glory

Damn, Bautista going all in on Rogers.

Honestly, I think the 2015 trades were more justifiable (whether I agreed with them or not), but reality is those trades were simply doubling down on a franchise changing 2013 off-season. He made terrible, terrible trades in 2013. The 2015 momentarily made us forget about 2013, but the direction he was taking was simply not a sustainable process. I've said before, AA leaving was a calculated move on his part. He leaves as a hero without having to deal with the post-2016 s*** storm, and his replacements get all the blame for things that he himself would not have been able to do (re-signing Price, fitting Bats/Edwin into a $140m payroll after 2016, etc). I'd rather see the team be consistently good than have one or two good years before another drought. No one will give a damn about the bat flip in 2019 if the Jays miss the playoffs in 2016, 17, and 18. You have to build a consistent winner. Trading prospects for guys making $20m a year from ages 31-36 is not the way to do that, and that approach is going to catch up to the Jays after 2016. Shapiro/Atkins have done a good job of at least weathering it a bit.

Grouping Donaldson with every other trade he has made the last three years (Marlins, Dickey, Price, Tulo) doesn't make the sum better. Trading prospects for four years of arbitration versus prospects for huge free agent contracts attached to players in their 30's doesn't quite mean the same thing.

That wasn't his point. His point was the roster from a financial standpoint can't possibly keep this group together. From an age standpoint it wouldn't make sense to keep this group together for the expected cost. And the prospect capital traded over the last three years will make it very difficult to replace the departing free agents internally. Shapiro getting blamed for something that was inevitable is definitely unfair, but that's reality.

The five year deal he initially signed was not a discount at the time. Bautista showed all the signs of a sustainable breakout but given his age and his prior performance it was definitely a risk by the Jays as well. In hindsight he was grossly underpaid, so he does have a reason to test free agency. Regardless, no big shock. I've been saying for months that he's gone after the year. Front office won't overpay for him and Bautista won't sign for less.

Career high 75 (or so) innings, spent an entire season in the pen last year.....unless they send him down, I don't think they can realistically stretch him out and keep him in the bigs. Wouldn't shock me if he struggles as a RP in 2016 and is sent down to stretch out, but that's the only scenario where I see him starting in 2016.

AA let Gibbons do whatever he wanted. That's not going to happen with Shapiro/Atkins.

There's no chance in hell Sanchez gained 20 pounds of muscle in 3 months. If he thinks that, then he's ignorant.

If Tulo flat out says he doesn't feel comfortable hitting lead-off, then you go with an alternative. Otherwise, he's the logical guy if you want to keep 2-3-4 the same. Batting order matters to some players. If Tulo isn't one of them, then it's a no brainer. Stick him at lead-off and give him the most ABs.

Wasn't Alex Gonzalez batting 2nd when Buck was manager? It's a toss up between his managing and his announcing as far as which is more terrible.

I like him as the AAA catcher over Quintero and Jimenez.

Man I hope the Jays get to a point where they can lose a star to free agency and not miss a beat. it will take some time.

Not only that, but his three years of control left cover ages 30-32. It's not like he's 26. Jays have no reason to extend him with this many years of control left at his age. Take it year by year and see what happens. Maybe you explore long term talks later on. Doing it after an MVP season only benefits the player.

Yeah, his arrogance and stubbornness makes it worse, but even when he describes prospects, it sounds like a man talking out of his ass. Sickels is my favorite prospects guy.

Law doesn't know s*** about prospects. Never has.

Donaldson gets $11.65m in 2016 and $17m in 2017, per Davidi.

It would be wise to use both Sanchez and Osuna as SP's but that doesn't appear to be the case with Osuna (at least not in 2016), so Sanchez will have to be the one stretched out. I don't like him as a starter, at least with his current skill set, but the Jays desperately need to develop their own SP's. Work on his repertoire in the spring and see if something can be added/tweaked. We already have an idea that he can be Brad Ziegler part 2, so worst case just flip him back to relief afterwards.

I'm going to hold out hope that Shapiro can retool on the fly and avoid any down seasons, but yeah, AA detonated 2017-beyond for 2015. Then you factor that, unless some of them are brought back, the Jays are losing Bautista/EE/Cecil/Storen/Dickey/Chavez/Smoak/Saunders after 2016, with not much in the way of prospects to fill those spots (other than Pompey taking over for one of Bautista/Saunders). Not a very ideal situation. I echo the "f*** you Alex" sentiment. Or "thanks for Donaldson, but f*** you Alex" might be better.

Getting either one to sign before they test the market seems like a pointless endeavor. These guys know they will be the cream of the free agent crop next year along with Cespedes and Gomez. They really have no incentive to stay for anything short of a fair market deal, and the Jays are probably reluctant to do that without seeing how 2016 goes first. Would have been nice if both players were like Halladay and didn't give a s*** about testing free agency, but that doesn't seem like reality.

Martin's 7/15/20/20/20 five year deal pretty much spells that out.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lets-craft-an-extension-for-jose-bautista/ 4/75 is reasonable but I don't think Joey Bats would agree.

http://www.tsn.ca/blue-jays-are-likely-suitors-for-cuban-brothers-1.435442

He was going to make around $18-19M next season in arbitration most likely, so this move (depending on how the two year deal is structured) might save them a little money, or at least saves them the hassle of going to a hearing next year. The final year of arb in 2018 will be damn expensive, but at least this could plant the seeds for a longer term extension at this time next year.

That would be my guess as well. I mean, I guess he could take over as manager if they fire Gibbons, but more likely Shapiro probably just likes the guy and wants him in the org in some capacity. With how much this regime has emphasized player development, if they intentionally put someone incompetent in that role, that would be pretty counter productive. Maybe he's better in this role than he was as a manager.

Wedge did clarify those comments, for what it's worth. I'm not familiar with Wedge as a manager as I never really paid attention to the Indians or Mariners when he was managing them. I'm not sure why they'd stash him in a player development role just so they can wait for a poor start to make a manager change, though. I'm guessing Wedge would have still been available in May or June if they wanted to fire Gibbons, unless he was working for another team before coming to Toronto.