Blue Jays Discussion: It's the off-season. Stuff might happen. Or it might not.

[AllDay28]

What? Vlad looks like he is in much better shape and has learned from his mistakes about conditioning. He's still only 21 yet is already a league average bat with upside to be the best one in the game. There's no reason he can't play first base well going forward. I don't think you quite grasp just how young 21 is in baseball.

Don’t think you quite grasp how hard it is for someone who’s been 250 his whole adult life to lose and maintain weight

Vladdy lost weight last year and gained it back+. This isn’t a video game.

 

[The Nemesis]

I like Rowdy. He's a big, fun dude in a sort of poor-man's David Ortiz kind of way.

There's also no universe in which he's more valuable for the Jays to keep than Vladdy short of finding out that 2021 will be an exact replay of 2020 and MLB will fold entirely and end the existence of professional baseball at season's end.

That's pretty much it.

 

[phillipmike]

[Rosenthal via the Athletic] The teams that figure to be interested in Lindor are teams seemingly in a position to afford him - the Mets, the Giants, the Blue jays, maybe the Yankees. ($)

Other notes:
Jays will consider anything. Also names Springer and LeMahieu.

History between Jays FO and Lindor. But easier to spend on FA than give up prospects to get Lindor and risk losing him after 1 yr.

 

[phillipmike]

Every team's roster right now, ranked

11. Blue Jays (34.4 WAR)

Free agents: RHP Chase Anderson, RHP Anthony Bass, RHP Ken Giles, C Caleb Joseph, 2B Joe Panik, LHP Robbie Ray, RHP Matt Shoemaker, 2B/SS Jonathan Villar, RHP Taijuan Walker

Biggest need: Third base, starting pitching

It's pretty clear that this iteration of the Blue Jays will go as far as Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Nate Pearson and the newly-slim Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will take them, but it's also clear that the young core needs some help. Travis Shaw wasn't the answer at third base, and it's hard to see Guerrero ever going back there. Is Teoscar Hernández's breakout for real? While they did a good job unearthing solid relievers, is there a single starter you can rely on (Pearson included) aside from Hyun Jin Ryu?
This is a team that's in strong position to be aggressive, but how much will they be limited by the difficulty in luring free agents to a team that may not know which country it will be able to call home in 2021?

Jays 11th in the league, 8th in the AL and surprisingly ahead of Tampa and Atlanta. Outside of shorten seasons the Jays stars have yet to take off. Young cheap core, with a lot of money to spend. Could jump 4-5 teams in front of them with a few impact moves .

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Didn’t realize Lindor was so terrible

Yes everyone clearly thinks Lindor sucks. You sir nailed it.

 

[Discoverer]

Didn’t realize Lindor was so terrible

One. Year.

 

[Kurtz]

Don’t think you quite grasp how hard it is for someone who’s been 250 his whole adult life to lose and maintain weight

Vladdy lost weight last year and gained it back+. This isn’t a video game.

His whole adult life meaning 2-3 years?

Vlad gained weight back when everything was shut down. It's not a good idea to give up on him based on that.

People have lost and kept weight off before - it's not exactly unheard of.

 

[Battle Lin]

we aint trading any of our young cheap talent imo, we have a lot of guys that can play ball and arent being paid yet...we have money to spend so we gonna spend it and keep our young talent

 

[phillipmike]

Ill gladly take Bradley on a 1 year deal.

 

[Discoverer]

His whole adult life meaning 2-3 years?

Vlad gained weight back when everything was shut down. It's not a good idea to give up on him based on that.

People have lost and kept weight off before - it's not exactly unheard of.

Plus, if he adjusts his launch angle he's going to be one of the best hitters in the game regardless of his weight.

 

[Cor]

List of free agents the Jays haven’t talked to;

Marcus Stroman

 

[AllDay28]

Plus, if he adjusts his launch angle he's going to be one of the best hitters in the game regardless of his weight.

imagine that’s how it worked. But hey you got all the answers

 

[Eyedea]

A young guy like Vladdy has plenty of resources at his disposal. That also means plenty of vices readily available too, but all he really needs to do is tell his Abuela no more cooking... on second thought this might be impossible.

 

[jetsforever]

I'm excited to see if the Jays add anyone good
Lindor (even though we have Bichette), Springer/JBJ (even though we have Grichuk), etc.
I wonder if outfielders get moved if we upgrade.

