Trying to separate fact from fiction in Blue Jays’ off-season pursuits

TORONTO — These are days of fiction as a lot as reality in baseball’s low season, when nearly all of names stay in play, the motion remains to be to come back, and the chances, starting from actual to imagined, can simply be talked into plausibility, if not actuality.

Hence, watch out of what emerges from the spin cycle of whispers, hypothesis and innuendo-content aggregation that so prominently options the Toronto Blue Jays who, partly by design, are all issues to all individuals early each winter.

You identify it, they’re linked to it.

Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins deftly dropped some clues whereas sustaining the haze Tuesday throughout a gathering with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Toronto’s chapter, leaving house for continued hypothesis about Shohei Ohtani, (plus the rest one may conjure up.

He did douse the blown-out-of-proportion Bo Bichette commerce chatter – “He is our shortstop moving forward,” he stated – bolstered the notion that Alek Manoah isn’t going wherever and performed down the opportunity of established pitching provides, suggesting the Blue Jays must subtract from their present group to make that occur.

Still, their assault plan with the winter conferences set for Nashville subsequent week stays largely obscured, which is why it’s finest to run his feedback via an Atkins-to-English dictionary and mix that with what I’ve heard from different trade sources.

COMMENT: “Look, the easy answer is both and that’s the honest answer. We have such an important window that we want to lean into, that we’re spending a lot of time on the urgency of that roster construction, to complement it the best way. But we cannot lose sight of the future. So this very good team that we want to lean into, we need to lean into any possible way. And if that means trading for a player that only has one year of control or signing a player to a one-year deal, as you’ve seen we’ve done, we are absolutely open to that. But we’re also willing to get into lengthier deals and trade for players with significant years of club control and that is pricey. We’re in a position where we’re able to do both, fortunately.”

.acf-block-preview .br-video-thumbnail::earlier than {
content material: “”;
place: absolute;
prime: 45%;
left: 50%;
remodel: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-moz-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-ms-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-o-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-webkit-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
width: 20px;
peak: 0px;
border-top: 14px strong clear;
border-left: 22px strong #fff;
border-bottom: 14px strong clear;
margin-left: 3px;
}

TRANSLATION: The countdown on the core is the prime present difficulty for the franchise and this was Atkins’ reply when requested if the Blue Jays have been prioritizing gamers that reach their present aggressive window or shorter-term provides that leverage the present group. Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., their two most necessary place gamers, together with Cavan Biggio, Jordan Romano, Chris Bassitt, Chad Green and Erik Swanson are two years away from free company. Danny Jansen, Yusei Kikuchi and Yimi Garcia hit the market subsequent fall, when realistically a call on which method the franchise is headed should be made.

Factor in that the Blue Jays are presently searching for five-year commitments from patrons of their new premium seating – at tens of 1000’s of {dollars} per seat, with a two-per-cent bump yearly – and there’s loads driving on who they add within the coming weeks.

After all, the Blue Jays not solely have to entice individuals to ante up for subsequent summer time, however for the 4 summers past that, too.

That’s a tough needle to string and why pursuing Ohtani, the game’s most intriguing participant, is sensible. The confluence of these components makes them want him as a lot or greater than anybody else. They’re actually partaking with him, however are they in it to win it?

COMMENT: “Mark (Shapiro, the team president and CEO) has done an incredible job of working with ownership to ensure that we are nimble and it has only increased our agility, our ability to present opportunities. And we’ve always had a great deal of support. So what I can tell you is that we are in position to present those opportunities and always have the access and (ownership’s) authentic interest to listen and hear. And we go from there.”

TRANSLATION: This isn’t a direct regurgitation of Atkins’ previous replies to monetary queries, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly alongside the identical strains. Notable, nonetheless, is his inclusion of the time period nimble and suggestion that the crew has earned extra rope from proprietor Rogers Communications Inc., which additionally owns this web site, in what it may ship up the ladder.

Why do these variations in company verbiage matter? Because a pursuit of Ohtani would require agility given how any contract broadly anticipated to be the richest in baseball historical past finally will get completed on the possession stage. The first step for Atkins and Co., nonetheless, is to get the Blue Jays into Ohtani’s course of. As I wrote Oct. 7,  the trade chatter I used to be listening to recommended Ohtani wouldn’t rule out East Coast groups this time, had observed the sources for Blue Jays gamers and was intrigued by the thought of including Canada to his advertising portfolio. My guess is that he provides them a glance this time, in contrast to when he first came to visit from Japan and signed with the Los Angeles Angels. How actual it will get from there’s guesswork.

