Owen Hill

The Blue Jays have been desperate for power. Can Daulton Varsho's return be a turning point for the offense? Daulton Varsho made his much-anticipated season debut on Tuesday, coming off of the injured list with a fully rehabbed right shoulder. The return of their everyday centre fielder represents a refreshing jolt to a Blue Jays lineup that has struggled mightily to produce runs since the very start of the season. The offensive woes have been well documented, so I’ll refer you to Leo Morgenstern’s piece from this weekend for a deep dive into what exactly has gone wrong, but just for a quick recap: The Jays would likely benefit from sacrificing some contact for some power. Having Varsho’s bat in the lineup every day will be a shift towards this goal in and of itself, simply because his offensive profile comes with high bat speed (78th percentile in 2024) and a lot of swing and miss (whiffed 27% of the time in 2024). Most importantly, Varsho is a threat to leave the yard, making him a much-needed reinforcement for a lineup that ranks 29th in homers, with just 16 through their first 29 games. It’s asking a lot of Varsho, who has yet to put up a season with a league average OPS as a Blue Jay, to come off the IL, slot into the middle of the order and completely change the fortunes of one of the worst offenses in baseball. Further, if we take a (very quick) glance at his numbers across seven rehab games in the minor leagues, we can see that Varsho was just 3-for-25 without an extra base hit between Dunedin and Buffalo. It would be malpractice to look at minor league rehab numbers from seven games and make any sort of proclamation, but it is important to note that Varsho wasn't exactly setting the world on fire at the plate, and even if he were, he’s not going to single-handedly fix the offense. Interestingly enough, between the hot starts of George Springer and Myles Straw, Blue Jays centre fielders actually ranked fourth in baseball in wRC+ before Varsho’s season debut on Tuesday. It’s one of the few positions from which the Blue Jays have received above-average offensive production. With Varsho likely to own centre field for the rest of the season, it sparks up an interesting discussion about who gets displaced and what the best way is to deploy this roster. The corresponding move to Varsho’s addition to the 26-man roster was slightly surprising, as the Jays opted to send infielder Will Wagner to Triple A and carry six outfielders, rather than sending one of Nathan Lukes, Alan Roden or Addison Barger to Buffalo. This tells us that Barger is likely going to get some run at third base, a position he’s spent a lot of time at in the minor leagues. Barger could play the strong side of a third base platoon with Ernie Clement, another Blue Jay who’s limped out of the blocks this season. With Barger potentially getting the bulk of his playing time at third, and Varsho’s name set in stone as the centre fielder, we’re left with Lukes, Straw, Springer, and Anthony Santander to split time between the corners. Springer and Santander both need to be in the lineup every day, so we’ll see the two of them split time between right field and DH. However, on Sunday, John Schnieder did mention wanting to get Santander more time in the outfield, indicating we could sometimes see a lineup with Springer in left and Santander in right. This will be a little bit easier to digest now that Varsho's elite glove is back in centre field, but it makes things complicated for Straw and Lukes, who will lose playing time on days that both Springer and Santander start in the outfield. Although it might not be as sexy as talking about the home runs he’s going to hit, it’s important to mention what Varsho’s return is going to do for the Blue Jays’ defence. Prior to his return, they were completely neutral as a team according to outs above average (OAA), while they ranked eighth in baseball with 10 defensive runs saved (DRS) after leading the league in DRS each of the last two seasons. The bulk of Varsho’s value comes on the defensive side of the ball, and his return will reinforce one of the roster’s strongest attributes, which should make it easier for the pitching staff to keep the offense within striking distance in any given game. It didn't take long for him to flash the leather in his first game back: All things considered, the return of Daulton Varsho couldn’t be more timely, as the Blue Jays shore up their centre field defense and continue their search for home runs. View full article

The Braves must have been in a hurry to get out of town. Jays pitchers struck them out 19 times on Wednesday afternoon! Not that anybody should be looking too closely at the standings on April 16, but the Toronto Blue Jays’ 3-1 win over the Braves made the Jays the first team in the American League to win 11 games. Also significant in Wednesday afternoon’s victory, Blue Jays pitchers struck out 19 hitters, a franchise record for a nine-inning game. Chris Bassitt did much of the heavy lifting early on, punching out 10 Braves across his five innings of work. It was his game with first double-digit strikeouts since September 2023. Bassitt was great yet again in his fourth start of the season, holding Atlanta scoreless on two walks and three hits, lowering his early-season ERA to 0.77. When you looked at the pitching matchup and saw Spencer Strider going up against Chris Bassitt, I’m sure you might have been surprised to find out that Bassitt would not only outduel Strider but strike out twice as many batters. After all, Strider has a career average of 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings. Speaking of strikeouts, Strider picked up his 500th career K in just his 335th inning of work during the fifth inning. This start was his first since he underwent Tommy John surgery last spring. Based on some of the swings the Blue Jays were taking early on, he looks likely to return to notching double-digit strikeout games of his own very soon. Following a 30-pitch fifth inning from Bassitt, the broadcast picked up on some debate in the dugout between John Schneider, Pete Walker, Bassitt. After originally seeming to decide to send Bassitt out for the sixth, the manager decided to turn to his bullpen. Lefty Brendon Little came in to face the heart of the Braves lineup and brought some of the nastiest stuff we’ve seen from him all season. Despite throwing the ball in the strike zone on just three (yes, three) of his 20 pitches, Little struck out the side while mixing in a walk to Sean Murphy. His pitch chart does not look like that of a pitcher who had much success, but he forced hitters not only to chase, but to whiff on every one of their swings. Nick Sandlin came out of the ‘pen in the seventh. He induced a groundout, allowed a single, then started contributing to the strikeout total by punching out Orlando Arcia on a nasty slider. It was a two-run game at the time, and leadoff hitter Michael Harris II stpped up to the plate as the tying run. John Schneider bounced out of the dugout and called on his flamethrowing set-up man, Yimi García, hoping to get four outs. And that’s exactly what he got. In typical dominant fashion, García fanned all four hitters he faced, keeping them off