Brownie19

Seems doubtful Bassitt would want to be a full-time reliver. He may also not be as effective at it when it's early June and his adrenaline isn't at max tiddies like it was in the playoffs. I also did notice that in his first couple of relief appearances, he was throwing 96, but in his final few, he was more in the 92-94 range. He got the job done, but I'm not sure how sustainable that is. Love the hound though - would love to see the team find a way to have him back at the #5.

Lukes is a great bench guy to have. Ideally he gets 250 PA's a season, but if the injury bug strikes, he's also someone you don't hate getting 500+ PA's. That's pretty rare these days. I believe on average, the 4th OFer is expected to receive 450-500 PA's a year.

Love ya Stangstag, but I'm gonna nominate this for understatement of the year...

I also think Ranger Saurez would be a good fit. His drop in velo is a bit concerning, but his statcast page was as good as ever last year.

Sal is the Tony Batista of catchers. Counting stats for days. I do enjoy seeing a leader like that spend his whole career with one team though. So rare these days.

I agree. It just feels like he's so good that he'll be able to pitch well into his 40's. I hope surgery goes well and he's able to - I love seeing stuff like that.

This is truly incredible news. I have to think we're really doing something right in the clubhouse, facilities, leadership, coaching department for something like this to happen. What an amazing start to the offseason.

Unless there is a huge wave of teams wanting to copycat the Jays and move the ball forward with a high contact approach, it's doubtful you're going to get anything significant for Clement or Lukes anyway. I suspect you just let them do their thing for this team for the next few years and see what happens. We don't really have a ton of ML level trade candidates IMO.

Jesus Christ - there's absolutely not way this team trades Ernie Clement. He's a heart and soul guy in that clubhouse.

Yeah - this is a huge question for them. I believe Barger's defense is better at 3rd and we know that quality 3rd basemen don't grow on trees. It's also much easier to fill a corner OF spot - so in a vacuum, you'd want to develop Barger at 3rd base. But of course, the Bo decision complicates matters. You could still sign Bo to play 2nd and then let Lukes/Schneider platoon in the OF, with Santander in the other corner, but that pushes Clement to a true utility role. Honestly - that's probably a PERFECT fit for Ernie on a WS contending team, but it's REALLY hard to do that to him based on the way he's played the last 2 seasons - and especially coming off his incredible performance in the 2025 playoffs. If they do sign Bo, I fully expect we'll see Barger split time between 3rd and RF again next year. Kudos to that kid - he seemed to switch position remarkably well. He's an easy guy to root for. This whole f*cking team is quite frankly.

It was probably 1/8th of an inch on Ernie's hit - just needed 1 degree lower LA, or 0.1 seconds earlier contact on the swing. It was right there. That's baseball.

depth is good baby!

Blue Jays LHP prospect Ricky Tiedemann (elbow) is expected to be fully healthy for spring training. One of baseball’s premier pitching prospects before undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2024, Tiedemann progressed to throwing off a mound late last season but never returned to minor league action. The 23-year-old southpaw’s swing-and-miss raw stuff makes him an intriguing name to watch in Grapefruit League action, though he’s unlikely to reach Toronto before the latter part of next season barring any setbacks.

Cubs trade Andrew Kittredge to the O's for cash considerations. He has a $9M option. He was really good with the Cubs late last year. Cubs seems to be slashing payroll - presumably to be active in free agency?

Yu Darvish said Tuesday that he underwent internal brace and flexor tendon surgery last week and will miss the 2026 season.

You can't say this with any certainty. If Vlad is on 1st to start that inning, they pitch to Bo, Barger, Kirk, etc. differently. The butterfly effect is a real thing.

I don't disagree, but it's hard to fake a 0.99 WHIP over 144 IP (1.01 WHIP over 318 IP for his career)

I know it doesn't always work like this, but... The 2014 Royals: - First World Series appearance since winning the title 30 years prior - Lost in heartbreaking fashion in Game 7 at home - Generational pitching performance by opponent SP, came in to deliver last out, got WS MVP. The 2015 Royals: - World Series Champions

I suspect all infielders would have looked to throw to 3rd, knowing the other 2 runners wouldn't be getting big leads (they mean nothing). They'd be looking for a false step, or a slip.

He is where the 3rd base coach is man. He's probably further to be honest. I don't know, but he may have been told to avoid a secondary lead as that added momentum increases the likelihood of a false step home on a line drive. Who knows.

Term - you were the leader of team positive and your optimism was remarkably consistent and needed throughout this incredible season. You deserved this one as much as any fan I know. I fell off the positivity train a few (several?) times throughout the season after embarrassingly asking to be woken up in 2029 when this team is good again (preseason). This team was by far the most fun sports team I've ever followed - even if they came up short. Thanks for everything you do around here. I appreciate it.

This - 100%. They weren't going to be beat on a shallow liner. They wanted to make Ernie beat them deep, which he almost did.

You spelt improbable wrong. That's why baseball is such an incredible game - because sometimes the improbable happens.

I don't think anyone knows enough about the direction given to form any firm opinion. IKF said he was told to shorten up his lead a bit to avoid getting doubled off. We don't know if that meant reduce it by 4 steps or half a step. We don't know if he was told not to take a secondary lead or not. Taking a secondary lead certainly increases the possibility of getting doubled off as you're momentum is taking you home and your natural reaction on any ball hit will be to GO (see Barger, Addison in case you forget what this looks like). Perhaps everything he was told was 100% correct, but he froze up in the moment. WHO KNOWS. You don't and I don't. People are pulling up hit charts and all this crap like the only possibility was a liner to 3rd for a DP. But you have to consider the likelihood that he takes a false step or 2 on a line drive and the further off the bag you are, the higher the possibility that you get doubled off on a liner to SS, or back to the pitcher. There are all kinds of possibilities. The chances of him taking an extra half step primary or secondary lead and it being the difference between winning and losing the World Series is EXTREMELY low. If you need to blame 1 moment, or blame a couple of inches on a leadoff to make yourself feel better - then do that. But it's silly and unnecessary.

I appreciate that. Stupid was the wrong word. I ought to have said it's impossible and/or unnecessary. You could point to upwards of 50 different events in that game that might have changed the outcome. Pitch choice, pitch execution, umpires call, swing decisions, defensive positioning, etc. There are so many different events that happened in an 11 inning game that could have allowed us to score, or prevent 1 more run.