glory

Agreed. Considering Turner can’t hit righties anymore (decline started last season and gotten worse so far this year), they could easily find a way to get Horowitz into the lineup a few times a week against RHP. I get that he has options and they are just using it to their advantage but I agree there is something slimey about keeping a 26 year old in AAA when he has nothing left to prove there and rostering a fat slob with no value who plays the same position. I’m not even a Horowitz fan but he could potentially help the big league team if used properly.

Man, I know Kirk is fat and slow, but not being able to beat that grounder for a pro athlete is ridiculous.

Back spasms according to Twitter. Damn, dude just can't stay healthy for any prolonged period of time.

Atkins looks like a nerd. That's probably why we all assumed that he would be analytically driven. It's the furthest thing from the truth in reality.

Tonight's 5-9 in the order: Vogelbach, Kirk, IKF, Biggio, Clement. Unless Jansen is hurt, it's criminal that they are not using him at the DH spot. This is going to be a long season folks.

Ohtani is getting in the HOF regardless, IMO. His prime was literally unmatched by any baseball player that ever lived, especially considering the context of how baseball has changed since Ruth's time. Even if he doesn't rack up the counting stats, he's a lock.

I really hope Springer bounces back because otherwise we are going to see Joe Carter 1997 leading off every game until 2026.

Sucks that Manoah is going tomorrow so this might be short lived but man it feels good to see a game like this again (assuming the Jays hold on). Usually when the Jays are down 3-0, it’s easy to give up. Being down 7-1 and coming back is great to see.

DS better play every single game from here on out. He got enough rest days in April.

It will never happen but they really need to consider calling up Horowitz and running a Horowitz/Turner platoon. Turner’s splits against RHP are progressively getting worse and he’s nearing 40. That’s probably the best way to optimize the DH spot at this point.

It depends on what kind of year Jansen has. If it's another good offensive season with 250 PA because he couldn't stay healthy, then he'll definitely have suitors but it won't be a huge bidding war. If he finally gets 450-500 PA and hits like he has since 2021, then I'd imagine it would be a reasonably high AAV with a 3-4 year term. Hard to say. His injury history definitely complicates things. The Jays really should have extended him after Moreno was traded.

Teoscar was coming off a 4 WAR season in 2021 (132 wRC+) and 3 WAR season in 2022 (130 wRC+). During the pandemic season, he had a 1.4 WAR and 142 wRC+ in 50 games. That's a pretty good track record. If you think trading that sort of bat for a 29 year old RP with 1 good season in his career is a good decision in isolation, then we'll have to agree to disagree. This has nothing to do with the follow-up. If you want to look at the WAR component between Teo, KK, Belt, Gurriel, etc, then that's a different discussion. I'm talking about just the logic of the trade itself. Swanson had a 0.9 fWAR last season. You know who also had a 0.9 fWAR in 2023? Julian Merryweather, a reliever the Jays let go for nothing to clear up a 40 man roster spot. That's how volatile and unpredictable relievers are year to year. Again, the reason why the Jays spent $21m on Green, $16m on Jimi, traded Teo for Swanson, traded Frasso for White, etc, etc, is because of the development issues we have discussed. That's the bigger issue here than the trade itself. I don't think trading Vlad for a RP after this season is a valid comparison. If Vlad's 2024 resembles his 2023, then he'd be no where near as valuable as Teoscar was in the 2 years preceding that trade. Vlad would legit be a salary dump in that scenario.

Yeah, Hernandez was coming off a 3 WAR/130 wRC+ season (and a 4 WAR/140 wRC+ season the year before). You shouldn’t have to trade a bat like that for a non elite reliever. It speaks to the team’s inability to develop pitching internally as well as the inability to find scrap heap guys and turn them around. Trading Teo might have also been partly a salary dump, but they ended up spending that money anyway (KK, Belt), so it may have been more of a perceived fit issue. As mentioned, Teo’s numbers at Safeco were dreadful but aside from that he’s been pretty consistent since 2020. Whether he would have hit in 2023 had he stayed with the new RC dimensions and Mattingly trying to cut his K% to 18% is anyone’s guess, but not surprised he’s bounced back with the Dodgers. Either way, I hope we don’t see too many more trades like Teo/Swanson during competitive windows. I guess if Macko turns into something then that changes things but RPs (especially those with no track records like Swanson prior to 2022) are very risky in general.

