Ray

Orelvis Martinez named by GCL prospect by Baseball-America https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/gulf-coast-league-top-20-prospects-for-2019/ Really excited to see what he can do in full season ball. His power numbers for the GCL were insane

Stroman deleted tweet: "Impossible for growth when you’re being limited and under-appreciated. Time to change the world! @NikkiG_13,” Unbelievable how idiotic Stroman is. Yeah, Nikki Huffman being the head trainer of a baseball team, and being on the top of her field sure was limiting her.

It was all speculation. Vlad never actually filed one. https://jaysjournal.com/2018/09/30/blue-jays-report-vladimir-guerrero-jr-may-file-grievance/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/vladimir-guerrero-jr-reportedly-could-file-grievance-against-blue-jays/ar-BBNIxtm https://fancredsports.com/articles/jon-heyman-vladimir-guerrero-jr-could-file-griev Neither did Tatis Jr. or Jimenez. Jimenez' agent said they might consider it, but none of them actually followed through.

Vlad was legitimately injured. So was Bo. Both of them won't have any case.

The fact that Atkins keeps bringing up the word "reliable" starting pitching makes me think we're definitely going to aim for a guy like Porcello, who's crossed the 160 inning threshold every year of his career. He shouldn't cost too much after the year he's had either. Ben Cherington also has strong ties to him and works for us now, so that probably helps.

I was little surprised to see how great of a 2nd half Teoscar had offensively. Facing tougher teams too: 62 games, .259/.346/.592, .939 OPS That K% is still really high (36%!), but he's still getting on base at a good clip. I still see a path to him reducing his K-rate slightly and putting up a .800-.850 OPS.

Taking into account arbitration estimates, as of now we have the 2nd lowest committed salary in all of baseball ($59.73M) only behind the Marlins ($52.4M). If the Marlins pick up Starlin Castro's option, we'll officially have the lowest committed salary in baseball. https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-toronto-blue-jays-info/ I'm making a couple assumptions here: - The Pirates will pick up Marte's and Archers options - The Jays will non-tender Travis and Maile at least.

Kevin Smith is having an absolutely brutal Fall League: .135/.200/.189, 3BB, 20K What an insane fall. He was a Top 100 guy by Baseball-America coming into the 2019 season. Other places also had him on the fringes of a Top 100 ranking.

Who's Rule 5 eligible this year? That will probably answer the question on whether or not Tepera should be kept.

I could see a team doing the same thing the Rays did with Eovaldi - 1 year $2M with a club option attached. Get paid to rehab, and then come back at a discounted rate if it goes well.

It took Julio Urias 1 year+ to recover from the same injury. He injured it in June 2017 and didn't begin rehabbing in the minors until July 30, 2018. Given that Sanchez had surgery for it in September, there's a chance that he might not even pitch next season for the Astros. I don't know how it makes sense to tender him a contract at this point.

Former Jays: Aaron Sanchez – $5.6MM Roberto Osuna – $10.2MM Joe Biagini – $1.5MM Kevin Pillar – $9.7MM Marcus Stroman – $11.8MM Sanchez is definitely getting non-tendered,and there's a good chance Biagini is as well.

I think they'll tender Drury a contract to give him one more shot and Law as well to cheaply fill out that pen. Everyone else is probably gone.

Blue Jays projected 2020 arb salaries: Matt Shoemaker – $3.8MM Ken Giles – $8.4MM Devon Travis – $1.95MM Ryan Tepera – $1.6MM Brandon Drury – $2.5MM Luke Maile – $800K Derek Law – $1.3MM Ryan Dull – $800K Travis is an easy non-tender candidate. So is Luke Maile. Maybe even Tepera given his age now and reliever volatility. So with arb estimates, our payroll is looking to be around $45M assuming you tender Shoemaker, Giles, Drury, and Law contracts at those amounts. Even less if we trade Giles.

He hasn't tweeted anything?