balance with curveballs and blowing upper-90s heaters by them. When García’s work was done, the Blue Jays sat at 18 punchies, tied with the previous nine franchise record set against the Royals in August 1998. Jeff Hoffman came in for the save in the Bottom of the ninth. Given Hoffman’s high-octane stuff, the Jays were also within reach of the all-time nine-inning strikeout record of 20, which is shared by a number of teams, including three pitchers who did it individually. Hoffman induced a lineout before Drake Baldwin killed the shutout with a two-strike homer. The ball was pulled down the left field line at just 95 MPH and had an xBA of just .150. A Jarred Kelenic popout put 20 out of reach, but Hoffman got Eli White swinging, securing both the win and the franchise record.. Perhaps the most impressive part of the pitching staff’s work was the job they did against the top of the Atlanta lineup. The first three hitters, Michael Harris II, Austin Riley, and Matt Olson, finished a combined 1-for-12 with 11 K’s, including golden sombreros for both Harris II and Riley. Riley has been on a heater at the plate, with a 153 wRC+, and started the series against the Jays with three homers and six RBI in the first two games. It was impressive to see the Jays cool off such a hot hitter en route to another series victory. Courtesy of Blue Jays social, here’s a look at all 19 strikeouts in all their glory! View full article

Yes, of course it's too early. But Gausman showed some extremely encouraging signs, and they're the kinds of signs that tend to stabilize very quickly. On Wednesday, Kevin Gausman made his spring training debut in Bradenton, Florida against the Pirates. He immediately gave us a reason to let out a long sigh, as his first two pitches were four-seam fastballs that were clocked at 94.2 mph and 95.1, respectively. Gausman threw 38 pitches across an inning and two-thirds, sitting just under 95 mph with his four-seamer and working it up to just over 96. Gausman walked a batter but did not give up a hit or a run in an auspicious start to his 2025 season. Ordinarily, we can throw out almost anything a pitcher does in his first spring training game of a particular year, and we should err on the side of caution in this case as well. However, the velocity of Gausman’s fastball has been a specific area of concern for the last calendar year. He came into camp with shoulder fatigue, and after a shortened spring training colored by health concerns, and his fastball velocity remained inconsistent. Some days he’d get out of the gates hot and sit above 94.5 mph with easy velocity reminiscent of 2023, when he finished third in the Cy Young voting. Some days he’d be fighting and grunting to get the radar gun to show 93. Take a look at how drastically Gausman’s velocity fluctuated start to start last season: Not only was the velocity on his fastball extremely inconsistent, it also ended up with a season average of just 94 mph. That was 0.7 mph below his 2023 average, and his lowest mark since 2020. Gausman will mix in the occasional slider or changeup to righties, but he's essentially a two-pitch pitcher. He throws a rising four-seamer at the top of the zone, and his featured pitch is a devastating splitter that he uses at and below the bottom of the zone to rack up swings and misses. The pitches play off of each other. The threat of a hard fastball in the zone makes hitters susceptible to splitters below it, and vice versa. For Gausman to return to the elite form we've come to expect, he needs to be able to get hitters to swing under fastballs and over splitters. This is why every tick that Gausman loses on his four-seamer means so much. When hitters have an extra tick to discern between the two pitches, Gausman’s whiff percentage drops and he can get into trouble. A veteran pitcher at this point in his career, the 34-year-old Gausman managed to survive the decrease and inconsistencies in his fastball velocity, without too many catastrophic outings, but his overall performance suffered. His xERA (which uses exit velocity and launch angle to predict the ERA that the pitcher deserved) jumped almost a full run, and he lost almost 10 percentage points on his strikeout percentage. Gausman’s struggles beating hitters with the fastball is by far the most obvious symptom of these problems. Given the concerns surrounding his fastball velocity, it’s extremely encouraging to see Gausman average 94.9 mph on his four-seamer so early in spring training, especially considering that the pitch sat at just 94 last season. That's how Gausman sees it too. "Last spring, I think it was a lot harder to get to 86, especially those first couple of weeks," he told reporters. It’s also encouraging that the fastball registered five whiffs on 14 swings. His fastball averaged 17 inches of rise, just like it did last year, an excellent sign considering how much faster it came in. Gausman has clearly entered camp healthy, which is the most important thing for any player. We didn’t see Gausman show off the new cutter he hinted at late in the offseason, and during Thursday's game, the broadcast team mentioned that he has said he's still learning how to locate the pitch. That’s something to keep an eye on when he takes the mound again on Monday. If Gausman does indeed show it off, he’ll try to use it as another weapon to try and get in on the hands of lefties, and off the end of the bat against righties. Given the concerns with the four-seamer’s ability to miss bats as he gets older, I love to see Gausman trying to find a way to induce a little bit of weak contact. Well, we just overanalyzed the crap out of 38 meaningless pitches. It's way too early to worry about results, but Gausman’s first start of the spring still gave us a lot to be happy about. However, I am going to offer a grain of salt to every reader buying Gausman stock, because half of this article was spent highlighting his inability to keep it consistent in 2024! One good start it great, but two in a row would be a lot more meaningful. As he builds up his pitch count, be prepared to see some fluctuations in Gausman’s fastball velocity. But as we get closer to opening day, his ability to keep his four-seamer at or around 95 mph will be the biggest indicator of what 2025 will look like. View full article

How real do we think the 97-98 in yesterday's ST game was? Pretty skeptical he's actually touching that in his first spring appearance but if he has that in the tank Bloss is a whole lot more exciting.

I think it's also important to note that Shapiro's contract is done after the 2025 season so if he's sticking around he'll need a new deal. Atkins' finishes after 2026 but if Shapiro isn't coming back then I doubt the new President gives Atkins a shot. It is so unclear if these guys will be back because if the Jays suck again do you really want them picking the 2026 direction at the trade deadline just to be out the door two months later? Do you trust an entirely new front office dealing with the Vlad FA negotiations? If the team is really good they'll both get new deals, but at the same time, 0 division titles and 0 playoff wins in their tenure considering the resources they've had to work with is completely unacceptable.