 

[Garlando]

I know that there’s been a lot of Francisco Lindor discussion in here recently but honestly, my personal top target for the Jays this off-season is Trevor Bauer and I hope that the org is all in on him.

Elite starting pitching is the hardest thing to acquire. So in an off-season like this, with a depressed market and perhaps other team owners limiting expenditures, Rogers and the Blue Jays org have a special opportunity to add a top 10 SP in baseball who checks all of the boxes on the field at a potential value.
Just take a look at his success last year:

• 2.5 fWAR ranked 4th
• 73 innings pitched ranked 9th
• 1.73 ERA ranked 2nd
• 2.88 FIP ranked 8th
• 36 K% ranked 3rd
• 29.9 K-BB% ranked 3rd
• 0.79 WHIP ranked 2nd
• .159 batting average against ranked 1st
• 12.9% swinging strike rate ranked 14th
• 2.94 SIERA ranked 4th

All while posting a 99th percentile xwOBA and xERA according to baseball savant. Dude is incredibly talented!!!

He’s also proven highly durable in his career, ranking 6th in innings pitched over the last 3 years with 461.1 IP. Also notable, over that 3 year time period, Bauer ranks 6th in fWAR.

In terms of committing term to him as he enters into his 30’s, I think they shouldn’t have many hesitations. His 100th percentile fastball spin rate and 92nd percentile curveball spin rate should allow him to thrive using the “Blake Snell method” (elevated fastballs and breaking /off-speed stuff down) even with slightly diminished velocity and be productive as he ages.

To me, this is the Jays opportunity to add a true top of the rotation sort of arm that’s needed to compete in the playoffs and ultimately for championships. I look at it similarly as to when the Nationals signed Max Scherzer back in 2015. With a talented group of hitters breaking out at the major league level and talented group of prospects behind them, now is the time to invest in the type of elite pitching that’s so difficult to find. And again in today’s economic climate, it may come at a relative bargain.

 

[Canada4Gold]

List of free agents the Jays haven’t talked to;

Marcus Stroman

Damn, I figured they'd at least give him the courtesy call to let him know they wouldn't be pursuing Ryan Goins this offseason

 

[Discoverer]

imagine that’s how it worked. But hey you got all the answers

I said "if". That kind of implies I don't know what's going to happen.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

Ill gladly take Bradley on a 1 year deal.

Would be a great pickup. Worst case scenario is he's Pillar with more walks and on the better side of a platoon. I'd go to 2 × 8 for him since we don't really have anyone coming up the pipe.

 

[BigBlu]

If we don't believe in Ross Stripling enough to have in our starting rotation,,, what the heck was the point of sending Kendal Williams to the Dodgers? Serious fail.

 

[The Nemesis]

If we don't believe in Ross Stripling enough to have in our starting rotation,,, what the heck was the point of sending Kendal Williams to the Dodgers? Serious fail.

Wanting more pitching and Stripling having a shot at the rotation aren't mutually exclusive. I mean, it would be foolish to think "well, we've got 5 or 6 guys who can start for us now, that's all we need!" Injuries and poor performance are going to happen and they need depth to deal with it.

 

[BigBlu]

Wanting more pitching and Stripling having a shot at the rotation aren't mutually exclusive. I mean, it would be foolish to think "well, we've got 5 or 6 guys who can start for us now, that's all we need!" Injuries and poor performance are going to happen and they need depth to deal with it.

Thanks. But you don't trade your 4th/5th ranked pitching prospect, drafted in the 2nd round, for somebody you're probably sticking in the pen. That's not value. It also drives down whatever league-value Stripling might have. We couldn't reverse that trade now with the disregard we've shown our own new player. After all, he's "not quite good enough to start for us".

And if you're looking for more pitching, that could have been Kendall in 2 years with many more years of control.

Don't get me wrong, if you identify Stripling as a cog you believe in and want to add, then maybe you make that trade. And then you hand him a spot and let him prove it.

But the way it's panning out, it seems Ross/Mark just had some spare change burning a hole in their pocket.

 

[Greek_physique]

Is there anyone they Jay's can sign to help mentor Vladdy?

Example: Molina or EE

 

[phillipmike]

 

[le_sean]

Makes sense, they wanted him at the deadline.

 

[phillipmike]

Pipe down there Ross, Ray did not dominate.



Interesting way to put it, we "lost" Shoemaker and Walker. Wondering if that means we have moved off them.