same thing we needed last year.

I think one of the problems here might be what Barker brought up on the fan590 regarding Soto - how much money do you want to put a bat first player (corners) with few to no other attributes? Soto isn't a good outfielder and has a poor arm. He isn't a runner. Vlad, by the numbers, is an okay defensive first baseman and isn't a runner. The bat is great but I suppose the question I would have is that is one Vladdy or Soto worth nearly two Matt Olsons? For one Vlad the Jays might be able to have a Santander and Pete Alonso. They would not need to go 10 years on either one allowing more flexibility and covering off two positions in the line-up - if one gets hurt you have someone else who can hit - if you put all your money into one guy and that guy goes down - you're stuck - possibly with the next Prince Fielder. The Jays are not the Dodgers or the METS or the Yankees. Those teams can sign a player to a $50m contract for 12 years ($600m) and on day one the guy loses his leg and can never play again and those teams can pay that and then the very next day sign ANOTHER guy to a 12 year $600m contract. Unless the Jays can do that they probably shouldn't be playing in that arena. Ohtani was a marketing dream - Soto isn't. It also doesn't help that the Tigers starting line-up just beat the Astros and combined they make less than the Astros' Hader alone. It makes sense to pay elite money to a 5 tool talent - Maybe a Ken Griffey Junior type. Would it not be better to have TWO guys in the order that offer the bat-first ability of 30-40 homers for the same money? I just think of the Angels with Trout and Ohtani and they did zilch.

I think the problem with Springer isn't the signing itself - sure you sign a guy and say - the last 2 years he will not be very good but passable. That's fine - once you determine that he is past it - he bats in the 9 hole and by then you have new "star calibre players" to hit in the top 5. To see Springer in the lead-off spot is a sign the team is in trouble. I understand it's hard to replicate Alomar, Molitor, Olrud who finished 1,2,3 in batting average in a year and that that WAMCO top 5 but I think at the minimum - you want the first 5 guys in order to be "solid" in that you know day in and day out that this guy is your leadoff hitter - this guy hits 3, this guy hits 4 regardless of the pitcher's hand or stuff. Once you see a team shuffling line-ups all the time then you have major problems. Right now the Jays have exactly one hitter you can feel confident in being a thumper. And this with a $200m payroll. Having guys like Springer/Varsho/ - Horwitz or Wagner batting 6/7/8/9 is fine enough. Speed, some defence - can run into some bombs. You might view Varsho as your 9-hole Devon White - can hit 15-20 homers and offer great defence - knows how to bunt - that sort of guy. I don't see how Ross (or any GM) can find us 3 star calibre hitters and an elite closer in one offseason. It takes pretty close to that in the AL EAST. What's the best we can realistically do here - Santander and Adames and hope Bo bounces back - That's possible Financially I suspect. Closer? + high quality Reliever. Maybe bring back Yarbrough as that swingman (who is always useful and not terribly pricey).

Shapiro noted injuries as being part of the reason they lost this year and I see people noting "The Toronto Blue Jays ranked 24th in baseball in injuries with only $19 million cash total per days missed lol." I get that but doesn't this depend a lot on WHO is injured - I mean to be fair the Jays lost their starting shortstop and 2nd best hitter for half the season and their closer for th whole season. That's different from team X which loses 4 players for a whole year who are not impact players. I think there needs to be a calculation based on something else like "expected WAR lost due to injuries" Losing one 6 WAR player for a season has more impact than a team that loses three 1 war players and five 0 war players. Oh wow, they lost 8 guys and the Jays only lost one but all 8 players actually have less impact on the team than the one Jay. I mean if the Yankees suffered only 2 injuries like Judge and Soto out for the year and no other injuries would they have won the division? I think I get what Shapiro meant. Key injuries. I know fans harp on not winning a playoff game but even that is a bit tough when we're talking best of three - the juggernaut that was Baltimore scored 1 run in two games against KC - Houston got swept by Detroit. Two teams that look to be vastly better than we are both got their ass handed to them. I think the team really has to figure out if they are going to sign Vlad to that 10 year $350m contract. When Blair and Barker interviewed former GM Jeff Samson - he was dead against paying him even 7/$210m. I wonder why - Shapiro was luke warm calling him a generational talent - what are we maybe missing here?

Shapiro said “If I felt there was a better alternative to run our baseball operations, I’d make that change.” (regarding Atkins) People seem to like Kim Ng - although perhaps she would be better served replacing Atkins and Shapiro. The righties would go nuts if they hired a woman or an Asian (so both in one would make them have an anaphylactic shock). Anyway, she probably wouldn't make it any worse and being an Asian woman - she'll work twice as hard for half the pay. More money to sign Soto.