Orelvis Martinez has proven that he has what it takes to be an impactful power hitter at all levels of the minor leagues. Can 2025 be the year he starts impacting winning at the big league level? We’re not all that far removed from the Toronto Blue Jays’ young core being the envy of the league, with what appeared to be a stacked farm system with waves of talent set to make winning sustainable in Toronto for a long time. The Jays broke the 90-win plateau in 2021 and 2022 and won 89 games en route to a playoff berth in 2023. But in 2024, disaster struck, as the Jays found themselves well out of the playoff race and stumbling to just 74 wins. We can point to several decisions regarding baseball operations and on-field moments to explain why the Jays have ended up in this less-than-ideal position. Still, the most glaring is that the concept of waves of talent never comes to fruition. Instead of the elite young core being supplemented by a combination of free agent signings and prospect graduations, the Jays have (with a few exceptions) only been able to add to their big league roster through free agency or trades. This led to the Jays being forced to bring in and rely on guys like Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier, Daniel Vogelbach, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, all of whom were asked to play bigger roles than they should have been playing on a winning team. We all know how that turned out, so in 2025, the Jays will need some homegrown talent to punch above their weight class. One player who could finally put to rest the ‘Blue Jays can’t develop players’ allegations is Orelvis Martinez. What Went Wrong in 2024? Well, this is a pretty easy one… Orelvis Martínez was rocking an .869 OPS with 17 homers at Triple-A Buffalo when he earned the call to the big leagues as the corresponding move to a Bo Bichette IL stint in late June. He had just enough time to make his first-ever big league appearance, going 1-3 with a single, before he was popped for PEDs and handed an 80-game suspension, ending his season. Between the injury to Bichette and the ensuing firesale of veterans, Martínez’s suspension meant he had squandered an opportunity to carve out everyday at-bats in the big leagues. I’m sure the Jays were just as disappointed that they didn’t get a chance to see what Martínez could do against big-league pitching in a low-stress environment. What could have been a breakout second half for Martínez, or at least one filled with valuable lessons about the difference between the major and minor leagues, instead turned into a valuable lesson about reading the ingredients on his prescriptions. What Can Go Right in 2025? Martínez has been a fun prospect to follow for half a decade at this point, as he’s routinely found himself near the top of the home run leaderboards and has been able to do so without seeing his strikeout and walk rates completely crater as he’s progressed from level to level. If only slightly, across 319 Triple-A plate appearances in 2024, Martínez improved on the numbers from his first 244 in 2023. It’s noteworthy that Martínez dropped his Triple-A strikeout rate from 27% in 2023 to below 24% in 2024 while getting on base and hitting for power at better rates. This is a step in development that every team prays to see their power-hitting prospects get to. While Martínez did so marginally and in a small sample size, he did so at the highest level of the minors and four years younger than the average age. The Blue Jays were impressed enough to want to see what he could do in the big leagues in what was a slightly aggressive promotion at the time. The difference between the highest level of the minor leagues and the big leagues is said to be the largest jump in quality of competition in a professional baseball player’s career, so no one is expecting Orelvis to come up to the big leagues at 23 years old and plug his .869 OPS and 30 homers into the lineup, but his ability to hit for power is tantalizing. If Martínez can continue to display an improved ability to put the ball in play and make better swing decisions in spring training, his power will make him an attractive option to break camp with the Blue Jays. He'll be in the lineup daily if he continues to display these skills against big-league pitching. How Will This Impact the Blue Jays? Through what looks to be a strong offseason with the additions of Anthony Santander, Andrés Giménez, Max Scherzer, Jeff Hoffman, and Yimi García, the Jays have put themselves in a better position heading into 2025 than they did a year ago. However, as is the case with any 74-win team trying to retool through free agency, there are a few holes on the roster that will need to be filled by internal options. Number one on the list is third base. ZiPS projects that Ernie Clement will get the bulk of the work at third base, but his versatility across three infield positions suits him very well for a utility role. Clement will play an important role for the 2025 Blue Jays, but he certainly doesn’t have a strong enough claim of third base that we can pencil him into the opening-day lineup. The Jays would be thrilled if Orelvis Martínez could hit enough to force Clement into a bench role like the one he thrived in last season. Clement hit .385 in 13 pinch-hitting at-bats in 2024, and his ability to put the bat on the ball plays extremely well off the bench late in games. Marínez could also factor in at second base, although you may have to squint a bit to see it as the newly acquired platinum glover Andrés Giménez has a claim to the position. Giménez and Martínez hit from opposite sides of the plate, so we could see Martínez get a chance to platoon a bit and get starts at second base against left-handed pitchers. Most importantly, Orelvis Martínez’s profile offers a fix to the most glaring hole on the Blue Jays’ roster: power. Given the opportunity, it wouldn’t be silly to suggest that Martínez can hit more home runs over a season than Clement and Giménez combined. With just two players on the roster who broke the 20-home-run mark in 2024, the Blue Jays would be foolish not to give him an opportunity he can’t. Marínez will play the entire 2025 season at just 23 years of age, so this is far from a make-or-break season for him regarding his ability to be a productive big leaguer. Still, with the Blue Jays’ questions about the positions he plays, he will have an opportunity to break and impact winning for a team desperate for contributions from homegrown players. View full article

Max Scherzer’s reputation precedes him, but how will his once-legendary stuff play in his age-40 season? The 2024 season offers some hints. Across 17 seasons, Max Scherzer has put together a slam-dunk Hall of Fame career: 3,407 strikeouts across 2,878 innings en route to 73.2 fWAR is enough to make even the most in-tune fans take a step back and simply appreciate what he’s done. But at 40 years old, Scherzer isn't ready to hang up the spikes quite yet. His one-year, $15.5-million deal with the Blue Jays confirms that Scherzer will take at least one more kick at the can before enjoying a well-deserved retirement. Scherzer is no longer the pitcher he once was, but we can take a look at his 2024 to make an educated guess about what he has left in the tank for the Blue Jays in year 18. First things first, a litany of injuries limited Scherzer to nine starts in 2024: recovering from offseason back surgery, struggling with shoulder fatigue and nerve issues, and finally a September hamstring strain that ended his season. The injuries are a concern, especially the arm fatigue, which makes this a riskier signing than we’re used to seeing from the Toronto front office. The positive sign is that when Scherzer was actually able to get on the mound in 2024, he produced solid results. But before we plan the parade and slot