.acf-block-preview .br-video-thumbnail::earlier than {
content material: “”;
place: absolute;
prime: 45%;
left: 50%;
remodel: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-moz-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-ms-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-o-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-webkit-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
width: 20px;
peak: 0px;
border-top: 14px strong clear;
border-left: 22px strong #fff;
border-bottom: 14px strong clear;
margin-left: 3px;
}

COMMENT: “We have an incredible opportunity here. The city, the country, the support of ownership, the winning environment, the renovations that have occurred, the buy-in on so many levels for us to continue to build upon something that is very strong. That has been very attractive over the last several years. And we expect it to be. On the creative front, I would say similar things. We have incredible opportunities with the economy and the diversity and the strength of this city that is celebrated by a country. That is something that we lean into and always think creatively about making others aware of.”

“All cities, all markets have totally different challenges. I believe that the Toronto Blue Jays have extra alternatives and extra strengths than challenges, for the explanations that I discussed. Having stated that, we’ve missed out on gamers. We’ve are available in second, we’ve are available in fifth, we’ve are available in between. And generally we haven’t been closely in or closely thought-about. I don’t suppose that has been for causes that we will management. I believe it’s largely over the past a number of years been for very private causes if we’ve missed out, however due to the assist we now have from possession, this totally unimaginable metropolis and market and fan-base, a profitable setting, a profitable crew, the perfect sources in baseball in Dunedin, about to be the perfect sources in baseball in Toronto for a participant to enhance and develop, that is a beautiful vacation spot that we try to have fun, versus overcome.”

TRANSLATION: Again, these aren’t atypical of Atkins’ previous advertising pitches, however keep in mind that when an government speaks, he’s attempting to land totally different messages to totally different audiences. These two replies, to questions on how the Blue Jays pitch gamers and evaluating the recruitment course of now versus earlier than they signed Hyun Jin Ryu, are clearly geared toward each potential free brokers and enduring fan angst about Toronto as a baseball vacation spot. Let’s concentrate on the previous and what’s intriguing is what number of totally different areas Atkins covers. Cody Bellinger, the highest place participant free agent after Ohtani, would have heard a lot of this final yr, when the Blue Jays pursued him earlier than signing Kevin Kiermaier.

One of the challenges in pursuing Ohtani is that on account of his personal nature, no one exterior the celebrity and his reps actually is aware of what is going to tip the scales. Atkins pointing to the membership’s baseball sources and a profitable setting is a nod to what lacked with the Angels, however there was additionally a lot of different components which will attraction to him as nicely. Those pitches play throughout the market, after all, with an acknowledgement that generally gamers merely wish to go some other place, it doesn’t matter what.

.acf-block-preview .br-video-thumbnail::earlier than {
content material: “”;
place: absolute;
prime: 45%;
left: 50%;
remodel: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-moz-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-ms-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-o-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
-webkit-transform: translate3d(-50%, -50%, 0);
width: 20px;
peak: 0px;
border-top: 14px strong clear;
border-left: 22px strong #fff;
border-bottom: 14px strong clear;
margin-left: 3px;
}

COMMENT: “The most obvious areas are the areas that the players have left, but actually not quite as obvious because we feel very good about (Daulton) Varsho playing centre field. With that, that points to left field and with Matt Chapman not under contract with us, it points to third base. But the depth that we have, not only on the 26-man, but on our 40-man and even beyond our 40 man, at the second, left field, third base position, middle of the diamond as well, gives us versatility and the options to not just zero in on left field and third base if we don’t have to.”

TRANSLATION: This is comparatively easy nevertheless it’s fascinating to listen to how the Blue Jays are taking a look at replenishing their position-player group. They have room for a DH-only sort and have exactly the kind of alternative that may make sense for Rhys Hoskins on a pillow deal, however they’ve been inventive in considering of find out how to cowl for Kiermaier and Chapman, ought to they depart. While they’ve explored the centre-field market, they’ve a lot extra choices in left, however at third base, the market shrinks. They stay engaged to some extent on Jeimer Candelario and have seemed into different choices, the versatile Isiah Kiner-Falefa, amongst them.

The Blue Jays pursued Kiner-Falefa earlier than touchdown Paul DeJong previous to the commerce deadline final summer time and he may very well be a part of a job-share on the sizzling nook. Of notice is that Seattle netted a minimal return from Arizona for Eugenio Suarez, who in idea made some sense for the Blue Jays. Cleary they really feel they will do higher at each third and with the roughly $13 million the 32-year-old is assured in 2024 and a 2025 buyout.

