Blue Jays Discussion: 2024-25 Off-season: The free agent watch begins (and sometimes old baseball radio broadcasts)
- Thread starter The Nemesis
- Start date
That seems about right for Kikuchi, but I'm also happy the Jays didn't bring him back for that deal.
Marino Pepén
Marino_Pepen
Good morning, my People!
Happy Friday!
Juan Soto would look for a 12/14 year contract with options, which guarantees at least $45 MM per season, with a termination clause in the third and fourth years.
Fasten seat belts…
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8:08 AM • Nov 22, 2024
MLB rumors: Juan Soto, trade markets take shape before Thanksgiving - USA Today
1. Juan Soto free agent sweepstakes
Owners and general managers are convinced that Soto will sign his mega-contract perhaps no later than the conclusion of the winter meetings. This won’t be a repeat case of 2019 when Bryce Harper and Manny Machado patiently waited until their markets blossomed in spring training, or last winter when the money that was there in December evaporated in February.
There really are only four teams that are seriously in play for Soto: The Mets, the Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.
The Los Angeles Dodgers just won a World Series without Soto, and it wasn’t much of an inconvenience to drive through traffic across town, and meet with Soto and agent Scott Boras. The meeting helps perhaps drives the price up for Soto, and even more important, puts a little pressure on outfielder Teoscar Hernandez into re-signing with them.
Oh, and after all of speculation that the Philadelphia Phillies are involved in the Soto sweepstakes?
They haven’t had a single conversation with Boras to express interest in Soto.
The Mets are the clear-cut favorite, executives say, simply because they don’t believe there’s a soul who will outbid owner Steve Cohen, while Yankees have a price in mind that they don’t want to exceed.
The Blue Jays could be the sleeper, but with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette eligible for free agency in a year, Toronto would have to dramatically beat the Mets' offer to have a prayer.
8. Toronto Blue Jays: Most likely to overpay
The Blue Jays, the American League’s most underachieving team in recent years, reaching the postseason three times but failing to win a playoff game since 2016, have to win this year or heads could roll.
This is a critical year with president Mark Shapiro in the final year of his contract, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in the final year before free agency.
They will have no choice but to overpay free agents with players well aware that Guerrero and Bichette could be gone. This is why no one believes Soto is coming their way unless they dramatically outbid the Mets.
They will have to make easily the highest offer if they’re successful in landing in Burnes or Fried, along with outfielder Anthony Santander, whom they badly covet.
The danger is avoiding being used by agents simply to drive up the price tag – as the San Francisco Giants found out in in recent years.
1. Juan Soto free agent sweepstakes
Owners and general managers are convinced that Soto will sign his mega-contract perhaps no later than the conclusion of the winter meetings. This won’t be a repeat case of 2019 when Bryce Harper and Manny Machado patiently waited until their markets blossomed in spring training, or last winter when the money that was there in December evaporated in February.
There really are only four teams that are seriously in play for Soto: The Mets, the Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.
The Los Angeles Dodgers just won a World Series without Soto, and it wasn’t much of an inconvenience to drive through traffic across town, and meet with Soto and agent Scott Boras. The meeting helps perhaps drives the price up for Soto, and even more important, puts a little pressure on outfielder Teoscar Hernandez into re-signing with them.
Oh, and after all of speculation that the Philadelphia Phillies are involved in the Soto sweepstakes?
They haven’t had a single conversation with Boras to express interest in Soto.
The Mets are the clear-cut favorite, executives say, simply because they don’t believe there’s a soul who will outbid owner Steve Cohen, while Yankees have a price in mind that they don’t want to exceed.
The Blue Jays could be the sleeper, but with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette eligible for free agency in a year, Toronto would have to dramatically beat the Mets' offer to have a prayer.
8. Toronto Blue Jays: Most likely to overpay
The Blue Jays, the American League’s most underachieving team in recent years, reaching the postseason three times but failing to win a playoff game since 2016, have to win this year or heads could roll.
This is a critical year with president Mark Shapiro in the final year of his contract, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in the final year before free agency.
They will have no choice but to overpay free agents with players well aware that Guerrero and Bichette could be gone. This is why no one believes Soto is coming their way unless they dramatically outbid the Mets.
