glory

Yep, and that deal subsequently lead to the Dickey trade (a trade that likely would not have happened if the Marlins trade didn't set the wheels in motion). If there was ever a franchise changing off-season, that was it. To AA's credit, he got something out of this group by having a better off-season in 2015, but man did he sacrifice a bunch of long-term value in the process.

Agreed. Then the question becomes, is AA the GM who can pull that off? That's where I disagree with those who defend him. AA is a GM who doesn't quite understand or care about the concept of options and service time (as witnessed by the roster to begin the season), and that's a very important part of building the type of team we all want. Instead of Osuna being in Double-A or AAA right now with a starter's workload and options remaining, they burned a year of his service clock and his options for 70+ big league innings out of the pen. It helped the team in 2015, but what about 2016-beyond? That's just one example. I don't know. I just wouldn't be heartbroken if AA left. I like his "think big" mentality, but unless he fixes some of his glaring weaknesses, I think it's bound to catch up to him sooner than later. Maybe working with Shapiro will help him.

The five best players on the team this past season were guys in their or very close to their 30's except for Pillar. The top 4 pitchers using WAR were Price (free agent), Buehrle (free agent/possibly retiring), Dickey (old as hell), and Estrada (free agent). All in their 30's or in Dickey's case 40's. No doubt the team has some good young pieces. Travis put up a 2.3 WAR in half a season, and we got a few starts out of Stroman due to injury, so there are some pieces there that will help long-term. I just want to be like the Cardinals where if the Jays somehow lose someone, they can fill that spot either internally or have the pieces to trade for a replacement. Right now I see a team that should have a chance to do something good in 2016, but beyond that is a huge question mark. I want them to be a contender every single year to the point where if they don't make it one year it will be a minor setback rather than the start of another long drought.

Why are people equating "not liking moves" with "not enjoying the playoff run"? I enjoyed the heck out of the playoff run this year. Doesn't mean I agreed with the moves that got them there. Is that really so terrible? Wow.

From what I remember reading, no other team was willing to go five years. So he got more from the Jays than any other team offered him. Smart move as Martin is a great player, but just stating the facts.

Not really. I want the team to succeed long-term. I just don't like when GM's undercut themselves by creating a short-term window rather than organically building a contender that has a chance to last for many years. I think Shapiro and whoever he hires is far more likely to build organically than go for broke. More than that, I think Shapiro can create a ground-up philosophy where everyone from the minors to the Majors to the scouting team is on the same wave length in terms of what to value. Long story short, I wouldn't shed a tear if AA was let go or he left voluntarily.

Johnson's loss in velocity plus arm injury history was pretty darn extensive before the trade. Reyes and Buehrle had huge backloaded contracts that covered what should have been their declining years. Buehrle ended up holding up his performance, but Reyes fell off a cliff half way into his deal. Trading a $5m SS in Escobar plus Hechavarria in order to pay Reyes $80-something million was ridiculous. I'm sorry, that deal was s*** when it happened, and still is. Trading what's left of the upper minors for two months of David Price and five years of Tulo's twilight isn't some major coup or anything. If Tulo has a couple of elite seasons left in him it will be worth it, but if he starts to decline like Reyes did at a similar age, it will look bad as well. Again, nothing he did was "ninja" like except the Donaldson deal. He has a top 10 payroll in baseball and a team with a core in their 30's and no farm system above A-ball except Pompey. Props to him for ending the 22-year drought, but it's not like he's done something special.

AA deserves credit for the Donaldson deal, but signing Martin involved paying him more than any other team was willing to and the Tulo/Price trades involved trading his two top pitching prospects + other pieces. The Dickey/Marlins trades were incredibly short-sighted/terrible, and despite his scouting team being able to identify talent in the draft, there doesn't appear to be any sort of structure in terms of how prospects are developed. On one hand you have Stroman getting AAA time, and on the other you have Sanchez reaching the Majors despite not pitching well at any level + Osuna/Castro jumping straight from A-ball to the Majors to fill bullpen spots, to Pompey jumping 3 levels in a year and getting 3 weeks under his belt to start 2015 before he's deemed unready, etc, etc, etc. The Jays can definitely do better than AA, especially with Shapiro on board.

Forget Zobrist. Jays should have traded for Gomez and Fiers instead of Price. Cheaper and more years of control. Astros got a good deal.

