Signing(s): Curtis Granderson signs with the Blue Jays (1 year, $5 million)

[GIN ANTONIC]

Cain, Lorenzo.

Most underrated FA this year IMO.

Sure I'd take Cain on the Jays no problem. What's the cost and for how long?

 

[robert terwilliger]

at least a draft pick and loss of money in the draft.

 

[robert terwilliger]

cain fits so well for the giants or mets it's not even funny.

but the giants aren't giving up the pick and money with the darkness coming and the mets are still waiting for that nigerian prince to wire them that $30 million dollars.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Sure I'd take Cain on the Jays no problem. What's the cost and for how long?

Not sure honestly. Haven't heard much about what he's looking for

 

[Filthy Dangles]

cain fits so well for the giants or mets it's not even funny.

but the giants aren't giving up the pick and money with the darkness coming and the mets are still waiting for that nigerian prince to wire them that $30 million dollars.

Giants definitely need someone to roam that cavernous CF. McCutchen is a minus defender there at this point so he's probably relegated to a corner spot.

Like you said though, Cain costs a draft pick which hurts esp if ur farms depleted like SF.

 

[MMC]

cain fits so well for the giants or mets it's not even funny.

but the giants aren't giving up the pick and money with the darkness coming and the mets are still waiting for that nigerian prince to wire them that $30 million dollars.

Giants definitely need someone to roam that cavernous CF. McCutchen is a minus defender there at this point so he's probably relegated to a corner spot.

Like you said though, Cain costs a draft pick which hurts esp if ur farms depleted like SF.

Don’t the Giants have a high enough pick that they wouldn’t lose it?

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Don’t the Giants have a high enough pick that they wouldn’t lose it?

you can't lose a top 10 pick, so they will lose their next highest pick. The Giants also spent over the Luxury Tax limit which means they lose their 5th round pick in addition to their 2nd round pick.

royals are also revenue share team so giants could lose another pick if Cain signed for a certain $$ amount. New CBA is confusing AF.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

Blue Jays need to start planning for the future.

I agree which is why I can't stand this half-in and half-out approach. Picking up older players who barely crack 1 WAR under the guise the team will be competitive with these new additions is pretty disingenuous in my eyes. I doubt the offense will be any better next season even with a full season of Donaldson...unless some young player like Alford comes in and surprises.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

I don't know why the ask for Blue Jays is always so high then the players always get traded for less. Vlad is a top 2 prospect in all of baseball and Bo will be really high this year as long as he doesn't take a nosedive. I'm not sure if what's getting leaked is always the extreme price example, but it seems to always the reported asking price when the Jays are involved.

It 's an easy out for the GM. Say to the media that the ask for proven player is one of the top prospects plus more and trade talks stop right there. In reality, it's a starting point for negotiations - ask for the stars and hope for the moon. It's not like Atkins couldn't make a counter offer of some lower level prospects and succeed in pulling off the trade

He doesn't need to do this of course - trade for a proven player. I wouldn't mind if they traded players like Donaldson because barring a miracle the Jays will be out of playoff contention by the deadline and the returns for him will be less than they would receive if he was traded in the off season...half season before free agency. As it stands, the return for Josh might not be as great as people think given he is a third basemen and many contending teams are already set at the position.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

I get kind of confused when people say Toronto doesn’t act like a big market team. They have had a top ten opening day payroll the last 5 years...including the 5th highest last year. Not to mention the effect of the exchange rate. They spend money.

They spend money sometimes. Given the market size and tv audience Rogers should have a top-5 payroll pretty much every year. Since Rogers is owner, cable distributer and provider they can get away with underpaying on the regional tv deal by a significant amount. Their TV contract should be worth well in excess of $100 million but in reality it is worth $36 million last I heard. It's simply a way for Rogers to shift money around from the team to the Telecommunications side.

They strike me as somewhat cheap. Bought Skydome for a song and have dumped between $50 - $100 million in renos in the nearly 20 years they have owned the team. Not really that much. Then they get their mouthpiece to state the Argos are the holdup for the switch to grass, keep claiming they will have a grass field and what do they end up doing? Removing maybe %5 of the concrete and putting in dirt infield! They are not willing to spend money to put in real grass despite all the claims it was a detriment to bringing in high-end free agent outfielders.

Rogers also publicly stated they would be spending $200 - $400 million in renovations to the stadium in the coming years, but lo and behold there is talk they may decide to sell the team. Guess they might be too cheap to spend money on what is the second worst stadium in MLB even after purchasing the stadium for $25 million...virtually free.

 

[MS]

Really don't like this move.

Toronto needs to get younger, faster, and better defensively in the outfield .... and this is the exact opposite. Might as well have just brought back Bautista.

Outside of pitching injuries, the biggest reason Toronto struggled last year was the negative WAR black hole in LF/RF/DH where they were continuously dressing 1/3 of their batting order who couldn't hit in high-offense positions and couldn't play defense either.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Really don't like this move.

Toronto needs to get younger, faster, and better defensively in the outfield .... and this is the exact opposite. Might as well have just brought back Bautista.

Outside of pitching injuries, the biggest reason Toronto struggled last year was the negative WAR black hole in LF/RF/DH where they were continuously dressing 1/3 of their batting order who couldn't hit in high-offense positions and couldn't play defense either.

Someone's gotta play in the field. If you're not going to blow your brains out on JD Martinez or Lorenzo Cain (which would be bad moves for the Jays) then you might as well get someone cheap and spend money to fix other holes like another SP and back-up catcher.

 

[MS]

Someone's gotta play in the field. If you're not going to blow your brains out on JD Martinez or Lorenzo Cain (which would be bad moves for the Jays) then you might as well get someone cheap and spend money to fix other holes like another SP and back-up catcher.

Bautista/Morales/Pearce/Carrera had a combined -2.3 WAR last year. Basically 1/3 of the roster that are all premium offensive positions was constantly filled with old, slow, average bats who were sub-replacement level players due to their awful defense. They got there by being cheap, and it blew up in their faces.

This is just a continuation of that - another old, crappy player who was sub-replacement level after moving to LA last year and is another year older.

Hopefully Alford can end one of these guys' careers by having a great training camp, and Hernandez can cement a roster spot.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Bautista/Morales/Pearce/Carrera had a combined -2.3 WAR last year. Basically 1/3 of the roster that are all premium offensive positions was constantly filled with old, slow, average bats who were sub-replacement level players due to their awful defense. They got there by being cheap, and it blew up in their faces.

This is just a continuation of that - another old, crappy player who was sub-replacement level after moving to LA last year and is another year older.

Hopefully Alford can end one of these guys' careers by having a great training camp, and Hernandez can cement a roster spot.

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you that the Jays were old and slow last year and they will be again this year. You can't turn over the entire roster in an offseason. Tulo is old and slow. So is Martin. Smoak isn't ancient but he's an anchor on the basepaths. JD isn't young exactly and he's not really speedy either, not slow though. Pearce is probably below average speed wise. Pillar has some speed but doesn't know how to use it. Travis is the same.

So, yeah, getting Granderson isn't really helping the cause but even getting Billy Hamilton instead wouldn't make this team fast. It's a 1 year contract and fills a hole. It's not really something to be worried about. If Alford/Pompey/Hernandez do well in camp they'll get a look. The bottom line is that the Jays gave up nothing to get Granderson, he's cheap, and is at least an mlb player. He was pretty good for the Mets last year. I don't think the Jays expect to play him 162 games anyway. Hopefully they can shoot Morales into the sun but 2020 will be the year they should really be looking towards.