Scherzer into the number one spot in the rotation, we have to look into a couple of concerning trends. That four-seamer is the biggest concern. Scherzer throws it roughly 45% of the time, making it by far his most important pitch. According to Fangraphs, its Stuff+ cratered from a solid 104 in 2023 to a horrifying 78 in 2024. That doesn’t paint a pretty picture and it's mostly about the velocity, but the fact that the Blue Jays just invested over $15 million in Scherzer tells me that expect his right arm to bounce back. Coming off of an injury-plagued season, an extended offseason may have been just what the doctor ordered for Scherzer to get his body, and therefore his four-seamer, back where it needs to be. If Scherzer is healthy, that fastball should tick back up, and its velocity will be one of the indicators I’m watching closest toward the end of spring training. I also have my eye on the cutter. In the graphic below (courtesy of Baseball Savant), look where the red arrow is pointing. Scherzer’s cutter and slider merged into basically the same pitch in 2024, not just in their movement profiles but in their velocity. The two pitches were separated by just 1.6 mph. Hitters didn’t have to worry about differentiating between the two pitches. If we’re wrong about Scherzer being able to get back to his above-average fastball, Pete Walker’s most important project may be helping Scherzer find a way to turn his slider and his cutter back into two distinct pitches. Older pitchers lose their ability to miss bats and limit hard contact, but in a limited sample, Scherzer was successful in both categories in 2024. His 35% hard-hit rate 29% whiff rate were both excellent, and his 36% chase rate was elite. That chase rate is a crazy number, the highest of his entire career. Even in a short sample of 43 1/3 innings, that’s a hard number to ignore. Even the chase rate on Scherzer’s fastball, which saw a huge drop of 1.3 mph from 2023 to 2024, rose from 24% to 30%. I’m open theories about exactly what happened here, but not sure if I have a guess myself. One thing’s for sure: if Scherzer can replicate this amount of chase from opposing hitters, it will be a major indicator that he’s still got it. Launch angle is also key. Relying on his four-seam fastball in and above the zone has helped Scherzer rack up whiffs and strikeouts, but when hitters make do contact with that pitch, the ball is more than likely going to be hit in the air. For that reason, Scherzer has always been susceptible to the long ball. Even when he won the National League Cy Young in 2016, he led the NL with 31 home runs allowed. As his stuff trends down and he misses fewer bats, that’s not ideal. However, there a few other factors to consider. Back in July, Lance Brozdowski noted that against left-handed batters, Scherzer was bringing his four-seamer inside more often, effectively trading some swing-and-miss for contact suppression. It’s encouraging that even with reduced stuff, Scherzer has so far found a way to limit hard-hit balls. It also helps that he’ll be pitching in front of an outfield with elite defenders, and that Rogers Centre is far from the launching pad it used to be. That’s a lot of concerns. We’ll be watching to see whether Scherzer can regain some velocity, figure out his cutter, and somehow keep racking up chases and avoiding hard contact. It remains to be seen how much he can help the Blue Jays return to contention, but I couldn’t forgive myself if I wrote this whole article without mentioning how damn cool it is that Max Scherzer is going to pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays. View full article

Trey YesavageArjun NimmalaOrelvis MartinezRicky TiedemannJake BlossKhal StephenJosh KasevichCharles McAdooAlan RodenAdam MackoKendry RojasFernando PerezEnmanuel BonillaLanden MaroudisJohnny KingWill WagnerBrandon BarrieraJuaron Watts-BrownAdrian PintoJonatan Clase

I just want to say... I love how badly people want to find space in the lineup for Alan Roden

The Blue Jays finally got their guy, and while the team’s outfield defence will fall from the elite status we’ve gotten used to, he’ll fill a hole in the middle of the lineup. Before we all salivate over how much more dangerous the addition of Anthony Santander makes the BlueJays lineup, let's consider how John Schneider and the Jays are going to get him into it. Below is the team’s projected depth chart, as posted by FanGraphs’ Jason Martinez on Bluesky immediately after Santander’s deal was announced. As you can, see, Santander is projected to slot in as the everyday left fielder, after primarily playing right field across eight seasons with the Orioles. This may require some adjustment, but there’s not much concern that he’ll lose what little defensive value he brings, because switching corners is far easier than learning a completely new position. Left field is a less valuable defensive position than right, and is likely where Santander would have spent his time in recent years if it weren't for the enormous amount of ground to cover in left field at Camden Yards thanks to the Great Wall of Baltimore. With George Springer expected to keep holding down right field, Santander will slide over to left, although he represents a stark departure from the left fielders to whom the Jays have given playing time over the last couple of seasons. From 2023 to 2024, Statcast’s Fielding Runs Value credited Blue Jays left fielders with saving 11 runs, tied with the Cleveland Guardians for the best in baseball. Only four other teams produced a positive number. Over the same timeframe, Santander has run an FRV of -6. Daulton Varsho got the bulk of the innings in left field, but once he returns from shoulder surgery, he'll sepnd 2025 as the primary center fielder. Varsho primarily played alongside Kevin Kiermaier and George Springer, a combination of three center fielders whose ridiculous 48 FRV made Toronto easily the best defensive outfield in baseball. The Jays have since moved on from Kiermaier, but the core of Varsho and Springer will remain a strong defensive tandem in center and right, with guys like Nathan Lukes, Joey Loperfido, Jonatan Clase, and the newly acquired Myles Straw able to fill in at any of the three outfield positions. Santander hasn’t put up a positive defensive season since 2020 (the only one of his career) and heading into his age 30 season, he certainly isn’t going to start now. This is the end of the elite defensive outfield play that Blue Jays fans have become accustomed to, but that’s obviously a sacrifice Ross Atkins and the front office are willing to make in order to get Santander’s bat in the lineup. Now for the fun part: Santander can absolutely mash, and it would not be a stretch to call him the perfect fit behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. A switch hitter, Santander is coming off of his first All-Star selection and a season in which he crushed 44 homers en route to a 129 wRC+. He’s capable of doing damage any time he steps in the box thanks to a profile that emphasizes pull-side fly balls. Fangraphs projected lineup has Santander bumping Guerrero up to the two spot in the lineup and Bo Bichette down to cleanup. Personally, I love the idea of getting my best hitter more at-bats, but I also wouldn’t be upset if Vlad continued to insist on hitting third and Bo slid back into the two-hole. Either way, for the first time since 2022, the Blue Jays have a player not named Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who is capable of a 25-homer season. We can debate whether or not lineup protection matters, but the fact is, the lack of production in the cleanup spot behind Vlad has been a massive weakness in the Blue Jays’ lineup. Over the past two seasons, the Blue Jays had a 103 wRC+ out of the cleanup spot, which ranked 18th in baseball. They were dead last with 31 homers. Steamer projects Santander to hit 33 homers in 2025 alone. Santander is also a switch-hitter, and essentially platoon proof. In 2024 he rocked an wRC+ above 120 as both a righty and a lefty, and his career numbers are nearly even. That offensive consistency against different pitcher profiles will be massive in the middle of a lineup that has been crying out for consistency. Giving Santander everyday reps in the outfield is going to have a ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ effect. The Jays have taken away from their elite defensive outfield, a spot of serious strength over the last couple of years, to address a serious weakness: the lack of power and an offensive threat to hit behind Guerrero. One can only hope that Ross Atkins and the front office are on the verge of finally striking the perfect balance between a defensive and offensive lineup. View full article