Sign Kratz and make him Dickey's catcher. I know they tried that in 2014 and ended up going with Thole instead but now that they seem to understand what framing is maybe they'll like Kratz a bit more. Solid backup catcher. But yeah, only bad thing about Dickey is having to accommodate a personal catcher for him or risk hurting Martin by having him catch the knuckleball. Other than that, 220 innings for $11m is fine value.

Not to mention autograph collectors are some of the most obnoxious people on earth in general. If that's what people are using to call Rios a douche, then yeah, that's wrong. Unless he's done something actually douche worthy, then he's not on the list with guys like Ventura. The Royals "douche ratio" is right in line with every other team. They'll probably end up winning the World Series, but they have enough non-douche players for me not to really care that much. I only wish the Jays were the team in the Series right now but can't do anything about that.

I know. I'm just saying that "clubhouse chemistry" had nothing to do with how successful this season was. Adding Donaldson added wins to the team because of his talent. Same with Martin, Tulo, etc. AA (or anyone else) trying to paint it as a personality shift rather than a talent shift is very misleading and inaccurate.

There was a Ken Rosenthal article about it a while back. I'm not saying he's a low character guy but the article portrayed him as someone who rubbed people the wrong way.

Donaldson being a high character guy is amusing considering everything I've read about him.

Votto, Donaldson, Bautista, Edwin, Tulo, Martin. Damn. That would be one hell of a top six in the order. Expensive as hell, but exciting to watch everyday. Not going to happen though.

Picking up Dickey's option is a no brainer. They could always trade him afterwards. I'm sure some team will take him. Whether the Jays get anything worthwhile back is another story, but he's an asset. Dickey is valuable to the Jays but my god I hate having a knuckleball pitcher. However, as of now, the Jays need him.

AA has looked more saber friendly this past year, as opposed to previous years when he looked like a BA/HR/SB guy, but the fact that he values Gibby so much and despite his team drafting good players there doesn't seem to be a consistent plan with player development puts me in the "replace AA" boat as well. Shapiro is a smart guy. He would find someone capable. If they do bring him back, I wouldn't be terribly upset, but I don't feel confident with him long term.

With how much Sanchez was handed without earning a single thing (a starter role in the bigs, the 8th inning role coming off the DL, etc), I think the GM that values him the most is the one who currently has him. I don't think he'll get as much value as AA wants in a trade, and that means we likely keep him until he Arencibia's his way off the team somehow.

Considering the Jays scored one run off him in a game they easily could have scored more, I'm not too upset. He's an ass. That's the type of s*** he does. The Jays had a chance to shut him up with their bats and they failed. Oh well.

Trade for/sign a good 4th OF (Jarrod Dyson? Have the Royals soured on him?) and put Pompey in LF full-time. Non-tender Saunders and bring him back on a minor league deal. Trade Revere. The pitching is what scares me. I don't want the Jays to re-sign Price or anyone similar. Rogers has a tendency to drop payroll depending on which direction the wind is heading in a particular season so don't want to get saddled with too many big ass contracts and then have to try dumping them a few years later. Go on the mid-tier FA market or more trades. With this offense all they really need is a bunch of innings eaters, and then hope Stroman remains the front of the rotation starter and Hutchison bounces back. Turning Osuna into a reliever still pisses me off, even though he was good this year. It's going to be nearly impossible to get any value out of him as a starter in 2016 unless they don't care about his innings. They'll have to move him back to the pen after 100 IP as a starter, maybe less depending on how his arm feels. What a waste.

Get a manager that knows who his best relievers are (combined with the random luck of the game), and the team's record in one run games would improve. No small ball required.

2016 will be Bautista's free agent year. I'm not sure how being a 1B or a RF will change his value, if it does at all, but in his mind, would he want to move positions in his final season before the last big pay day of his career? I don't think he'll mind playing 1B occasionally, but full time might be a tough sell. I agree they should try to move him to 1B, though. His defense in the outfield has become a huge issue. Whether he agrees to it is the problem.

Bringing in a guy who can't strike anyone out into a game with a runner on 2nd base was idiotic. At least with Lowe there was a tiny possibility of a strike out. With Sanchez, it was going to be put in play, and if we were lucky it would have went to a fielder. It didn't. Other than that, I was fine with the game as well, including bringing in Fatty to pinch hit for Goins. It's a shame that the two guys who would expect to make contact, Navarro and Revere, couldn't do it.

Horrible calls on Revere and Navarro. Not surprising though. MLB had an agenda and they got what they wanted in the end.

Rain delay helps the Jays. Take Sanchez out and the Royals take Davis out.