COMMENT: “Really, really good. The wide divergence has been one year – less than a year. So I feel confident about him being a large part of our success next year, a significant piece in the rotation and I know Alek isn’t thinking about winning the fifth spot. He’s thinking about excellence. He’s thinking about being one of the better starters in the game. And we believe that he can build back towards that. It’s not a light switch, it’s not something that happens overnight. But the work that he’s doing currently and that we’re confident he’s going to do over this off-season gives us a great deal of confidence that he’s going to be a significant piece for us.”

At the Letters

Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior author. Together, they bring about you probably the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast within the league, masking off all the newest news with opinion and evaluation, in addition to interviews with different insiders and crew members.

Listen and Subscribe without spending a dime

Follow Ben on Twitter

Follow Arden on Twitter

.acf-block-preview .br-snippet {
show: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr;
hole: 20px;
width: 100%;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 16px;
border: 1px strong #CECECE;
background-color: #FFF;
border-radius: 4px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info a {
text-decoration: none;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-title {
shade: #343434;
font-family: ‘roboto’;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: 600;
line-height: 22px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
prime: -3px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-body {
shade: #343434;
font-family: ‘urw-din’;
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 20px;
margin-bottom: 12px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-link-title {
show: inline-block;
font-family: ‘urw-din’;
font-size: 16px;
list-style-type: none;
width: auto;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-snippet-info .br-snippet-link-title:not(:last-child):after ‘;
shade: #343434;

TRANSLATION: That’s Atkins on Manoah and find out how to mission the right-hander subsequent yr and earlier than we delve into that, one thing to bear in mind. Colleague Ben Nicholson-Smith wrote a extremely good piece through the GM Meetings earlier this month taking a look at what number of gamers a crew may realistically talk about throughout an low season. Hundreds of gamers, the overwhelming majority of whom aren’t going wherever, get kicked round to some extent each winter. And execs hunt buy-low alternatives like vultures.

Use that lens to judge commerce chatter. On Manoah, the outline I’ve heard is that the Blue Jays are telling different groups to worth him just like the 2022 Cy Young Award finalist relatively than the 2023 model who struggled badly and was twice optioned. In different phrases, buy-low buyers ought to look elsewhere, particularly in a market with so many groups in want of pitching. That doesn’t assure the Blue Jays preserve him, however they’re not buying and selling him simply to commerce him.

COMMENT: “We’re ready now the place it is perhaps finest to subtract until that acquisition was an optionable starter that hasn’t already clearly earned his stripes to be a major-league starter. So we’re open to it, nevertheless it’s not as as straightforward to do as it’s on the position-player aspect.”

“Excited about Mitch White. I do know he had a really bumpy yr. He is off to an unimaginable begin this low season, completed very strongly for us in triple-A. He may very well be somebody that fills that function. Wes Parsons, I do know his major-league Toronto Blue Jays debut didn’t go exceptionally nicely, however a few of the traits that we’ve seen, his trajectory is somebody that we’re enthusiastic about. Obviously, Bowden Francis, clearly Ricky Tiedemann are items of the equation which might be already right here. And then we now have the 5 starters past that, eight actually, actually strong relievers with guys that aren’t in that eight which have already had major-league success on our triple-A crew. So in the event you’re including, the place is the subtraction and the pliability of getting guys with choices must be factored in. So in the event you simply work via our 13-man pitching employees proper now and take a look at who has choices, who truly can be optioned, it begins to change into a problem, which is an excellent start line. That’s a problem you need.”

TRANSLATION: The Blue Jays aren’t ignoring the pitching market, nevertheless it’s not likely point of interest for them, as their pitching employees is basically locked in. White, who’s out of choices, will get each probability to make the crew in spring coaching as a long-relief/swingman function, with Francis and Parsons, who each have an possibility remaining, depth behind him if wanted. Relief depth exists in Nate Pearson, Zach Pop, Hagen Danner, Yosver Zulueta and Brendon Little, whereas Tiedemann looms as a rotation possibility in some unspecified time in the future.

A possible wild-card is Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Blue Jays did loads of work on him. Atkins went over to Japan to see him in individual a number of instances. He could be the most generally wanted free agent this winter. If the Blue Jays can’t discover the offensive impression they need in free company and commerce, they might strive going all out for him after which use pitching surplus to achieve a bat.

More from Sportsnet

Ohtani chance appears to be like open as Atkins addresses Blue Jays low season buzz

Gausman, Bichette unanimous picks as Blue Jays pitcher and participant of yr

.acf-block-preview .br-related-links-wrapper {
show: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);
hole: 20px;
}

.acf-block-preview .br-related-links-wrapper a {
pointer-events: none;
cursor: default;
text-decoration: none;
shade: black;
}