In the final installment of our prediction series, the rotation is completely unqualified, and the team will win, you know, a certain number of games. Blue Jays fans! The time has finally come to stop reflecting on the disappointment that was 2024 and to turn the page (or throw the old calendar in the trash and replace it with a new one). Let's start looking ahead to what 2025 has in store for our Blue Jays. Will it be a year of making deals with long-time friends, fresh faces carving out their space on the team, and exceeding expectations? Or will the sequel be worse than the original? Only time will tell, but as 2025 is such a pivotal year for the Blue Jays — imminent free agents, young players stepping into bigger roles, and veterans looking to play key roles — I figured I’d take a stab at coming up with some bold predictions for what lies ahead in the next calendar year. This is the third of a four-part series that will run all week. You can read part one here, part two here, and, you guessed it, part three here. Let's finish strong. 7. The Blue Jays have zero qualified starters with an ERA under 4.00 The starting rotation has been a noted strength of the Blue Jays for the last three seasons, accumulating over 36 fWAR since 2022, which is good for ninth in baseball. And with the rotation relatively unchanged (aside from the loss of Yusei Kikuchi), the talk around the Jays seems to involve a lot of trust that this type of performance can be expected again in 2025. But it’s a dirty little secret that if you check out the FanGraphs Depth Chart projections, the Jays are currently in line to finish 2025 with just 10.4 fWAR from their starting pitchers. That would rank 23rd in baseball (also known as eighth-to-last). The last three seasons have seen an impressive run of health from established veterans, which has been a big part of the rotation's success. The Jays haven't needed to dip very far into their depth to make up for missed innings by guys like Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, and José Berríos. That kind of good fortune tends not to last forever. Gausman had a health scare during spring training in 2024, and though he was never quite able to get back to the elite stuff he had from 2021 to 2023, he was able to battle his way through the season and put up a respectable 3.83 ERA over 181 innings. However, the process was not nearly as dominant as we’d come to expect over his previous two seasons as a Blue Jay. First and most importantly, he’s lost more than a tick of velocity on his four-seam fastball since 2022. From 2023 to 2024, Statcast saw his fastball run value drop from the 95th percentile all the way to the 38th. Gausman also went from a strikeout percentage of 31.1% in 2023 to 21.4% in 2024, an extremely steep drop-off. Neither the FanGraphs Depth Charts nor I expect Gausman to take step back even further this year, and Steamer naturally projects Gausman him to regress back to his old level of performance, improving his strikeout rate and ERA. But it's not usually safe to place a bet on a 34-year-old who’s pitched 732 2/3 innings over the last four years and has already shown major signs of decline. Just a little bit of bad luck or, God forbid, some injury struggles, and Gausman could easily see himself with an ERA above 4.00 this season. As you may have seen in the table above, Kevin Gausman is the only Blue Jay starter projected to finish with an ERA under 4.00, and I hate to admit how confident I am in my case for him to be above that. José Berríos is expected to lead this rotation alongside Gausman, and he has also built up one of the more reliable track records among starting pitchers. He’s thrown at least 189 2/3 innings in five out of the last seven seasons, just missing out during the short 2020 season and the peculiar 2022 in which he was never able to find his way. Berríos outperforms his xERA like clockwork, but in 2024, he didn’t miss bats like he had in previous seasons. His arm has been through a lot, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him struggle to maintain the quality stuff that he needs to avoid getting hit hard. I find it unlikely Berríos has another season that is reminiscent of his dismal 2022, but I think the case for a perfectly fine, low-fours ERA is the most likely scenario. Chris Bassitt is the final veteran on the staff, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better word to describe him than ‘veteran.’ Another pitcher who’s been the model of consistency for years, Bassitt has seen his numbers steadily decline since he put up a 2.29 ERA for the Oakland A’s in 2020. In 2024, he surpassed 4.00 for the first time in his career (minus a 2016 campaign where he pitched just 28 innings across five starts). Heading into his age-36 season, after three straight seasons with more than 170 innings, I think Chris Bassitt is a safe bet for another slight increase in ERA in 2025. Here’s where it gets a little bit weird. Not only did Bowden Francis lose his spot in the rotation in April of last year, he lost his spot in the big leagues. But after spending some time at triple-A Buffalo, developing a vicious splitter, and drastically reducing his USA of a mediocre breaking pitch, Francis finished 2024 incredibly well, although there are some serious questions about whether or not the way he did it is going to be sustainable over a full season. Francis allowed just 24 hits and an incredibly low .125 BABIP across nine starts to finish the season. Combining this with his below-average chase and whiff percentages definitely makes him a candidate for some serious regression to the mean, and a low-fours ERA is absolutely a reasonable expectation for Francis in 2024. The fifth starter spot is up for grabs between guys like Yariel Rodríguez, Jake Bloss, and any starter signed between now and spring training (Jose Quintana, Nick Pivetta, and Lance Lynn are on my radar). There’s not a whole lot of track record with either of these guys, but the expectation would not be for them to come out and dominate in 2025. To tie a bow on this prediction, I think the case for the Jays having two or three starters with an below 4.00 is just as plausible as the one for them to have none, and predicting ERAs in the low four is NOT predicting horrendous seasons. 