If he makes it, it would be as 4th outfielder and I don't think he adds too much value there for the team. He's not overly fast and his defense in CF is below average.
Blue Jays GDT: 2024 v6 | Fri, Sept 13 | vs StL | 7pm ET/4pm PT | TBA vs TBA Ohtanis Makes History
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pretty good chance that he’s an extra outfielder, yeah.
Can spot all the positions, have good at bats. He could be the guy that spells Springer in right.
How much burn he gets will likely depend on how much the Jays add to the offence and where, and what the plans are for the ‘younger than Lukes’ kids.
I presume they add one big bat, position tbd. And I’m sure they hope one of Loperfido/Barger grab a spot and run with it.
Suntouchable13
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MK78
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I don't know if I trust this front office to do that.
Last two years the "big bats" were 35 year old Brandon Belt and a 40 year old Justin Turner.
Suntouchable13
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To be fair, there's more out there this winter. You have Soto, you have Santander, you have O'Neill, and more guys i am forgeting.
MK78
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Yeah, but there were trades to be made if they had good prospects, Soto being a prime example.
Suntouchable13
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I think our prospects this off season are better too, more attractive. I do think they need to fire Atkins if they actually do want to put this thing back on the rails for 2025. I can agree with you on that.
Plus a swing and a miss on one guy.
Skepticism is fair enough, but they’ve generally done okay in free agency. There’s gonna be lotsa competition at the top end. I’ll keep my glass half full that they get one.
Ps, Belt was fine btw. Not quite enough, but fine.
MK78
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Well last year they still managed to squeak into the wildcard games. This year it was a disaster, Turner had a good 2 week stretch other than that he was a bust.
Eyedea
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dredeye
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Francis has been the best pitcher on the team for over a month now. Pretty awesome considering I thought his career was done
Baseball is different than other sports in that a player could be pretty much waiver material and a minor adjustment makes them really good.
Jose Bautista is an example.
MK78
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Yeah but it doesn't happen too often, or often it doesn't last like it did for Bautista for 5 great years.
Or it goes hard into reverse, like Manoah.
Yup. Some of the relievers are weird. The Mariners had that closer who was a bartender at one point.
With the emergence of Francis, I don't think the Jays need another starter unless it's a guy like Burnes. Adding a #3 or #4 is pointless.
Gausman
Berrios
Francis
Bassitt
Rodriguez/Manoah/Bloss
is good enough. Spend the money on bats and bullpen.
Eyedea
The Legend Continues
What made that era really special was that both Bautista and EE turned into stars. Because honestly, aside from Lind re-figuring it out for a bit and a blip from Lawrie, homegrown bats were very dire.
It also really takes a ton of luck and a bunch of randos to go hot for a season to go on a run. The Colabello’s, Travis’, Barney’s, and Carrera’s of the team.
MK78
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Colabello was caught for roids, so that season was BS. But yeah, Ryan Goins too had a good stretch in 2015.
Eyedea
The Legend Continues
Axford was a phone sales rep and bartender at one point. Delabar was a HS assistant coach. The fact that they ended up being a reliever of the year or an all star shows the beauty of the sport. You don’t really see that in professional sports outside of maybe soccer with some players grinding through semi/non pro leagues.
Eyedea
The Legend Continues
I don’t really see the BS. He had the minor league numbers to suggest he had a legit bat, he just ended up riding an insane BABIP that year. For instance we got Melky after his PED season and he still ended up putting up a solid performance in the 2nd year of his 2 year deal (2013 was just trash in general).