They are also a winner - so we would have to overpay rather a lot I would suspect. Given our team payroll and being stuck with our new Vernon Wells albatross (Springer) we will not likely spend on 34-year-old starting pitchers. If the Jays can somehow trade Chris Bassitt and his -0.1 WAR and 1.462 WHIP this off-season and unload his $ 22 million for 2025 I would be making that one of the priorities.

Okay that's a fair chunk - in theory they could be in Soto - but is it better to spread it around or go all in on one guy? He made a big impact in NY to surround Judge - he could do the same in Toronto for Vlad.

I was reading somewhere that the Jays will have a $240m payroll for next year. So does anyone know how much we have to spend with various players coming off the books and pay raises via arbitration etc? Vlad's arbitration will likely be close to $30m If the Jays did entertain an offer for Soto - it would probably have to be similar to Ohtani's to help Soto avoid taxes. $600m/10 - I can't see the Jays in on this. Santander/Teo - maybe Pete Alonso. I'd be interested in Willy Adames and Alex Bregman.

Buck Martinez compared Bowden to Jim Clancy and that is the exact guy I was thinking of when I saw him pitch - he is a tall guy with an over-the-top delivery. From what I see - his repertoire looks fairly pedestrian BUT his splitter looks odd to me like some weird Knuckle-Split or something - it sort of flutters up there. Whatever it is it looks different from what everyone else throws and maybe that's the key to his success. I would not get too excited yet because I am old enough to remember Mark Eichorn who was a 7 WAR reliever (yes reliever) for us because he was throwing "something no one else did" and the league couldn't figure him out for like 2 years - then they did. Granted Francis throws a lot harder but let's see how he does - hopefully, we finally get a bit of luck and find a diamond. Here is a terrific stats-laden video on just how ridiculous Mark Eichhorn was and a reminder to folks not to get too excited over 4-5 starts.

There are things the GM can control, injuries are not one of them. The reality is that the free agent market SUCKED. There was exactly one difference making bat, Ohtani. We tried but pretty much anyone would rather play forbthe Dodgers. A consistently winning team with the deepest pockets in baseball. Every other bat, aside from Teo, was meh. The Jays had some players you were not expecting to be this terrible to start the year. Ross also hit a little but too. Yariel looks pretty good, IKF was solid where no one saw that. The farm looks worse because everyone got promoted or hurt. KK and Turner were meh but meh was the free agent market.

According to Jano, Ross had discussed with him that he might be traded a day or two before the trade. So, to be fair, they gave Jano a heads up that this was likely coming.

Can the Jays keep Kikuchi offer him arbitration and collect a draft pick? They would need at least that calibre of player in a trade. Some teams just try to make the playoffs - and some teams believe they have a chance to win the WS - I think the market would be bigger for Kikuchi than Civale because Kikuchi has had success against better line-ups - a WS contender can envision Kikuchi starting against the Yankees for example. In the end, you just have to not get it wrong - anyone can be traded it's always what you're getting back.

Joe Maddon is not currently managing. He seems like a straight shooter. Can we really say Schneider is a better manager? If he's not better - then why does he have the job? Here is Joe.

I like Gausman but he doesn't seem to me to be a big game number 1 starter when you really need a win in a critical game - would you want him to start? Personally, I would take Berrios, Bassit or even Kikuchi. You probably get more for Gausman as his price is not unreasonable and he's definitely a "get you to the playoffs innings eater." But with the money saved and the package you could land for him - he has to be some you consider moving. I am not sure why the Jays aren't looking to extend Jansen - injuries aside he always seems like a pretty darn good solid-hitting catcher with respectable defense. DO we have a great internal option ready to suit up next year? Is there a sign that Kirk is going to be better than he's been? Danny looks like a guy you could probably sign to a 4-5-year contract at dollars that would not be crippling to the team. Indeed, the Jays can always be buyers and sellers. As for Shapiro and Atkins - whoever they eventually hire probably got fired from some other organization and the fans of the organization probably felt their GM was a bonehead. Kim Ng is probably the only exception. Alex Cora is likely going to be up for manager of the year - he apparently has a desire to be a GM. The Jays have James Click - former GM of the Astros and perhaps he can be elevated to the President role with Cora as the GM. (albeit a first-time GM would not go down well perhaps - and fans will remember the last time we hired a Red Sox personnel who bailed the first chance he got). However, Cora isn't a life long Red Sox. I think with the trades - you have to factor in moving salary - Vlad will probably get something like $25m in arbitration - so factor that in - you get players back and you have $25m in free agent money. Hypothetically, let's say you move Vladdy, Bo, Kikuchi, Garcia - you get 11 quality prospects - and then in the off-season with all those salaries off the books, you able to land Juan Soto. Would you do it? Juan Soto and 11 quality prospects for those 4 players? That's sort of the way you look at it - And if not SOTO but 2 really good free agents and improving the farm system maybe 10-15 positions.