8. The Blue Jays finish with OVER 76.5 wins. Many people will tell you that the journey is more important than the destination, but many other people will tell you that they don’t ask how, they ask how many. That’s why I saved the most important prediction for last, and I will use my seven previous predictions to make the case for the Blue Jays winning at least 77 games. First of all, in the three Wild Card era, the lowest number of wins to get into the playoffs is shared by the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins at 84. So any team set on competing, as the Blue Jays are, builds the team with the goal of reaching at MINIMUM 84 wins. The Jays could fall seven wins short of that target and still make my prediction a winner. But here’s the baseball case for why I think the Jays are a lock to win at least 77 games: I lined out in previous predictions why Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are more than likely to play out the whole season with the Jays, but just for a quick recap, I find it hard to see a world where this team, in what is likely the last year of this contention window, punts at the trade deadline and gives up on the opportunity to retain these players in favour of a rebuild. We’ve seen in many seasons (other than 2024) prove just how effective this duo can be, and if Bo Bichette can get back to form, the foundations of a strong offence are going to be playing shortstop and first base every day. Anotherunderrated pick for a big offensive year is Alejandro Kirk. Since 2022, Blue Jays catchers have the third-best wRC+ among catching corps in baseball. Kirk’s 2022 season weighs heavily on that stat, and if he can rediscover some of that prowess at the plate, similar to the end of last year, he could be one of the important middle-of-the-order bats that this lineup needs. Many are concerned about the Spencer Horwitz-shaped hole that’s been left in this lineup since the Andrés Giménez trade, but I’m not. I think Alan Roden is primed to bring his contact-first profile and impressive minor league numbers to the big leagues, if not out of spring training, early in the season. It might not be fair to dream on guys who’ve never had a plate appearance in the big leagues, and it’s always dangerous to ask them to play big roles on contending teams, but the Jays are looking to add at least 10 wins to their previous year’s total, and if it’s going to happen, they’re going to need some good stories from guys like Roden. The last position player I want to touch on is the newly-acquired Giménez. The premium defence he’ll bring at second base has been widely covered, but I’m just as excited for how he can help the offence score runs. Anything Giménez brings with the bat will be gravy, but I think the way he runs the bases will have a dynamic effect on the Jays' attack. Giménez is a legit stolen base threat, a piece that the Jays have been lacking for a long time, and his effectiveness on the base paths will help to make up for some of the power the roster is lacking at this point. As far as pitching, we’ve already seen Ross Atkins address the league-worst bullpen in a big way, adding two arms that figure to be the eighth and ninth-inning guys in Yimi García and Jeff Hoffman, as well as a couple more that will factor into the middle innings, in Nick Sandlin and Josh Walker. Hoffman and García are established relievers experienced in getting the biggest outs of baseball games; just what the doctor ordered. Now, I’m sure you read part one of this article and saw that I’m not overly high on any of the starting pitching options, but before you call me a hypocrite, hear me out. I was able to uncover five playoff teams since 1997 that finished a season without a pitcher who started more than 16 games and carried an sub-four ERA. This included the 1997 New York Yankees, who won 101 games. Remember, it’s not unprecedented for good teams to have starting rotations without a certified ace, and for starting pitchers, it’s more than possible to be valuable and productive without a great ERA. I think this team has much higher aspirations than 76 wins, and I’m more than confident enough in the players I outlined throughout this series to believe that them winning more than that is much likelier than them winning less. View full article

Next up in our prediction series, the basestealing prowess of Andrés Giménez and the closer over Yimi García's shoulder. Blue Jays fans! The time has finally come to stop reflecting on the disappointment that was 2024 and to turn the page (or throw the old calendar in the trash and replace it with a new one). Let's start looking ahead to what 2025 has in store for our Blue Jays. Will it be a year of making deals with long-time friends, fresh faces carving out their space on the team, and exceeding expectations? Or will the sequel be worse than the original? Only time will tell, but as 2025 is such a pivotal year for the Blue Jays — imminent free agents, young players stepping into bigger roles, and veterans looking to play key roles — I figured I’d take a stab at coming up with some bold predictions for what lies ahead in the next calendar year. This is the third of a four-part series that will run all week. You can read part one here and part two here. Let's keep it going. 5. Andrés Giménez swipes 30 bases. “But Owen, 30 stolen bases isn’t even that many! I thought these were supposed to be BOLD predictions!” Well reader, that statement would be completely correct! While stealing 30 bags in a season is nothing to sneeze at, it’s not by any means a feat that gets remembered for generations. Since 2014, there have been 115 total 30-steal seasons. For reference, there have nearly 200 more 30-homer seasons over the same timeframe (thanks, Stathead). So what’s so bold about predicting 30 steals for Giménez? The last time a Blue Jay stole 30 bases was in 2014, when José Reyes stole exactly 30. Since then it has been nine full seasons (nobody in stole 30 in 2020) in which the Jays have not had a player steal 30 bases. Only two teams in baseball, the Chicago White Sox and the San Francisco Giants are in the midst of longer droughts. But is stealing bases really that important? I’m glad you asked! Since Major League Baseball made the bases larger in 2023, 22 of 60 team seasons (30 teams x 2 seasons) have resulted in at least 750 runs scored. In 18 of those 22 seasons, that team stole at least 100 bases. A two-year sample size is hardly enough to call it a trend, but nearly 82% of teams that scored at a rate well above the average team are also placing an emphasis on the stolen base. The Blue Jays have entered spring training the last couple of seasons saying that they were going to look to find ways to be more aggressive on the bases, but haven’t reached the 100 stolen bases since 2013 (112), although they did get close in 2023 (99). The question marks on the offensive side of the ball are very apparent, and the team is starving for power hitters, but with serious questions about the budget to spend on free agents, and a very lackluster offseason so far, stealing more bases could be a way for the Jays to improve their offensive production. By bringing in Giménez, who has swiped exactly 30 in each of the last two seasons, the Jays will almost certainly improve on their stolen base total from a year ago. If the Jays place as much of an emphasis on baserunning and stealing as I think they should, Giménez should be a lock to steal 30 bases. And that’s a good thing! The stolen base is one of the more entertaining plays in the game and it leads directly to runs! 6. Yimi García does NOT lead the Blue Jays in saves. [Editor's Note: Owen wrote and filed this prediction mere hours before the Blue Jays signed Jeff Hoffman to be their new closer on Saturday night. It's no longer a particularly bold prediction, but on the bright side, Owen may actually be capable of seeing the future.] It’s always tough to be positive about one of the two bullpens in baseball worth negative fWAR in 2024, so bear with me here. Among all of the things that led to the Blue Jays being the seventh-worst team in baseball in 2024, the league-worst bullpen was certainly one of the more concerning pieces of the puzzle. In their dedication to putting a winning product on the field, Ross Atkins and the Jays simply can’t afford to head into 2025 with their bullpen looking anything like it looked at the end of 2024. Seven different Blue Jays combined for just 36 saves last year, with Chad Green picking up the bulk of them with 