Heyman on B/R Walk-Off: Hearing Soler could sign soon. Feels like either the Jays or Arizona. Same teams in on J.D. Martinez. Heard the Jays were pretty close on Rosario before signing Kiermaier - they might turn back to him if other deals don’t work out. Don't want to rule out the Jays on Votto
Report: Brewers, Hoskins agree to 2-year, $34M deal
https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2829274
Jays just lost out on my favourite DH/1B target. Now onto Soler/J.D.
You are not going to hear me talk down his defense and base running. The offense part comes up because our team severely lacked it last year and he plays a position that can typically provide more of it.
Obviously if we had Vlad/Chapman/Kirk/Springer produce better then we could live with what Varsho produces offensively because elite defense ALWAYS plays. We're just looking to find the perfect balance for 2024 and hope he can bounce back.
I think Jays fans would be ecstatic if he was league average based on what we saw at the plate last year. You'd still want more from your LF. His bat plays at CF, not LF.
Those teams don't have the foresight of having a need for him you mean. It's like being the Blue Jays and going into the season with this lineup. We all know damn well we're going to need offense so we'll just end up spending prospects for something that's already known if we don't do it now.
Cant hate Chapman getting paid the most he can while he'll still ending up on a WS contender by the deadline. Weird that those teams don't sign him now to save themselves the prospects they'll eventually be wasting...
Bellinger is really ideal for the reasons you stated PLUS he's a left handed bat that you can put in your top 4. Clearly no one wants to pay him at his first ask so hopefully the price comes down to the point where we can make it happen. This lineup still needs TWO impact bats at minimum if they want to be serious next year.
I don't see it happening though because signing him makes the KK move totally irrelevant. A big hitting DH would make more sense on the team than him if we get Bellinger.
We've been hoping to take advantage of the Padres or the Marlins but there's been no follow up rumours sadly. Thought a few teams would want to cut salary... I guess there's still time...
Grichuk and Solar it is lol. IFK being our regular 3B is gonna make me puke. Still gonna hold out hope that we can bring Chappy back on a 4/80 deal or something and move Espy for whatever you can get.
RF Springer
SS Bo
1B Vlad
DH Soler
C Kirk/Jansen
3B Chapman
LF Varsho/Grichuk
2B Biggio/Schneider
CF KK
Back to being right handed heavy because all our lefties suck lol.
While I agree that I haven't liked how we've used our money this offseason, I'm sure they saw this as the better alternative to overpaying Chapman/Bellinger. I still think we'll sign a DH but this lineup could actually be worse on paper than last seasons and no one thought that was going to happen. Last years team was absolutely grueling to watch and little has been done to change that.
When the offseason began, I truly thought the Jays were a Rodriguez and IKF away from winning the World Series. Said no one ever lol.
Come on Atkins, pull a rabbit out of your hat to really improve the team. One of Chapman/Bellinger and one of J.D/Soler/Hoskins.
You are literally blasting most of the regulars who post on this board with this LOL. I do think most of them are very smart posters but my God do they love just spitting out these projections like they are a 100% certainty to happen with no wiggle room to other opinions.
With Hadar's track record, he's allowed to have some "diva" in him. We've all seen how Romano looks in save situations vs other situations... some guys are just wired a certain way and better for them to be upfront on what they best thrive at.
[Heyman] The hitting market — Jorge Soler, J.D. Martinez, Justin Turner and Rhys Hoskins — is heating up. The Jays are a front-runner for Soler, with the Diamondbacks and Red Sox also interested.