InsideThePark

There's no way they're planning to go from 3 catchers to just Kirk within 2 years. There's not a whole lot in the upper minors at C either besides Zach Britton who, like Varsho is a OF/C. I also don't anticipate Varsho being the backup catcher/OF in years 3 and 4. He's too valuable in the OF to be playing 30% of games at catcher. Kirk is good but catcher is the 1 spot where you need 2 guys and while the 2nd one doesn't have to be Jansen caliber, to go from 3 to needing to sign some s***** backup catcher in 2025 doesn't seem like something this front office would plan for. Jansen might not sign it,but they've absolutely discussed internally trying to get Jansen extended.

10 million over the next 2 years is probably a decent estimate for Danny's arb years(3.7 projected this year, 6.3 seems reasonable for 2024). Does 3x10 tacked on get it done(40/5 total), or would 4 x 12.5 be required(60/6 total). Jansen can and will get more if he stays healthy and plays well, but turning down 40 to 60 million dollars in hopes that happens with history might be something he'd rather not do.

Going over by a little bit seems like it would be the worst plan. I would guess they hit a fork in the road and had to decide between going big(Nimmo, Rodon, etc) and going over or trying to stay under. Jansen+ for Alek Thomas and signing Taylor Rogers only adds about 7 million based on MLBTR projections(3.7 Jansen money out, 10 million Rogers money in, pre arb Thomas in)

Take this for what it is, which is a random twitter account I've never heard of, but it's something and we're a day and a half from the signing being reported

I would say Jansen has more value that Happ. It's not a ton more but the extra year is absolutely relevant. Even if Happ is twice the player(He's not, I'd contest they're pretty even given Jansen plays a more important position) Jansen has twice the control. The plus would absolutely be in our favour. How good the plus would be could be argued for sure.

Capra is already off the 40 man. I would guess Hatch or Kay. Merryweather is also likely given he has no options and making the 26 man roster next April is looking very unlikely

What did Helsley change between 2021 and last year that he suddenly became so good? From what I can tell he wasn't a great prospect. Was pretty terrible in his first 3 years, suddenly his K/9 increases from 9 to 13, and he cut his BB/9 in half. Swanson has had 1 good year too. This time last year one might have rather have Jordan Hicks than Helsley, what changed?

No. There are no requirements once a player is taken in the minor league rule 5. The protection rosters for the rule 5 aren't actually the AAA rosters. Teams just get to protect up to 38 extra players in the minor league portion that they didn't protect in the regular portion. Without a doubt the Jays had Gabby Martinez on their "AAA roster" for this despite the fact he's played A+ at the highest. Calling it an AAA roster is meaningless really. Just the secondary group of protections which Warmoth wasn't on. You can only draft players in the minor league portion than you have space for in this 38 man "AAA roster". So if you protect 35 guys you can take 3. Jays had 37 so they could only take 1 in the draft. Some team drafted 7 guys so only protected 31. In theory you could protect nobody extra and grab 38 prospects for free without restrictions but they're all going to be not good and your best extra guys will be taken so it's a balancing act. Is our 78th guy(40 man roster + 38th extra protection slot) better than some other teams 79th guy. Probably not compared to some of the deeper teams. You basically keep leaving guys unprotected until you think that answer is no.

Pirates can draft OF Dylan Crews 1st overall. Now trade us Reynolds already

Thanks Tampa for letting us know Moreno is the keeper, we'll trade Kirk or Jansen to the National league now.

I'm really interested to see TJ Brock. Seems like he has closer type of stuff, and could shoot up prospect rankings last year like Juenger did this year, though they're different types of pitchers.

Nice to see that Siddall can have almost as ridiculous an idea as me /s

How is Bellinger running away with this poll? He's likely the worst of the 3 and might be the most expensive. Sure he won an MVP 3 years ago, he's been terrible ever since. But go ahead and take that 1% shot that he's got an upside the other 2 don't have. KK is the best option defensively but doesn't have enough upside offensively. Gallo is the clear answer here. Good enough defensively. By far the best offensive option despite the down year and because of that he won't be as expensive as he probably should be. Will likely benefit big from the new shift rules as well. I get that he's not really a CF which is an issue, but realistically if you get 1 of these guys and nobody equal or better then they're all terrible options, and we've already lost. I'll take the 1 with the most likely upside. This group is a tweener group at best. If Gurriel is our 2nd outfielder, 1 of these is our 3rd outfielder and someone worse is 4th then we're screwed. If someone equal or better is our 3rd outfielder and this is a 4th outfielder or platoon then it's easily Gallo here

Already have their 3rd OF in Gurriel. Now if only they could get a 2nd OF

Brewers trade Renfroe for Terminator's favorite player Janson Junk, plus 2 prospects

Yes, that's exactly what he's saying, and I hope the Diamondbacks are listening. They have a top 5 prospect they absolutely need to trade for a garbage return.

I wonder how much of this Bellinger/Nimmo smoke is the Jays trying to put some pressure on Arizona. 2 days ago there was that Arizona won't trade Carroll and probably won't trade Varsho thing. The Jays are likely telling them Moreno/Kirk are off limits for Thomas. Arizona needs a catcher. If the Jays go out and fill that hole then Arizona has to look elsewhere. Perhaps trying to see if Arizona is serious about making something work or if they're content to look elsewhere by making it seem like the Jays are about to do something else.

That would be a realistic guess yes. Following the Tiedemann path. Better prospect coming out of the draft but Ricky was a half year older and also had a year of Juco experience. It would seem unreasonable to hold him back for extended spring and eventually the FCL, and it would seem way too aggressive to send him to A+ Vancouver. I would guess at least 90% he starts in Dunedin with the most likely alternative being extended spring training.

He likely won’t be ready for another year but how nice would it have been to have Zac Veen ready to take over in 2024 when Gurriel is a FA like we all wanted from that 2020 draft

That's no fun

How are opt outs treated in the CBT calculation? If we give Nimmo a 132/6 contract(Just an example) but tack 5 fake years at 800k at the end of it so it's actually a 136/11 with an opt out after year 6 which unless he suffers a career ending injury he's going to use. Woudl the CBT calculation be the whole 11 years so only "cost" 12.3?

If he can’t catch and pitch at the same time he’s not worth rostering

I'm hearing Nimmo is being signed as well. My source wouldn't tell me which team though

Who needs a catcher. I checked the new shifting rules. There's no rule against putting your catcher in the outfield. Just don't let anyone get on base, you might end up with a few passed balls.

Zach Britton will be here soon and we've all seen how leaving Zack Britton on the bench works out in the playoffs. Trade all the catchers and make Britton the starter.