17. While Green’s results weren’t bad, he outperformed his expected stats by a fair bit and struggled towards the end of the season. He’s much better suited for a seventh-inning setup role than the closer spot. With the departure of longtime closer Jordan Romano (who hardly factored in last season due to injury), John Schneider and Pete Walker will need a permanent solution at closer if the bullpen is going to be a strength. To the credit of the front office, the team has made moves made to address the bullpen. Right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin was acquired for Spencer Horwitz as part of the Giménez trade, and even though you may have to squint a little bit to see it, he might have the stuff to get some important outs in the middle innings. I wrote up my thoughts on Sandlin in my breakdown of the trade. The Jays have also signed Josh Walker, a left-handed reliever with limited big-league experience but impressive peripherals at Triple A. In a victory for nominative determinism, Walker rarely hit the strike zone and walked an alarming 13.4% of the batters he faced. However, he allowed a minuscule 26.7% hard-hit rate while running an extremely high 34.7% whiff rate. If he can figure out some semblance of command, he's more than a lottery ticket. But by far the highest profile addition to the bullpen so far this winter has been the return of old friend Yimi García, who inked a two-year deal in December after spending the second half of the season with the Seattle Mariners. García was nothing but great in his time with Jays, especially in the first half of last year. However, he battled injuries and struggled to a 6.00 ERA across nine innings in 10 appearances with the Mariners. When García is feeling good, there aren't many pitchers with a more electric fastball-slider combo, and there’s not a whole lot of concern that he won't return to that form to start the 2025 season. It’s important to note that he’ll turn 35 in August and he has a lot of miles on his arm, so I’ll be interested to see how he holds up as the season goes on. Consensus at this point is that García will slot into that closer role, but to me, he’s clearly at his best when he can be used in a stopper’role. He’s the guy I want coming out of the pen against the heart of the order in the seventh or eighth inning. So here’s where the prediction comes in: it might be wishful thinking, but I think the Blue Jays think about García in a similar way that I do and intend to either find another reliever with big stuff via trade, free agency, or internal options. There are still a bunch of relievers with closer experience available on the free agent market: Kenley Jansen, Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, David Robertson, and Carlos Estévez, to name a few. Guys like Ryan Helsley and Camilo Doval have had trade rumours swirling around them all winter. I have to admit that I tried pretty hard to find something I really liked about an internal option, but definitely couldn’t find anyone I would prefer to close over García. If Erik Swanson, Chad Green, Zach Pop, or Brendan Little wanted to show up to spring training and run away with the closing job, I’d throw a party, but I expect if I’m going to hit on the bet that García doesn’t lead the team in saves, I suspect it’ll end up being because an external option is added to the mix. View full article

On Monday, we made predictions about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk. Today we're talking Bo Bichette, Joey Loperfido, and Alan Roden. Blue Jays fans! The time has finally come to stop reflecting on the disappointment that was 2024 and to turn the page (or throw the old calendar in the trash and replace it with a new one). Let's start looking ahead to what 2025 has in store for our Blue Jays. Will it be a year of making deals with long-time friends, fresh faces carving out their space on the team, and exceeding expectations? Or will the sequel be worse than the original? Only time will tell, but as 2025 is such a pivotal year for the Blue Jays — imminent free agents, young players stepping into bigger roles, and veterans looking to play key roles — I figured I’d take a stab at coming up with some bold predictions for what lies ahead in the next calendar year. This is the second part of a four-part series that will run all week. You can read part one here. Let's keep it going. 3. Bo Bichette finishes the 2025 season with the Blue Jays. Predicting the future of pending free agents is always difficult, because the circumstances surrounding both the player and their potential suitors is constantly changing up until the moment a contract is signed. In Bo Bichette’s case, I think it’s as complex as any free agent in recent years. Here's a list of seven ways that you could finish a sentence that starts with, "Bo Bichette..." and still be telling the truth: ...has been the subject of rumours saying he’d welcome a trade away from Toronto. ...was also quoted just months ago saying his goal is to stay with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and win a World Series in Toronto. ...will be eligible for free agency at just 27 years old. ...isn't an absurd comp for Willy Adames, who is three years older and just signed seven-year, $182-million deal with the Giants. ...has been an elite offensive shortstop in five of his six seasons. ...is coming off of the only poor season of his career (but it was really poor). ...is likely not going to be able to stick at shortstop very deep into his next contract. WOOF, that’s a lot to consider. Luckily for Bo and the Blue Jays, there’s no need for an immediate solution. Also working in the favour of both parties: Bichette’s success directly leads to the Blue Jays’ success. This is why I think Bichette is going to survive at least one more transaction window as a Blue Jay. He will enter spring training of his walk year healthy and looking to prove he’s same guy was in his first five seasons. The Blue Jays will enter spring training looking to add between 14 and 18 wins to their 2024 total of (yikes) 74. The success of one directly depends on the success of the other. The way the roster is currently constructed, if the Jays are going to compete, they need a productive, healthy Bichette. A productive, healthy Bichette result in wins, and if the team is winning, there’s no WAY it can trade its star shortstop even if he’s on an expiring contract. In-fact, if the team shows even the slightest amount of competence, I have no doubt that Ross Atkins, knowing this is probably his last chance to build a team in Toronto, will be uber-aggressive to supplement the roster via trade mid-season. Now, there’s another possible outcome that’s definitely a lot less fun: If Bo Bichette puts up even just a mediocre season, I have a hard time seeing the Jays' being good enough to compete, even for a wildcard spot. Is there a chance that a scenario like this leads to roster Armageddon and everyone with less than three years of control and a pulse gets traded? Absolutely. But if Bichette fails to recoup his value, the return he'd command half of a season of play is probably worth less than the chance to attach him to a qualifying offer, try and retain him on a 1+1 contract, and receive a compensation pick if he declines. This would give him a chance to put together a performance worth the massive contract he thinks he’s worth. Either way, Bichette finishes the season with the team. A final thought: The Jays haven’t been shy about letting important players walk in free agency; see Marcus Semien, Robbie Ray, and Matt Chapman. Danny Jansen would likely also have been allowed to walk as a free agent if he weren’t traded at the 2024 trade deadline because the team was out of contention. If you’re in the Make Bo a Blue Jay For Life camp, it doesn’t bode well that the Jays haven’t re-signed any of the guys above, but my prediction is that he finishes the season with the Jays, not that he’s on the Opening Day roster in 2026! 