Between the two, Jansen seems more signable assuming he's open to staying, but it probably won't be cheap if he stays reasonably healthy this season. He really should have been extended already. Tough to say with Kikucki. He has a very middling track record prior to 2023 and will be entering his age 34 season next year. Snell won the Cy Young and had the same agent, and had trouble in free agency. Really depends on the market, I guess.

Martinez in LF or 1B becomes a lot less valuable, but if he really is a butcher in the infield (2B/SS/3B), then they may not have a choice. The bat looks like it could be good and that's what matters more at this rate.

Teoscar had an 81 wRC+ at Safeco last season, otherwise he's been a fairly consistent player since 2020 even with the high K rates. Wish the Jays signed him (for performance and clubhouse) but I don't think we can assume he would have come here and performed the same way.

There was no chance the Jays were going to beat 7/175, but Semien might end up being worth that deal by the end of it, which is pretty surprising. He's been worth a shade under $100m as a Ranger according to FG and it's only been 2 years and a month into his contract. Wish the Jays could have brought him back but chances are it would have taken 8/200 to get him (assuming the Rangers wouldn't have matched that). Ideally they could have worked out a long term deal instead of the one year deal in 2021, but Semien saw himself as a 9 figure player, and he was right.

Wasn’t Hague on the 2015 team for a cup of coffee? Dude was surrounded by alphas who would have choked any coach that suggested to hit the ball the other way or sacrifice power for contact (well, at least JD would have). Between that and the fact that the AAA hitters who have actually developed on this team (DS/Clement) seem to credit him, I’m all abroad the Hague train.

Yeah it’s not about how far back they are, it’s about realistically assessing the chances of them being good enough at the end. The eye test and run differential are telling the same story, and it’s not good. Maybe things will get better and we will be singing a different tune in 2 months but there’s not many positives that would indicate that this team has that type of run in them.

I like how Davis Schneider came up, saw everyone trying to hit singles the other way, but he just laughed and kept trying to pull home runs. Not even Mattingly (or whoever it is on the Jays who likes that approach) can mess with someone who knows what his strengths are. Maybe that’s a good sign for prospects coming up (trying to be positive in the positive thread).

Is Erik Swanson warming up? He has to be given the score.

Now we know why it took so long for DS to finally become a regular starter this season. Hating singles to right field and only wanting to pull the ball to hit home runs probably made him an outcast within the org.

Then why enter 2024 with the same core and expect different results? That’s the definition of insanity, not bad luck.

Yeah that’s what I expect. Impending FAs will be moved and anyone controlled through 2025 will be kept. Then they’ll sell for real next summer if 2025 goes south (they’ll have no choice at that point). In that scenario, they better hope that Atkins gets massive hauls for Kikuchi, Jimi, Jansen, Turner, etc. If they want to delay the inevitable then they’ll have to hit on whatever selling they can do. Though selling or not, I hope they work something out with Jansen. Not expecting it but he’s a legit top catcher when he’s on the field and his injury history might make him reasonably priced even coming off a great season. Or maybe the thought of Kirk playing everyday is just that terrifying.

He's a Boras guy. I doubt an extension is even possible. Boras got him $36 million coming off 3 subpar seasons. Now that he's actually breaking out, I can't imagine he's going to do anything except try to maximize his last big contract. Would have been nice if this break out happened in 2022 rather than the final year of his contract, but either way, it's a success story for the org as they definitely paid him based on potential rather than performance when they signed him to the contract.