Ray

Signing George Springer (projected for 3.9 fWAR) will make the Blue Jays the 4th best projected team in the majors by fWAR.

Signing Springer is pretty alpha Trevor Bauer to go!

Grichuk as your 4th OF at $10M is what elite depth look like. He's not trash like most people (wrongly) think he is. He's just a flawed hitter playing out of position. His plate approach actually looked better this year (indicative by his lower K%). Save this post for when he will instantly post a 2 WAR season next year in RF.

Confirmed by Passan

It’d be the 2nd and 3rd round picks. We wouldn’t forfeit our 1st rounder if we sign both I believe.

Or its more attractive to Bauer since we could still easily afford him.

Springer and Bauer are next

Haven't heard a single bad thing about Pete Walker too. We've got a nice mix with Matt Buschmann who probably acts as the new school analytics guy, with Pete Walker being more conventional and communicating information to players in a way they can understand. Good coaching can definitely be a competitive advantage. Re-signing Robbie Ray is a good example. Sure he wasn't very good, but he didn't even test free agency to see what type of deal he would get and knowingly bet on himself to have a bounceback year in the AL East. Has to speak to how comfortable he is with Pete Walker and the organizational philosophy. I can see Bauer being enamoured as well (hopefully)

Good article with Taijuan Walker and David Laurila: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taijuan-walker-talks-pitching/ Talks about his time in Toronto and their pitching technology:

Cringe material at it's finest

If I'm being honest, I'd be surprised if a guy who looked like this wasn't a creep and sent dick picks And god knows what he's doing with his pants down his pocket there!

One one hand, it would’ve been nice to get Musgrove to be a solid mid-rotation guy with some upside. On the other hand, we have a better, if not, more established version of Musgrove in Ross Stripling. I’d like to think we’re aiming higher. Paxton will sign for not that much more than Musgrove is making, and he has a chance to be really f***ing good assuming he stays healthy.

And only trade one Top 100 prospect in Patino. Kind of crazy now that I'm saying it out loud.

More informtion coming in. Apparently it's a 3 team deal with the Mets...?

It's an interesting market where the traditional spenders are either rebuilding (Giants, Cubs, Red Sox), hesitant to spend (Phillies, Yankees), or generally just content with their roster since it's mostly complete (Dodgers). If Shapiro/Atkins play it right, they have a chance to set this team up incredibly well for the next 4-5 years. There's a good chance we get one of the top guys. I'd say there's a ~20% we get two of them. The more other teams spend on other places, the higher that number will go. I think the Mets are a Brad Hand signing away from potentially being completely out on Springer. The Angels may be a Tanaka signing away from being out on Bauer.

Dinelson Lamet's elbow must be f***ed...right?

Lol Padres acquire Joe Musgrove Preller really going for it.

Sometimes it makes sense to go with the biggest impact. Bauer and Springer would instantly make the Jays the 3rd best team in the league according to Depths Charts. At that point, you could have Santiago Espinal or Joe Panik man 3B for all I care. Not like we couldn't afford it either. If we sign Bauer to $30M AAV and Springer to a $25M AAV, that would only put us at $140M payroll for next year. This team has run payrolls of near $170M during it's competitive cycles, so we'd theoretically still have room. Just saying, nows technically the best time to add as many high priced players as you can before the main guys like Vlad and Bo start getting expensive in arbitration and you have to start thinking of their extensions. Bauers/Springers contracts would just be expiring by the time other get real expensive, and 5 year deals don’t have as much potential to be albatrosses as 10 year deals do.

His agent has already walked back some of his comments regarding only going for 1 year deals. His value will likely never be higher. I think he's going to take as much money as possible with as many opt-outs he can get.

I'm probably in the small minority that thinks there is a decent chance of this. The Mets seem like they're hesitant to cross the luxury tax threshold and want to add another reliever. We might be Springers only option, albeit that could change if teams believe their financial outlook for 2021 is better with every passing day. I think Bauer has less suitors than we think, especially with the Mets, Yankees, and Padres all making their significant moves. I see Angels thrown a lot here, but they likely need a couple starters instead of making one big splash. Bauer has also clashed with Mickey Callaway (their pitching coach) a lot in the past. His main motivations in choosing a team seem to be winning, emphasis on data driven pitching philosophies and fair compensation. Our window is opening up, we have a state of the art facility in Dunedin with pitching labs he's free to use, and even if we sign Springer we could probably offer something competitive to Bauer. Springer for 5 years, $125M Bauer for 5 years, $150M. Let's get it done!

6 Jays in the Baseball-America Top 100, 2nd most amongst teams. 14. Nate Pearson 19. Austin Martin 34. Jordan Groshans 69. Simeon Woods-Richardson 70. Alejandro Kirk 96. Orelvis Martinez Manoah and Moreno are probably on the periphery as well. Great position to be in considering we graduated a lot of guys the last two years.

Kluber to the Yankees. 2 year deal.

They literally went the extra year to get Ryu last year. There's probably just very few guys they think are worth the extra year. It's the first time they've had substantial payroll flexibility and it makes sense to add around a young team. Let's maybe give them until the end of the offseason before we start judging it.

Could it be possible that Trevor Bauer has less of a market than we think? Seems to me like the more obvious fits on paper might not actually be: - Dodgers: Have a larger hole at 3B, already have tons of rotation options. - Mets: Got Carrasco, don't seem to want to pass the luxury tax threshold in their first year, but could be a suitor if no one else is. - Angels: Everyone is saying this is the most obvious fit, but Arte Moreno rarely spends big on free agent pitchers, plus their payroll is already as high as it was last year due to the lack of money coming off the books. I'm hesitant to think that the same guy who let go of scouts and player development to reduce costs would also spend $30M on a starter. - Padres: Lamet may be f***ed, so it may make sense, but I think they might try to fill the gap with someone cheaper. Already have a lot of large contracts on the books - White Sox: maybe? Don't get the sense they'd drop big money on a starter either. Already added Lynn. - Phillies: crying poor except for adding Realmuto - Atlanta: Rotation seems fairly set, and they're probably looking at a big bat. - Yankees: Possible, but apparently reports are saying they really don't want to surpass the tax? Also need to fill multiple rotation spots & infield. Oddly enough, I could actually see teams like the Giants and Red Sox spending on him to gear up fo that competitive window opening up in a year or two. Both have cleared payroll in recent years so they have more than enough money. But if not, than maybe it's between us, the Mets, and maybe the Angels? Watch Ross Atkins be the ultimate alpha and wait for Springer AND Bauer to fall into our laps.

Encouraging for us, but all it takes is for Steve Cohen to say "f*** it" and he can sign Springer while barely going over the luxury tax. A Mets reporter was saying that if the Mets sign Springer for $25M, they'd have to pay something like $2M in overage fees, which is nothing to Cohen if he really wants to put his team over the top. That being said, I think the Mets might go a cheaper route for CF because they're looking to add a reliever as well. They might be looking to spread out the value. Good news for us though. Let's get it done. Springer for 5 years, $135M!