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Even somebody like Jake Odorizzi would potentially be a very good addition, I do think he's very likely to bounce back fully from his poor 2020 season which was largely ruined by injuries. Jays have made all kinds of free agency bets on bounce back candidates already, from Ray, to Chatwood, to Yates and finally to Semien. Even if these guys don't reach previous heights of performance they'll still likely act as substantial upgrades to the roster as is, might as well keep the ball rolling and add more upside to the club.

Wow this is the infield move I was hoping for but wasn't really expecting it to happen, I figured somebody would sign Semien to play shortstop instead. With his addition this lineup is absolutely stacked now, and with or without potential breakouts from guys like Vladdy Jr. and Danny Jansen this lineup is going to score an obscene amount of runs. I do hope the starting rotation is addressed at some point, there are plenty of depth options already available on the roster but a good quality starter would really push this team over the top.

As far as I can tell Realmuto is only 29 years old at present. Of the guys that signed as free agents in your list he's the youngest of the bunch, and has only signed for 5 years. He's young enough to provide decent value for the Phillies. I really don't see why his AAV is such a big deal, it's a relatively short contract for an elite free agent who is less than 30 years old at signing. I do wonder who the Phillies were even bidding against and what kind of offers Realmuto was fielding before signing his deal. For all we know it could be a Chris Davis situation where the only real competition was with the team who he already played for.

I look at the comparison being more that Grandal is underpaid for what he provides vs Realmuto being overpaid.

Simmons is a tough player to gauge. He's suffered from a substantial defensive decline with the spate of recent ankle injuries. There is a real question as to whether he will continue to be elite going forward.

I think with more reps at the position he would almost certainly improve a lot, but early defensive metrics aren't pretty to say the least. In his small sample at third base in 2020 (only 10 games) he graded almost as poorly as Vlad's numbers from 2019.

Is he even worth the roster spot on a team that intends to compete? I don't like the idea of the Jays giving a spot to a guy who's averaged 30 innings per season the last three years, they need to get better production out of their rotation this season.

Yeah no doubt the glacial pace of the offseason is largely to blame, but there's been a competition to the the first to throw out speculative "reporting" with no attempt to independently verify the veracity of any of the information.

Got it. All we know is that one team has a formal offer made to Bauer, so obviously that makes them the clear favorite to sign him. f*** me this guesswork is getting out of hand this offseason in particular.

It should be relatively straightforward to tune the strike zone over time once an automatic system is utilized for awhile. I recall in independent league games where automatic umpires were utilized there was a definite adjustment period for the hitters with the system in place. One of the biggest adjustments seemed to be with breaking pitches that dove down into the upper regions of the strike zone, pitches like those are almost never called strikes by human umpires but technically fall into the textbook definition of the strike zone.

I'm totally done with the s***** umpires that have the single handed ability to ruin games. Giving less rein for asshats like Vic Carapazza and Angel Hernandez to directly affect the outcome of games is an absolute necessity.

I can't help but think there's a very good chance of this happening. This offseason seems to mirror that of last year in a lot of ways. Last year the front office made a take it or leave it offer to Odorizzi, walked away from the Wheeler negotiations when offers surpassed 9 figures, and went all in for Ryu. If reports are to be believed they also made a $300 million offer to Cole as well before he ended up signing with the Yankees. This year the front office has made take it or leave it offers to Gausman and Sugano, and went all in to reel in Springer. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bauer is another top target such as Ryu and Springer that they will push very hard to bring on board.

This seems like an issue that could go either way honestly. I too think that more teams making the playoffs could potentially entice more teams to actually make an attempt to compete. With the limited playoffs under the current MLB financial structure the majority of the league is making no attempt whatsoever to compete and is presently attempting some form of rebuild. We've only had expanded playoffs for one shortened season and covid has baseball financials f***ed up around the league as is, so at this point there's no way to really know what effect expanded playoffs would have on player salaries.

I did a little digging around and he was suffering from some upper back discomfort that led to starting the season on the injured list. He had a freak injury getting hit by a comebacker, and suffered from blister issues as well. He should probably be fine going forward but it seems like he's suffered from back issues earlier in his career, so it's tough to say if this could be a recurrence of previous problems.

It's win win for players and fans, but of course MLB has to be miserable pricks on such a no brainer move. Do teams even want to see pitchers batting anymore at this juncture? It places pitchers at more injury risk than simply allowing them to perform their primary job, so who does not adopting the universal DH benefit other than owners maybe saving a few million bucks in payroll?

3 or more years for Turner is a hard pass for sure, perhaps if the Jays beat the Dodgers handily in total dollars it could possibly lure Turner away from the Dodgers. I doubt this front office would go above their valuations for this particular player though given the variety of options available in free agency.

On a 2 year deal he's just a perfect fit. He can split time at third with Vladdy (provided he shows he can play the position better than a beached whale), and is a plug and play insertion into the roster. Brantley would have required making some room on the roster as suddenly there would be more outfielders than spots available.

That's a nice deal for the Red Sox. Boston bought a prospect with money, and if Ottavino has a good year they have a chance to flip him at the deadline for another prospect as well.

No concern there for me. I would be far more skeptical of Bauer's chance at continued elite production if he had only produced elite seasons after the crazy spin rate increases.

Yeah I would too without hesitation. I've had a hard time gauging what Bauer's market actually looks like. Who is competing for his services right now? Most of the typical big spenders look to be missing in action this year, and it appears as though San Diego and New York Mets may be close to finished adding to their clubs at this point. Would the Jays be willing to add two big contracts in one offseason? Mark Shapiro himself insinuated they could add two elite players this offseason, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. When they set somebody as a true target they look to do what it takes to bring them aboard. They've added extra years for both Ryu and Springer when other teams looked to be hesitant to do so. With an obvious hole in the starting rotation and the club having added nobody of note other than resigning Ray so far, I do find myself wondering if the front office is leaving budget space open for a possible Bauer addition. Once he's off the market I suspect the rest of the remaining free agent starters are going to sign rather quickly.

Bag lady.

I look Bauer as having produced elite seasons 2 of the last 3 years. I suspect 2019 was the outlier compared to his new true talent level. If he was hurt as he claims then he can have a pass for that season. I couldn't give half a f*** about what he did prior, that's not particularly important when players unlock new levels of performance in their career. Look at guys like Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion etc. as very good Blue Jays examples of players who reached new heights after many seasons of mediocre performance, and sustained that performance for many years afterward as well. There may be a bit of a chance for somebody to acquire an ace level pitcher on a relative bargain contract compared to years past. Look at Stephen Strasburg for example, he received a crazy 7 year $245 million contract from the Nationals despite being older at the time than Bauer is presently. If somebody can snag Bauer with the MLBTR predicted 4 year $128 million deal that's a steal in comparison (admittedly looks very unlikely at this point). Bauer's best seasons are comparable to the best that Strasburg has managed to produce, and Strasburg has historically missed a ton of time due to injury. Projection systems actually appear to like Bauer more in 2021.

Jinx!

And on top of that he gets to pick the team he plays for as well. Good deal for him all around.

Jesus man are you dense? Bauer provided almost the exact type of value in 2018 BEFORE the obvious increase in spin rates.