Blue Jays Discussion: Alright, we have a manager now. So it's back to patiently waiting for Vlad Jr.

[Discoverer]

He has literally no trade value. There's nothing to tank.

 

[Woodman19]

He has to make it through spring training healthy first. I give that 50/50 at best.

 

[Woodman19]

Eovaldi to the Red Sox.

 

[BlueForever75]

Eovaldi to the Red Sox.

Who cares hes a one year wonder. He's going to fail big time this year.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Tulo won't even make it through Spring Training if he's there at all

 

[BlueForever75]

Tulo won't even make it through Spring Training if he's there at all

Something tells me the Jays are hoping to piss Tulo right off where he doesn't report, and they can terminate his contract. My hope is that the Jays are not like this, and at least give him an opportunity to see if he can contribute and gain some value for eventual trade to a contender. Who knows if the Yankees strike out on Machado they need a SS with Gregorios out for majority of the year. Maybe if we pay some of Tulo's salary this season the Yanks will bite.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Eovaldi to the Red Sox.

 

[Discoverer]

Something tells me the Jays are hoping to piss Tulo right off where he doesn't report, and they can terminate his contract. My hope is that the Jays are not like this, and at least give him an opportunity to see if he can contribute and gain some value for eventual trade to a contender. Who knows if the Yankees strike out on Machado they need a SS with Gregorios out for majority of the year. Maybe if we pay some of Tulo's salary this season the Yanks will bite.

The Yankees going with the defensive pairing of Machado and Andujar at SS/3B would be hilariously entertaining.

 

[deletethis]

Atkins couldn't possibly be dealing either Sanchez or Stroman at a worst time. Unless he thinks both will be worse in 2019.

 

[deletethis]

I'd take a few passive aggressive insults and subtle humiliation for $38M US. Out in the real world that stuff is free.

 

[deletethis]

Maybe we're looking at this wrong way. Perhaps Atkins is trying to "George Constanza" his job with the Blue Jays.

 

[The Nemesis]

Atkins couldn't possibly be dealing either Sanchez or Stroman at a worst time. Unless he thinks both will be worse in 2019.

He's not. He simply said nobody is off the table and that there's obviously bound to be interest in both of them

 

[hockeywiz542]

In a wide-ranging chat with Blue Jays' GM Ross Atkins, one...

• Troy Tulowitzki’s bid to reclaim his shortstop job. (“Unlikely,” Atkins said.)

• Trading veteran catcher Russ Martin. (“Any team that is looking for catching would have interest in Russ.” Especially if the Jays took a big gulp of his $20-million salary.)

• Devon Travis’s job security at second base. (“He’s got to come and win that job.”)

• Ryan Borucki’s spot in the starting rotation. (“He’s got a lot to prove.”)

• The view from One Blue Jays Way on free-agent left-hander J.A. Happ. (“He would be a great fit.”)

In fact, when a reporter broached the matter of a third baseman, Atkins projected Brandon Drury as his Opening Day starter – that is, if Opening Day were tomorrow.

The reporter tried again. Who will likely be your third baseman on May 1?

Brandon Drury, Atkins said.

That is not the name Jays fans are dreaming on, of course. Brandon Drury owns a career 0.7 WAR (per Fangraphs.com). He came to Toronto as damaged goods in the Happ trade with the Yankees, played eight games and then disappeared after the Jays discovered that his left hand was broken.

A healthy Drury might well be an adequate place-holder. But let’s face it – if he’s the everyday third baseman on May 1, Atkins will have some explaining to do.

This was his explanation to the assembled writers on Wednesday.

“We could have a trade, free agent, there’s so many things that could occur,” Atkins said.

Presumably, one of those things would be the much-anticipated ascension of über-prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. On May 1, by the byzantine mathematics of baseball, he will have served the minor-league sentence that gives the Blue Jays an extra year of control before he qualifies for free agency.

It beggars logic that the club would actually go fishing for a bona fide third baseman with Guerrero – he of the career .941 OPS in the minors – waiting in the wings at Triple A.

The manipulation of Guerrero’s service time is a subject the GM prefers to avoid, not that he would acknowledge it anyway. Reporters know that pressing the matter is pointless. The club’s theme song is familiar by now: Guerrero, who will turn 20 in March, is hard at work polishing his defence and becoming the consummate teammate.

And what’s another month or so in the minors when you have Brandon Drury to serve as proxy?

 

[thehockeysong]

Maybe we're looking at this wrong way. Perhaps Atkins is trying to "George Constanza" his job with the Blue Jays.

A pretty rough take considering everything he said makes sense.

 

[Discoverer]

Carlos Carrasco must really love Cleveland. He's made just $21.3 million the last four years while being one of the best pitchers in baseball and just signed an extension that will pay him $44 million over the next four years, still WAY below market value.

 

[Deebo]

Carlos Carrasco must really love Cleveland. He's made just $21.3 million the last four years while being one of the best pitchers in baseball and just signed an extension that will pay him $44 million over the next four years, still WAY below market value.

He was signed for this year and there was a team option for 2020. The new deal pays the same as the old deal for the first two years. It guarantees two additional seasons for his 34 and 35 year old seasons. He would have been 33 at the end of his old deal, alot can happen in two years when an athelete gets into thierr 30s, there's a chance he wouldn't be able to get 27M in guaranteed money after the 2020 which is what he is adding to current deal with this extension.

