Blue Jays Discussion: 2024-25 Off-season: The free agent watch begins (and sometimes old baseball radio broadcasts)

[jetsforever]

Who needs Burnes!

 

[jetsforever]

I like Bo and hope he gets to play in a “baseball town” sooner, rather than later, if that’s his preference.

I like Bo and hope he plays in Toronto actually

 

[habamillions]

Who needs Burnes!

Id rather have hagen danner

 

[Ale Brew]

Id rather have hagen danner

Yeah, Danner had the velocity, really thought he had potential to step up.

Admittedly I only heard of Walker 30 minutes ago. He’s a lefty and apparently a two way player to some extent. Lots of swing and miss in the minors, hopefully it will translate.

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[Dr.Funk]

Who needs Burnes!

Not us.

Burnes is going to end up being the biggest free agent regret this offseason.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Not us.

Burnes is going to end up being the biggest free agent regret this offseason.

Are you suggesting he might burn some team?

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Are you suggesting he might burn some team?

Boo-urnes to your joke.

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Vlad isn't signing here management f***ed that up.
They don't seem to have a read on the market.

I don’t think so either,

 

[Discoverer]

Id rather have hagen danner

Me too. Either one is likely just optionable bullpen depth, but I don't see a whole lot that's particularly interesting about Walker to justify giving up a high velocity young guy.

I doubt it'll make a difference either way in the end, at least.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Are you suggesting he might burn some team?

There was some pretty concerning data in Burnes back half of the season that suggested his cutter, by far his best (and one of the most devastating pitches in baseball as a whole) might be showing signs of decline. Specifically, a pretty significant drop in the amount of whiffs it was generating which led to a jump in opposing batting average, exit velo and so forth as seen here. This on top of a pretty blah second half in general had people having cold feet.

I would be remised, as i had pointed out to me last time i posted this that it might not be all bad. A lot of the other peripheries on Burnes' cutter actually got better, namely the spin rate and velo, which makes everything else a lot more confusing/harder to explain. Could legit just be rotten luck or guys are keying in on it more knowing the rest of his arsenal is kinda...eh. As evidenced by him throwing his curveball more and getting smacked for it.

Savant paints a similar story; Everything else looks fantastic (on top of being stupidly durable) outside of a not insignificant drop in K% and xBA, which is again reflected in his pitch data

I personally wouldn't sign him. This is a factor but i'm of the mindset that throwing a 200+ million dollar contract at a position, that in my opinion is pretty likely to fix itself with just a simple bounceback when this team is screaming for bats would be putting yourself in the same situation as 2023 at best and malpractice at worst.

Disclaimer: It should also be noted the last time i got on my soapbox and cried about signing a pitcher being a mirage after a jekell and hyde season, it happened to be Kevin Gausman after what i thought was a one hit 2021 season. Suffice to say, i was pretty wrong on that one so yeah.