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Yimi Garcia's $6 million salary should have zero bearing on the front office's ability to add more talent to the roster. The tax penalty is basically peanuts as far as actual money outlay in concerned as only overages are actually taxed, and unless a team blows past the final tax level there really isn't much of a penalty beyond a small extra financial outlay. If Garcia is traded then this essentially means replacing one of the team's more effective relievers with a depth arm, surely you can see the folly in such a move. I'd infinitely prefer the depth arms be utilized to cover the team in case of injury and/or underperformance and make the minor league guys force their way onto the roster through effective performance rather than force one of them onto the roster prematurely by trading away a primary reliever. Garcia is primarily a single inning reliever, and only has a single year of remaining control. He likely only had a few million dollars of excess value. What do you expect that the team would be able to receive in return that actually improves their chances to win vs what Garcia is going to provide? The team is in the middle of a competitive window so it makes no sense to remove important contributors to take flyers on low level prospects at this time.

You don't seem to grasp how effective Garcia has been for the club the last two seasons and how much money lesser relievers are signing for in free agency the last few offseasons. Over the last two seasons Garcia ranks 38th in MLB in FWAR among relievers with a minimum of 100 innings pitched. He's not easily replaced and makes relative peanuts compared to the typical veteran reliever that provides comparable on field value.

Why in the world would you want that to happen? Wouldn't it be infinitely preferable to see the player bounce back to previous levels of performance and help the Blue Jays win instead of unceremoniously dumping him to another team?

And they should trade a relatively inexpensive reliever who's only scheduled to make $6 million despite providing a full win above replacement. On top of that there was constant grousing that this incredibly reasonable vesting option was going to kick in and that the team should dump this player to avoid paying him that below market salary for 2024.

Kirk has had one poor offensive season in his entire career but of course you are going to completely overreact like usual and call the Jansen/Kirk combination gross. Never mind the fact they are projected for over 4 wins combined.

The lack of other elite players wasn't for lack of trying at the very least. The front office has attempted to sign elite players in free agency including the likes of Cole, Seager, Semien and Ohtani but hasn't been able to convince them to sign on the dotted line. Trade attempts reportedly include the likes of Jose Ramirez and Juan Soto but the team wasn't able to line up in trade values to complete these deals either.

Yeah definitely had a bit of fat finger syndrome there as the Varsho projections range from 99-106 wRC+.

The bottom 4 is not exactly awe inspiring but isn't as bad as you are making it out to be. Biggio/Schneider will most likely be above 100 wRC+, Varsho is projected for anywhere from 99-107 wRC+ and Kiermaier is coming off a 104 wRC+ season and has had an above average bat in 2 of the last 3 seasons.

I guess a lot of this depends on what your definition of a "big" lefty bat entails. I think Belt was awfully close to qualifying as one personally with his 146 wRC+ against right handed pitching. If I had any belief in his ability to reproduce those types of numbers I'd love for the team to bring him back but there are just way too many red flags that make a repeat seem unlikely. It seems almost a certainty the team will sign a primary DH but it'll be a tall order to fully replace the type of offensive output that Belt provided. I have zero concerns over losing Whit. He was a decent low cost acquisition whose best years are behind him and he's easily replaced by internal options. Ryu was a nice depth option to cover the innings the team lost when Manoah morphed into baseball's worst starter, but if Manoah didn't forget how to pitch Ryu wouldn't have been of much use to the team. It seems more than likely that Chapman will be playing for a different team next season but I'm still holding onto a faint bit of hope that he may be brought back.

He's way down on my wish list for DH types as I'd much rather see the team acquire JDM or Soler at this point.

Teo was a free agent after last season so his trade would have zero bearing on whether a Soler addition makes sense.

He still mashed lefties when with the Angels as he produced a 136 wRC+. He'd likely be cheap as hell at this point to the point as well.

Varsho actually outperformed Kiermaier against lefties in 2023 103 wRC+ to 98 wRC+ so it's not necessarily Varsho who would be platooned.

I'm not getting the hate here. Grichuk would be a great addition as a lefty mashing 4th outfielder. It's like the haters would prefer to run the likes of Biggio and Schneider in the outfield instead, and if one of the starters is injured then it's possible one of the aforementioned guys is suddenly starting games in the outfield on the regular.

I simply don't know at this point. It's entirely possible that the speculative posts pertaining to the remaining dollars could be correct but at the same time I also see a possibility that the team could spend beyond those levels if the right opportunities are presented. Shapiro and Atkins have always been clear that they have full support of ownership to spend to add talent to the roster and it seems as though they need to present the case to ownership as required when the need to increase payroll presents itself. Atkins has always been up front about his desire to maintain financial flexibility for future years and with upcoming decisions on extensions for the likes of Vlad, Bo and Jansen I could see a DH addition being the final addition to the roster. However having said that I can also see further additions being made if certain players are still lingering on the market when spring training is underway and the dollars and term make sense.

Sorry to burst your bubble but this is still all speculative so nothing is proven yet.

That would at least be a helluva lot better than what he provided last year.

This image of Alek in the gym was posted on Reddit and I think he looks way better the shape he was in at the end of the season.

Instead of overpaying either Chapman or Bellinger what are your thoughts about paying either of what they are actually worth?

I'll certainly agree that it makes more sense to play Varsho in center field full time and that he and Kiermaier are an imperfect fit. Having said that the team received 4 wins from their center field duo last season so it's not the worst thing in the world to run with the duo again. I suspect that Schneider may receive a decent amount of playing time in left field this upcoming season so hopefully he proves his bat is legit and isn't a disaster defensively out there.

I still like Yimi as a key member of the 2024 pen and think the value he provides is perfectly appropriate compared to his salary. I think the team can let him leave in free agency and utilize the wealth of high octane relief arms to replace him in the future. None of those guys (Danner, Cooke, Zulueta etc.) are MLB tested or proven yet so there is risk in relying on any of them as primary pen options vs utilizing the best of them as depth options to cover in case of injury or underperformance.

Elite defenders with a league average bat can provide a lot of value all over the diamond. Varsho's low 2023 FWAR value is partially due to the fact that his left field defense rated as decidedly average by Statcast OAA. It remains to be seen if this was a single year statistical blip as his DRS of 11 indicates a tremendous defender. Varsho himself mentioned that left field was the hardest position for him due to the way the ball comes off of the bat, so perhaps with time he could improve in left field with more reps. He produced nearly 5 wins in 2022 playing a lot of innings in right field, so the bat played perfectly well in a corner outfield spot in the past and can again in the future.

Do you ever stop with this nonsense? STFU already, you don't know any more than the rest of us what the team's budgetary plans are so stop with the proclamations acting like you can see the future.

It's tough to make any judgments based on a tiny low resolution photo where the primary subject is wearing a super loose t shirt.

Wow that's a really optimistic Steamer projection. I have a really hard time seeing him staying healthy enough to reach nearly 600 plate appearances to start with so the projection feels pretty unrealistic.