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

[Discoverer]

We still need a DH + Springer never stays healthy for the entire year.

And there's nothing wrong with giving Santander and Vladdy plenty of time at DH, either.

 

[cyris]

Alonso + Bregman, do it. I don't want Clement starting every day at 3rd. Act like a big market team. What can I say? They weren't able to draft and develop their own dudes. Now if you want to compete, it will cost more money.

I have next to no interest in Bregman. He is already declining and there are going to be more bad years on that deal than good ones.
George Springer 2.0

 

[hockeywiz542]

Anthony Santander joins Blue Jays: Watch the full press conference

38:09 | January 21, 2025

Watch the full Toronto Blue Jays press conference as Ross Atkins welcomes Anthony Santander to the team after inking the outfielder to a five-year free agent contract.

 

[howlman]

Chop chop Atkins, get this press conference over with and get back to work and start bringing in more talent

 

[Leaf Rocket]

Even as a Dodgers fan...this just feels like cheating atm Like bro...stop. Like after what happened again to the Jays with Roki...


At one point I was like...yay we are loading up but still have a massive chance to fail as I have seen it way to often lmao lol.

The otherside... it feels like... THINK ABOUT THE OTHERS (Yanks,Astros,Redsox,Giants Excluded, screw them all.)

I am also just conflicted at what the braintrust here(Shatkins) is doing though tbh...and what would be the course of action?

 

[phillipmike]

Couldn’t agree more with this.

Its the way it should be. Its competitive sports, dont like your team or you arent landing guys, find a way. If the Dodgers are offering Ohtani $700M, then offer him $900M and if he wants to go elsewhere then so be it. If management or the players cant get results, then find a new management team or get new players.

Stop feeling sorry about ourselves and find a way. We might have the richest owner in baseball. Dodgers have a $380M payroll, we should be at $400M. Who cares about draft picks and losing IFA. And if you care about that then ok, be expected to have a harder time to win.

 

[Thornbury]

Its the way it should be. Its competitive sports, dont like your team or you arent landing guys, find a way. If the Dodgers are offering Ohtani $700M, then offer him $900M and if he wants to go elsewhere then so be it. If management or the players cant get results, then find a new management team or get new players.

Stop feeling sorry about ourselves and find a way. We might have the richest owner in baseball. Dodgers have a $380M payroll, we should be at $400M. Who cares about draft picks and losing IFA. And if you care about that then ok, be expected to have a harder time to win.

If Rogers were stupid enough to push the payroll to the Dodgers' vertigo level heights, their shareholders would revolt - as well they should. It's a business, not a billionaire's toy, and should be run as such.

 

[stats1]

Adding Alonso even on a short term opt out friendly deal makes this line-up so much more better. It looks decent now but a top 5 of Springer, Santander, Vladdy, Alonso, Bo is sneaky elite. Tons of power and if they ever got to the post season being able to hit home runs is huge.

Also I’d like to add screw Buster Onley, the Santander contract is actually great business by Atkins. The deferred money makes the deal at 4 years and 70+ million. That’s a steal. Looks like the team is open to hitting the 300 million dollar mark for 1 year and resetting the payroll by 2026-2027. They still have room for Alonso and Sherzer

 

[phillipmike]

If Rogers were stupid enough to push the payroll to the Dodgers' vertigo level heights, their shareholders would revolt - as well they should. It's a business, not a billionaire's toy, and should be run as such.

And that’s fine. Just don’t expect to be as successful and don’t expect fans and the media to be happy or go easy on them.

I just don’t see making decisions to win you a World Series or put you in better positions to win World Series as “stupid”.

 

[cyris]

Ichiro, Sabathia, and Wagner elected to the HoF.

Another player on the team with a father in the hall

 

[barilko05]

Ichiro missed unanimous selection by 1 vote. The NY writer (and I have no doubt that's who it was) should be fired ASAP. Absolutely beyond contemptible behaviour for a so called "professional sportswriter", whoever it is.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

If Rogers were stupid enough to push the payroll to the Dodgers' vertigo level heights, their shareholders would revolt - as well they should. It's a business, not a billionaire's toy, and should be run as such.

Therein lies the problem -- it should be treated primarily as a billionaire's toy as opposed to a business.

The two can go hand in hand if done correctly.

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[Lahey]

This guy is a hack, don’t post his trash here anymore

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[trellaine201]

This guy is a hack, don’t post his trash here anymore

His grammar is atrocious. does he mean one or the other or both or maybe one or maybe both>

 

[smitty10]

I’m happy the Jays signed Santander. He checks a lot of the boxes of what we needed. Power, swich hitting and can play in the outfield. And we managed to do it cheaper on a AAV valve than most expected. There is a lot to like there.

But that article is right that we could be looking for a way out of that contract in a year. If we don’t get Vladdy signed we would be looking at a long rebuild. Even if Vladdy does sign they will probably need to find replacements for Bo and Gausman.
Overall it doesn’t matter to me because if they do have to rebuild it’s gonna take 5-7 years if they do it right so I’m not as worried about how those years look but there are legitimate reasons to criticize.

The Jays aren't in on all of these big named guys just to let Vladdy walk. They're in it to try and win now. Part of this is to show him how serious they are. Vladdy will be locked up very soon.

 

[cyris]

The Jays aren't in on all of these big named guys just to let Vladdy walk. They're in it to try and win now. Part of this is to show him how serious they are. Vladdy will be locked up very soon.

We will see I guess. And they have a bunch of work after Vladdy. Bichette and Gausman can both walk at the end of the year too.

 

[aingefan]

We will see I guess. And they have a bunch of work after Vladdy. Bichette and Gausman can both walk at the end of the year too.

Gausman has two years left, you might be thinking of Chris Bassitt?
Guerrero, Bichette, Bassitt, Green and Swanson are FA after this year.

 

[cyris]

Gausman has two years left, you might be thinking of Chris Bassitt?
Guerrero, Bichette, Bassitt, Green and Swanson are FA after this year.

Yeah you are right he’s has 1 more year after this one. My bad.

 

[Puckstuff]

Who would help this team more, Quintana or Profar?

Getting Quintana would likely push Yariel Rodríguez to the bullpen as well, who I think could be a really good reliever.