They will have to make easily the highest offer if they’re successful in landing in Burnes or Fried, along with outfielder Anthony Santander, whom they badly covet.
The danger is avoiding being used by agents simply to drive up the price tag – as the San Francisco Giants found out in in recent years.
Swanson had a 2.55 ERA in 27 appearances after the All-Star break and a WHIP of about 1.00. He returned to form last year and I don't think there are any concerns there over and above any other reliever.
He just had a terrible April-May which might have been connected to his son getting hit by a car/seriously injured right before the season started.
BertCorbeau
F*ck cancer - RIP Fugu and Buffaloed
Is this going to be like last year where the bank it all on Soto signing and then go to a crappy plan C afterwards because they have no plan B?
The FA crop is significantly better and deeper this year so let’s hope not.
The Iceman
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Without derailing the thread having to be the highest bidder for every FA is not sustainable or a way to build a team.
The 2 bozo's in charge should have been fired.
Horrible farm system (2 best prospects had TJ surgery and a steroid hit), last place team, record team payroll and their strategy is to spend more $$$ to fix it just is wrong.
Add that the teams top 2 assets are walking to free agency. What do you have to do to get fired???
Anyways I would love to see the team go after the cash strapped teams to duplicate a Donaldson scenario. legit player that was going to be too expensive for a small market team.
Rather than opening the wallet to overpay for older FA.
The 2 bozo's in charge should have been fired.
Horrible farm system (2 best prospects had TJ surgery and a steroid hit), last place team, record team payroll and their strategy is to spend more $$$ to fix it just is wrong.
Add that the teams top 2 assets are walking to free agency. What do you have to do to get fired???
Anyways I would love to see the team go after the cash strapped teams to duplicate a Donaldson scenario. legit player that was going to be too expensive for a small market team.
Rather than opening the wallet to overpay for older FA.
They definitely did that with Matt Chapman.
I wonder about Brandon Lowe from the Rays. I think it’s his last year of arbitration, the Rays are notoriously cheap and likely have even more financial constraints this year.
Louis Robert is another that gets mentioned frequently. He was terrible last year and will likely walk in FA next year, so may be a good buy low candidate.
I’m sure there are others. I’d have imagine they are exploring these types of opportunity in addition to FA’s.
trellaine201
Registered User
Ya I wonder if Houston is going into a kinda rebuild? They will probably lose their 3B. Bregman.
Tbf it was a garbage april and may after dealing with a significant event in his life. He was more than fine once he got back up. 2.55 era/1.014 whip. No one would be complaining if that was his season line.
Suntouchable13
Registered User
Would be nice to get Adames and Tyler O'Neill. I guess Santander would be cool too
phillipmike
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- Oct 27, 2009
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trellaine201
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dredeye
BJ Elitist/Hipster
- Mar 3, 2008
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I hope they go hard after him. He’s my #1 target as I don’t believe Soto is realistic.
It’ll be expensive but Fried + Adames + bullpen upgrades would be a great off-season.
Suntouchable13
Registered User
I wonder what kind of offensive numbers is realistic for Santander next year? something like .800 ops, 35 homers, 30 doubles, .240 avg, 3bWAR? What concerns me about him, even that amazing year last year his bWar was only 2.9.
He's a pure bat, so his WAR upside will always be limited to some extent. But the Jays have the kind of roster construction right now where a pure bat is a good fit, so I'm not too concerned. Just add some thump to the middle of the lineup.
Suntouchable13
Registered User
Yes, you're right. I'd love to have him, and there have been reports that the Jays seriously covet him.
Burnes is buyers remorse waiting to happen. Want nothing to do with it.
His cutter has noticably declined in the past 2 seasons to the point he could barely generate whiffs with it. Multiple games this season he threw like 40-45 of them with 1 or no whiffs generated. That's by far his best pitch and if he doesn't have that, he's got nothing.
Fried on the other hand I would be interested in. Pretty much the textbook example of solid ace pitcher.
His cutter has noticably declined in the past 2 seasons to the point he could barely generate whiffs with it. Multiple games this season he threw like 40-45 of them with 1 or no whiffs generated. That's by far his best pitch and if he doesn't have that, he's got nothing.
Fried on the other hand I would be interested in. Pretty much the textbook example of solid ace pitcher.
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