The smart teams are making it look like their MLB teams are losing money while raking in profits through ownership stakes in TV networks and restaurants, bars, casinos and development deals near their stadiums.
Jays bullpen right now has
Hoffman
Yimi
Varland *
Little *
Fisher ***
Flu **
Lauer
Francis *
Potentially a starter as they have 6 right now.
It's not a terrible bullpen and could last until a deadline acquisition. The number of options (*) makes for great flexibility but you have to imagine if they bring in another big name someone might be on the block as I can't see Little, Varland or Fish spending much time in the minors.
I have a strong feeling they are still in on Imai. They are definitely looking to gain a foothold in Japan judging by the ads they are running over there. It could be okamoto or Murakami too I suppose. rogers the media company I am sure is eyeing up SNNow revenue from Japan.
They want young, controllable pitchers from what I heard today. Jays hang up if they ask for Trey. Maybe they would be willing to build something around Ricky T&. Bowden but i doubt Ricky has value high enough to be the centrepiece in such a deal.
It sounds like they want to tweak things with Cease a bit too. Schneider mentions they asked him about evolving his fastball grip and talked about working on a change up with him to make it better and a pitch he uses.
There is a press conference on mlb.com right now with John Schneider. I didn't hear the start, but some tidbits from what I have heard.
When asked if Ponce would be a starter "100% a starter"
When asked about assistant hitting coach he said they have found a new one and it should be announced soon. Donnie's role is also being backfilled in a couple of ways. He mentioned there are 2 people coming in from other organizations and 1 internal promotion.
He mentioned that Mattingly left to be closer to his family and work with his son.
Part of me wonders if we will see Diaz having got the second year salary low or with a big signing bonus so he gets paid even if there is a work stoppage.