If this regime really does believe in this position player core to break out and be better next season, and believe in the upcoming crop of pitchers, doesn't it make MORE sense to spend now on a bigger name than to stand pat and do nothing? Get ahead of the curve and add front loaded contracts while you still have still have the payroll flexibility and Vlad, Bo, Biggio etc. are all in their dirt cheap arbitration years. Who knows, maybe you can make a surprise run next year if you make a major addition. Say we end up around $45M in committed payroll after Giles/Shoemaker arbitration raises. That leaves us $70M to be spent just to get to the opening day payroll threshold that we had THIS season. It makes total sense to go after a Gerrit Cole and frontload the hell out of that contract. 2020, age 29: $45M 2021, age 30: $45M (Tulo $18M off the books) 2022, age 31: $45M 2023, age 32: $25M with an opt-out (Vlad/Bo/Cavan arb1) 2024, age 33: $25M with an opt-out (Vlad/Bo/Cavan arb2, Grichuk off the books) 2025, age 34: $25M (Vlad/Bo/Cavan arb3) 2026, age 35: $25M Total value: 7 years $235M. That would be the largest total contract value ever for a pitcher, and I think it's going to be incredibly appealing for Cole to get more than 50% of the contract value within the first 3 years. Paying Cole $45M next season would still leave us $25M to play with which would be enough for the usual array of veteran bullpen arms, a Bucholz/Shoemaker type deal, and maybe even another position player. More importantly, it pushes the message across to the younger players that next year is when we expect you to step up. If Rogers gives the go ahead for a $115M payroll next season, I don't see why they would really care about how it's allocated. Their balance sheet will say the same thing no matter what.

I believe the Strasburg, Corbin, and Scherzer contracts (all of which have significant deferred money) have interest free deferrals.

Also interesting: Marcell Ozuna: career .273/.329/.455, 112 wRC+, 3.2 WAR/650 PA Corey Dickerson: career .286/.328/.504, 117 wRC+, 2.9 WAR/650 PA career Ozuna provides better defense, but Dickerson seems like a comparable enough left handed version that will likely be much cheaper.

Corey Dickerson would be interesting OF addition on a budget. I know he has a reputation for being a bad OF, but besides one terrible year, his defense seems fine. Statcast rated him as having elite percentile OF jump (99% in 2019, 98% in 2017) and he's had above average sprint speed every year as well. He's also been striking out less the last 2 seasons. 2016-2017 he averaged ~25% K-rate, but last two seasons it's been between 15%-20%. Doubt he's gonna walk much, but an OF who strikes out on a below average rate would be a welcome addition. Maybe he'd be open to playing some 1B as well. I bet you could get him on a 2-3 year deal as well. I can't see there being much interest in him.

Luzardo is gonna dominate for the A's for a long time

Fair enough about Thornton. He's coming off a good enough rookie campaign, plus has demonstrated good swing and miss ability. The only way he'll get better is by giving him reps. If we only have to worry about adding 2 starters this offseason, all the better. So our bottom of the rotation is shaping up to be Shoemaker-Borucki-Thornton. I'm comfortable with Zeuch, Kay, Pearson, Muphy, Waguespack, Joey Murray being the starting depth in AAA.

This is encouraging to see at the very least. Hopefully there will be some proactive action taken this off season, because I see absolutely no point in wasting another year of Vladdy, Bo, Biggio etc. Their clock is already ticking. We should be operating under the assumption that the likes of TJ Zeuch, Thornton, Waguespack should all be starting next season in AAA. I would love to explore the market for mid level pitchers like Roark, Odorizzi, Hill etc and nab at least 2 of them.

Vlad Jr. has a 107 wRC+ in his age 20 season as a rookie. That's either on par with or better than: - Roberto Alomar (107 wRC+) - Miguel Cabrera (106 wRC+) - Andruw Jones (96 wRC+) - Ron Santo (92 wRC+) - Rickey Henderson (91 wRC+) I'm sure he'll be fine offensively. I'm just hoping he takes his conditioning somewhat seriously and shows up in shape next Spring.

By all accounts a great guy, but I'll be very glad to watch a McGuire/Jansen combo instead of Maile next season.

Tellez has quietly been having a good-ish September: .241/.354/.519, .872 OPS, before that HR. Nice to see him get that OBP up.