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

[trellaine201]

I looked at Alonso's offensive numbers and wonder why he hasn't signed somewhere on a long contract? 5/6 years? Is it due to his lack of defense? He can only play 1B and DH? His numbers look pretty good.

 

[stats1]

I looked at Alonso's offensive numbers and wonder why he hasn't signed somewhere on a long contract? 5/6 years? Is it due to his lack of defense? He can only play 1B and DH? His numbers look pretty good.

I think teams are willing to sign him but when the winter meetings started he was looking for a $200 million contract. I believe the Mets were willing to go long term but they were offering around 150-170 million. Clearly his market hasn’t worked out. And personally I’m not sure how two parties can all of a sudden become friends on a short term deal when you’re so far apart on valuations long term

 

[phillipmike]

Blue Jays Have Also Shown Interest In Ryan Pressly

While the Cubs are the favorites for Ryan Pressly, the Blue Jays are also in the mix. Find out the latest on the All-Star at MLB Trade Rumors.

www.mlbtraderumors.com

Blue Jays Have Also Shown Interest In Ryan Pressly
January 23rd, 2025 at 9:43pm CST • By Anthony Franco

If the Astros trade Ryan Pressly, the Cubs appear the likeliest landing spot. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported this evening that Chicago was nearing a deal for the veteran reliever. Multiple reports from the Houston beat indicated that Pressly has not agreed to waive his no-trade rights, however. It’s also not clear if the Cubs and Astros had agreed to a final trade package and were awaiting Pressly’s decision, or if the teams merely felt they were making progress in those conversations.

Chandler Rome, Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic report that while the Cubs are serious suitors for the two-time All-Star, no deal is believed to be imminent. According to The Athletic, the Blue Jays and at least one mystery team from the West Coast have also expressed interest. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com similarly wrote this evening that the Astros have fielded interest from multiple clubs on Pressly.

 

[Eyedea]

I looked at Alonso's offensive numbers and wonder why he hasn't signed somewhere on a long contract? 5/6 years? Is it due to his lack of defense? He can only play 1B and DH? His numbers look pretty good.

He's solid, but the 1B field as a whole is rather packed together after the top 4 (Vlad, Harper, Freeman, Yandy Diaz). Basically he's similarly projected to Christian Walker who just got 3/60 (albeit being 3 years older). Plus there's a bunch of controllable/cheap options out there that hit at a similar rate like Pasquantino, Casas, Horwitz, O'Hearn, Schanuel, so teams aren't really in the market to spend 20-30m AAV on a 1B.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

I looked at Alonso's offensive numbers and wonder why he hasn't signed somewhere on a long contract? 5/6 years? Is it due to his lack of defense? He can only play 1B and DH? His numbers look pretty good.

He's over 30, his numbers have regressed and he was asking for too much. On top of that, he's a poor defender and should be a DH moving forward. Not a huge market for players like that. Still a well above average bat, but his bad defense makes him a 2-3 WAR player. Most teams just won't go more than what the Jays have offered(25x3).

 

[ryno23]

can Vlad play a decent 3B to allow the Jays to sign Alonso? I hear Vlad wants to play 3B and if he can become above average who then sign Alonso now you are starting to fill out a better lineup and the Clements of the world are your utility guys as they would be on most contenders.

Keep the DH spot open so Vlad can get rest from 3B maybe plays 120 games at 3B and the rest at DH.

1. Bichette SS
2. Vlad 3B
3. Santander LF
4. Alonso 1B
5. Springer RF
6. Kirk C
7. Gimminez - 2B
8. Varsho - CF
9. DH - Clement, Wagner your utility guys who will spell the starters who can move to DH for the day.

 

[cyris]

can Vlad play a decent 3B to allow the Jays to sign Alonso? I hear Vlad wants to play 3B and if he can become above average who then sign Alonso now you are starting to fill out a better lineup and the Clements of the world are your utility guys as they would be on most contenders.

Keep the DH spot open so Vlad can get rest from 3B maybe plays 120 games at 3B and the rest at DH.

1. Bichette SS
2. Vlad 3B
3. Santander LF
4. Alonso 1B
5. Springer RF
6. Kirk C
7. Gimminez - 2B
8. Varsho - CF
9. DH - Clement, Wagner your utility guys who will spell the starters who can move to DH for the day.

I’d probably have Vladdy play 1st more and have Alonso as the DH with Clement and/or Wagner playing 3rd.
Basically Vladdy plays 3rd around 40ish games. DH another 40ish and 1B the rest

 

[Canada4Gold]

Yeah I really want Alonso but not to move Vladdy to 3rd for any meaningful amount of games, 1B and DH should be some combo of Vladdy and Alonso for like 90% of games. The Jays have struggled with offense but particularly power recently. They got Santander who obviously helps but if they can do more they should. The back half of Santander's contract he'll probably need to be DHing a lot but with Varsho and Springer as the other 2 outfielders he should mostly be the everyday left fielder. That opens up the DH slot to bring in a difference maker. Nobody else really needs to be given the DH for half off days like we've done in the past. Springer's bat is bad enough now just give him the full day off. They've barely done it with Bo anyway. Even when we had Kirk and Jansen they rarely used the DH to get both bats in there, with Kirk having a higher workload now I assume every day off will be a full one. Anyone else is league average bat or worse so you're not DHing them to rest them. The DH spot should be mostly be Alonso's. I can live with them trying Vladdy at 3rd on occasion to get the lineup they want in there every once in a while and to appease Alonso some if he needs it to sign. But for the most part it should be Alonso DH with Vladdy at 1st, or Vladdy DH with Alonso at 1st.

 

[aingefan]

Ben should know who throws with which hand.
I’m eager to see Jennings and Estrada in the spring.
Jennings has a great minor league resume so far, and handled the AFL. Looks like he might start in the Fisher Cats rotation - a team which should be sneaky good and have a chance for some cool development stories. Lots of good tools on that team.
Estrada, more of a control guy, but again….very good numbers in his minor league career. Likely also starts in AA but isn’t far from Buffalo.
Surprises Trenton Wallace didn’t get an invite, but I expect he’ll get a game or two somewhere. The past two years, he’s been very strong to start the year after rough initial adjustments to new levels. If the pattern holds, he’s a good bet to be strong in AAA.
Paulino seems to have nifty utility guy upside.
The OFers will be fun to watch too.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

I would think of Alonso and Max Max were coming based on the reports of the deal being almost done it would be finalized by now. This looks like another 2nd place showing to me.

 

[Kurtz]

Profar to Atlanta

That seems like a lot for a guy who signed for 700k last season.

 

[Blitzkrug]

I would think of Alonso and Max Max were coming based on the reports of the deal being almost done it would be finalized by now. This looks like another 2nd place showing to me.

Not necessarily. Hector Gomez chimed in earlier in the night on BNS saying there was no momentum Alonso/Scherzer;

He's not wrong. Gomez was the first one out with the Santander talks and he continually banged that drum as did other insiders.

It sure as hell seems like BNS/Shi aren't as in the know as they were.

 

[Puckstuff]

That is insane value.

It's basically the Teo deal in terms of money in real terms, but with 2 extra prime years.