[Nicholson-Smith] Examining some contradictions surrounding the Blue Jays
November 15, 2024
[Nicholson-Smith] Examining some contradictions surrounding the Blue Jays
8 comments
>At the GM Meetings, it became clear that the Blue Jays were motivated in the starting pitching market, showing early interest in the likes of Fried, Luis Severino and **Yusei Kikuchi,** plus 23-year-old Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
>They’re more motivated in the starting pitching market, urging certain high-end pitchers to circle back with them before agreeing to deals elsewhere.
I’m still not getting where this 25m dollar figure is coming from. Seems to only be the sportsnet reporters running with it.
If that number is correct we’re in for a rough year
All I saw was Kooch.
Sasaki is an absolute pipe dream, but lemme dream🤩
BNS is really pushing Fried eh?
But where is Amed Rosario
Option A: Go all in. If we really want to compete next year we have to sign someone like Fried (~$120M), Bregman (~$140M) and O’Neill (~$45M) on top of extending Vladdy for like $300M and fixing our bullpen. Committing to $600M in an offseason seems unlikely if one of those names isn’t Soto.
Option B: Patch up our roster with cheaper free agents and hope we get huge bounce backs from Bo, Springer, Kirk, Gausman and break out seasons from our AAAA prospects. It’s what we did last year and it didn’t turn out so well. If we’re not in playoff picture again then trade all short-term assets for prospects and start a rebuild.
I guess you could go one big free agent and a few cheaper FAs but I feel like that’s neither here nor there and you might as well go all in.
A high end starter would obviously be great, but especially with what seems like relatively limited resources, I’d put starting pitching a pretty distant third on the needs lost. Then again, Atkins is going to have to get creative to get the team back to contention, and that might mean playing the market as it is and getting creative with trades to get a big bat and rebuild the pen.
8 comments
>At the GM Meetings, it became clear that the Blue Jays were motivated in the starting pitching market, showing early interest in the likes of Fried, Luis Severino and **Yusei Kikuchi,** plus 23-year-old Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
>They’re more motivated in the starting pitching market, urging certain high-end pitchers to circle back with them before agreeing to deals elsewhere.
I’m still not getting where this 25m dollar figure is coming from. Seems to only be the sportsnet reporters running with it.
If that number is correct we’re in for a rough year
All I saw was Kooch.
Sasaki is an absolute pipe dream, but lemme dream🤩
BNS is really pushing Fried eh?
But where is Amed Rosario
Option A: Go all in. If we really want to compete next year we have to sign someone like Fried (~$120M), Bregman (~$140M) and O’Neill (~$45M) on top of extending Vladdy for like $300M and fixing our bullpen. Committing to $600M in an offseason seems unlikely if one of those names isn’t Soto.
Option B: Patch up our roster with cheaper free agents and hope we get huge bounce backs from Bo, Springer, Kirk, Gausman and break out seasons from our AAAA prospects. It’s what we did last year and it didn’t turn out so well. If we’re not in playoff picture again then trade all short-term assets for prospects and start a rebuild.
I guess you could go one big free agent and a few cheaper FAs but I feel like that’s neither here nor there and you might as well go all in.
A high end starter would obviously be great, but especially with what seems like relatively limited resources, I’d put starting pitching a pretty distant third on the needs lost. Then again, Atkins is going to have to get creative to get the team back to contention, and that might mean playing the market as it is and getting creative with trades to get a big bat and rebuild the pen.