 

[phillipmike]

Carlos Carrasco must really love Cleveland. He's made just $21.3 million the last four years while being one of the best pitchers in baseball and just signed an extension that will pay him $44 million over the next four years, still WAY below market value.

You’re telling me. Ridiculously good signing.

And I bet Cleveland trades him next offseason for a bounty.

He was signed for this year and there was a team option for 2020. The new deal pays the same as the old deal for the first two years. It guarantees two additional seasons for his 34 and 35 year old seasons. He would have been 33 at the end of his old deal, alot can happen in two years when an athelete gets into thierr 30s, there's a chance he wouldn't be able to get 27M in guaranteed money after the 2020 which is what he is adding to current deal with this extension.

Major League Leaderboards » 2018 » Starters » Dashboard | FanGraphs Baseball

Top 10 pitcher in WAR in the last 5 years.

Got to believe he gets much more than 27M for his aged 33 and 34 seasons if he keeps it up.

 

[Deebo]

You’re telling me. Ridiculously good signing.

And I bet Cleveland trades him next offseason for a bounty.



Major League Leaderboards » 2018 » Starters » Dashboard | FanGraphs Baseball

Top 10 pitcher in WAR in the last 5 years.

Got to believe he gets much more than 27M for his aged 33 and 34 seasons if he keeps it up.

He was already under team control in 2020 for his 33 year. The addtional guaranteed years are for his 34 and 35 years.

I think a $27M commitment is less certain at 34, but definitley possible.

I just think alot can go wrong at his age over the next 2 seasons he just opted for security. Of course there is definitley a possibility he could have gotten more had he waited for free agency.

 

[nilan30]

Is anyone here of the belief that Tulo can contribute positively? I mean his body should be pretty well rested. Or is he for sure done?

 

[Eyedea]

I guess it hasn’t been mentioned in the thread yet so I’ll do my part. RIP former Blue Jay, Luis Valbuena (as well as former Major Leaguer Jose Castillo).

 

[Advanced stats]

Is there a reason we shouldn't be looking at accuiring an elite (young) pitcher with all these rurmors floating around?

The biggest thing we're missing going forward is an ace or #1 guy. Most of our other holes are filled or will be within a couple years.

Am I way out to lunch? Admittedly, you guys know way more about baseball than I do, but I feel this team could be competitive next season or even this season if we got a tier 1 pitcher.

 

[Discoverer]

Is there a reason we shouldn't be looking at accuiring an elite (young) pitcher with all these rurmors floating around?

The biggest thing we're missing going forward is an ace or #1 guy. Most of our other holes are filled or will be within a couple years.

Am I way out to lunch? Admittedly, you guys know way more about baseball than I do, but I feel this team could be competitive next season or even this season if we got a tier 1 pitcher.

Those are really, REALLY hard to get. Unless an amazing opportunity comes up where they can get one while keeping all the key prospects, I think they're better off waiting. See if Stroman and Sanchez can bounce back, see what Borucki, Reid-Foley, Pannone, Zeuch, etc. can do over the next couple years, and maybe in the meantime a guy like Pearson becomes the ace or Pardinho continues to develop in that direction. Once you know where the young guys fit in, you add whatever's missing.

 

[metafour]

Is there a reason we shouldn't be looking at accuiring an elite (young) pitcher with all these rurmors floating around?

The biggest thing we're missing going forward is an ace or #1 guy. Most of our other holes are filled or will be within a couple years.

Am I way out to lunch? Admittedly, you guys know way more about baseball than I do, but I feel this team could be competitive next season or even this season if we got a tier 1 pitcher.

A) Nobody is going to give you an elite, "young" (ie: if he is young, then he has years of control left) pitcher for free. They would first and foremost keep that player themselves, or otherwise only trade him for a package that is heavily swayed in their favour (ie: an over-payment). This team is in absolutely no position to do that.

B) No, a "tier 1 pitcher" does not automatically make this team competitive. That isn't how baseball works. We just finished nowhere near the playoffs in a division with two teams that are considerably better than us for at least the relative future. Acquiring an "ace" does next to nothing to rectify that, non-withstanding the fact that to get that "ace" you would have to trade the majority of our young assets who I'm assuming you are counting on to fill the other "holes" on the roster.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Atkins expecting to get offers for Stroman, Sanchez

If Atkins expects to get (or has already received) offers that will make him think, that means he’s thought long and hard about the pros and cons of trading them.

“You’re constantly — not with Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman alone — but you’re constantly understanding how the industry values players that you have and that are comparable,” Atkins said.

Sell high, buy low.

That hasn’t exactly been a strength of this regime. And that’s being nice.

Leaving Stroman and Sanchez atop the rotation to start 2019 and then watching them go out and rebuild their value on the mound over the first four months of the season would be the ideal scenario.

That would leave Atkins as one of the chip leaders not only at the 2019 trade deadline, but also next off-season when the Jays will know much more about their internal strengths and needs.

 

[NeverGoingToWin]

Nationals sound like they've moved on from Bryce Harper; Mark Lerner calls $300M offer 'best we can do'