4. Alan Roden starts more games in the outfield than Joey Loperfido. I want to make this as much as possible about buying Alan Roden stock, rather than selling Joey Loperfido stock, so I’ll start by saying this: I am in LOVE with Joey Loperfido’s tools. I think the defensive skills have elite potential, and the power potential is extremely exciting. Last year, Loperfido mashed throughout the minor leagues and earned a promotion to the bigs with 13 homers and a .933 OPS over 39 games in Triple A. But for all his minor-league numbers offer us to dream on, his big league-performance represents a startling wake up call. He really struggled with the leap, striking out in 36.3% of his plate appearances, and hitting for almost no power. It's dangerous to put too much stock in the Baseaball Savant sliders, but that's a lot of blue in a lot of extremely important categories. Loperfido chased too much, didn't make enough contact, and didn't hit the ball hard enough. On the other hand, no one should be writing off the tooled-up 25 year old after 81 games in the show, and I certainly am not. He did show solid bat speed, and that's important because in small sample sizes, it's very predictive of future performance. Still, if Loperfido flounders in a similar way to start 2025, I think the leash will be short on a team desperate for a playoff appearance. As for Roden, I think he was the reason the Jays were comfortable with moving on from Spencer Horwitz, and his profile is going to immediately translate to the Major Leagues. Speaking of guys that have mashed at every level of the minor leagues, Roden’s high-contact approach has led to consistent production across all levels of the minor leagues. In three seasons across four minor-league levels, Roden owns a .298 batting average and .860 OPS. When he was drafted in the third round in 2022, there were some serious doubts that he’d ever be able to hit for enough power to be a productive major leaguer, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find an expert who doesn’t think Roden can stick in the bigs right now. He hit 16 homers across 125 games in the upper minors last season without sacrificing much in the way of contact or on-base skills. He walked nearly as much as he struck out, and Steamer projects that he'll run a 110 wRC+ in the majors this season. Roden is not expected to be a particularly good defender, but with Varsho and Springer in center and right and a really solid infield, I’m okay with trading some defence for offence in left field. I doubt Roden will make the club out of spring training. He’d need a spot on the 40-man roster, and other are several outfielders in the mix who will continue to factor in the team's decisions throughout the 2025 season, such as Jonatan Clase, Nathan Lukes, Davis Schneider, Addison Barger, Steward Berroa, and of course Loperfido, Springer and Varsho. However, with Varsho expected to miss the first month of the season, and the offence in desperate need of some dudes who can swing the bat, it's possible that the Jays could push the agenda and give Roden some run. On the other hand, they could sign Anthony Santander and completely change the outlook of the outfield and team as a whole, but I believe Roden could earn a spot on this team even with Santander in the mix. If Loperfido gets off to a slow start, and Roden has a strong spring training, I think Alan Roden will find himself on the Rogers Centre turf a lot this summer. View full article

That's right, the Toronto Blue Jays. From Canada. On Monday morning, as news of Roki Sasaki’s visit to Toronto made its way through the internet, Davy Andrews wrote for this site that Blue Jays fans should give themselves permission to set their excitement meters no higher than 10%. One day later, nobody would be able to blame you if you let your excitement climb even higher. On Monday night, Jeff Passan reported that the Toronto Blue Jays, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, are finalists to land the highly coveted Japanese right-handed pitcher. Original reporting had Sasaki meeting with just seven teams, and there was some clear movement Monday afternoon. Reports of the Giants, Yankees, Mets, Rangers, and Cubs being eliminated dropped periodically throughout the day. As part of the conditions of international free agency, Sasaki’s price tag is limited to whatever dollar figure teams have available in their international bonus pool. For the Blue Jays that number is just over $6 million. The hard cap on the amount teams are allowed to spend on Sasaki make him seriously underpaid, and ensures no team will be able to separate itself by blowing him out of the water with cash. This makes the pitches from the various teams all the more interesting. All three finalists have strong cases in their own right. What baseball player who has dreamed of winning the World Series would pass up the opportunity to join the Dodgers? The Padres could have had Japanese baseball royalty Yu Darvish wine and dine Sasaki in beautiful Southern California, and flex the (relatively) small market that many believe Sasaki may prefer. Or maybe the Blue Jays will be able to sell him on their ability to keep pitchers healthy and to control the media feeding frenzy, as Rogers’ Sportsnet is the main source of baseball media in Canada. It’s important to stress that the Dodgers remain the heavy favourites to land Sasaki, but the truth is that even after learning who the finalists are, we really aren’t sure what he’s looking for in a match. Sasaki has carried phenom status around with him since high school, and his feats are legend. He famously threw 17 consecutive perfect innings for the Chiba Lotte Marines of the NPB in April of 2022. If he were to choose Toronto, Sasaki would be the most exciting starting pitching signing since Roger Clemens took his talents north before the 1997 season. He would immediately slot in at the front of the rotation, turning Kevin Gausman from a slightly underwhelming number one option to an over-qualified number two starter. It's not overstating it to say that Sasaki could significantly change Toronto's outlook in a difficult American League East, especially if his ridiculous career 2.02 ERA and 5.76 strikeout-to-walk ratio translate to the big leagues as smoothly as scouts expect them to. The projection systems love him as well. Steamer projects Sasaki to put up 3.7 fWAR during the 2025 season, striking out 11.6 batters per nine innings and running a 3.19 ERA. In terms of WAR, that's the ninth-highest projection of any pitcher, coming in right between Sonny Gray and Corbin Burnes. PECOTA projects similar numbers, pegging Sasaki for a 3.04 ERA and 3.5 WARP, 14th among all pitchers. If the transition ends up going that seamlessly, he could immediately turn a Blue Jays team currently projected for 84 to 85 wins into one flirting with 90. He'd add a new level of upside, a potential Game 1 starter in a playoff series, and provide some much-needed depth for a rotation that seriously thins out after the fourth or fifth rotation spot. Framed that way, it’s not unreasonable to say that Sasaki could be the difference between the Blue Jays making the playoffs and missing out for a second straight season. According to the dictates of international free agency, Sasaki is confined to a tight window to make his decision. His choice will come sometime before January 23. I want to stress one more time before I let you go that Sasaki signing with the Blue Jays or Padres over the Dodgers would be a major surprise, but in the same breath, being one of three teams with a chance to acquire the services of the 23-year-old superstar is and should be extremely exciting. Hold on tight, Jays fans. View full article