With market poised to shift, Blue Jays ready to move

Baseball

Published 01.12.2022

With market poised to shift, Blue Jays ready to move

TORONTO – For now, it’s all nonetheless in play. Nearly 4 weeks into the MLB low season, all the elite free brokers can be found, most mid-tier gamers stay unsigned and the largest commerce chips can nonetheless be had.

That doesn’t imply baseball operations departments across the sport have been idle – removed from it. But the work they’ve carried out thus far is designed to repay later, possibly as quickly as subsequent week, when baseball’s greatest low season gathering resumes in-person for the primary time since 2019.

“I’d count on that there will probably be some news popping out of the Winter Meetings,” Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins advised the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America Wednesday.

“Having said that, there is no deadline (next) Thursday and I think 10, 15 years ago there was a little bit more of a (self-imposed) deadline. Even maybe five years ago … it doesn’t feel like something needs to get done by Thursday. But I would expect across the industry there will be some significant moves.”

At the Letters

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Aaron Judge to the Yankees? Trea Turner to the Phillies? Justin Verlander to the Dodgers? Any of these strikes would have main implications throughout the trade, together with in Toronto. And sooner or later, the Blue Jays will drive their share of the motion, too.

Their wants are clear: add a beginning pitcher, possibly two; add a place participant, most likely an outfielder and ideally one who bats left-handed or swap hits; weigh presents on their three younger catchers; and stay open to additional upgrades to a bullpen that’s already added Erik Swanson (if the Blue Jays add right here, it will doubtless be a high-end choice with a subsequent commerce attainable to release area).

In different phrases, there’s lots for the Blue Jays to think about. But if nothing else, they’re ready to spend with Atkins saying the staff’s in “a great position” financially due to assist from Rogers Communications Inc., which additionally owns Sportsnet.

While the Blue Jays are actively pursuing each trades and free-agent acquisitions, Atkins stated there’s now “probably more” concentrate on free company in comparison with commerce talks. Of course one name can change that and there continues to be substantial curiosity in catchers Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno. On that entrance, the Blue Jays could have loads of decisions, and might be able to time issues as they please.

Meanwhile, in free company, gamers and brokers can management the tempo, which contributes to the slow-developing market thus far.

“We’re simply on the lookout for good gamers,” Atkins stated. “It’s not definitely a left-handed hitting right fielder to fill the role of Teoscar Hernandez. Would that work? Sure. Can we consider centre field as well? Sure. Can we think about it a completely different way, depending on the potential of trades? How do we think about run prevention? Is it just a starter? And then thinking about complementing the bullpen? Is it some other combination of run prevention? We have had a lot of dialogue about a lot of different permutations of how we can make our team better and see a lot of opportunities to do that and feel like our starting point is as good as any other teams in baseball.”

Granted, there’s nonetheless quite a lot of work forward for a staff whose splashiest low season addition but is bench coach Don Mattingly. In truth, the present version of the Blue Jays is undeniably a lesser model of the staff that completed the 2022 season, as Hernandez, Ross Stripling, Jackie Bradley Jr., Raimel Tapia and David Phelps have all departed. Many strikes will probably be wanted, and the identical could be stated for the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays.

At this level, being open-minded is smart. Push for Verlander, as they did final winter. Explore the potential of a take care of Cody Bellinger, who Mattingly is aware of from Los Angeles. Engage with Stripling and Andrew Heaney, with Brandon Nimmo and Kevin Kiermaier, with the Cardinals and the Guardians. See the place it leads.

And someday quickly, it’ll be time to slim the main focus and shift from potentialities to concrete strikes.

“We don’t have the complete image painted on precisely the way to do A, B and C to make our staff higher,” Atkins stated. “But we do have a very clear understanding of where we could take our next strategic step.”