I'm so torn still on this off-season. It seems like a bunch of good moves surrounded by a bunch of ... "is that it?" I know most people here are Leafs fans, but I'm a Habs fan. It reminds me when we signed Carey Price LONG TERM and Bergevin said "We're going for it!" even though we knew his contract would be bad in the back half... but he followed that up by playing hardball with Radulov and losing him. And then letting Markov walk without signing a replacement. This year's Jay's off-season reminds me of that.
* Teo trade was solid. No real complaints here. We needed a bullpen arm. And Adam Macko has some Canadian history going to school in Alberta. He's potentially the 2nd MLB pitcher (someday) to pitch in the Majors from Slovakia. Hopefully he's as good as his predecessor. Jack Quinn, the only Slovakian pitcher in MLB history, pitched 23 years in the big leagues. Macko is still gaining velocity from reports, so that's great to hear considering he's already averaging a 95mph fastball.
* The Varsho trade is excellent. Would I have rather traded Janssen? Yes, of course. But I don't think we were getting Varsho for Janssen + Lourdes, at least not with including another prospect. It had to be Kirk or Moreno. Kirk is Manoah's catcher, so you kind of just default to the prospect in Moreno.
* Kiermaier signing was excellent. Low risk with it only being one year. Still a very good defensive player when healthy. But this is where the issues start... WHEN HEALTHLY. He's played 9 years in the big leagues and only played 130 (or more) games once in his career. 4 of those seasons he hasn't even his 100 games. If that was our only injury risk, it wouldn't be a huge deal. But....
* George Springer's health. Even though he was relatively healthy last year, he still missed multiple games at different times. And he got hurt during the most important game in this teams recent history. Now, I know that's cause Bo wasn't thinking, but still. The two seasons prior, he was hurt for increasingly extended periods of time.
So ... this puts me at a strange feeling. If healthy? I think we're a much better team walking through the door than last year. However, you're asking a lot from two players who have had healthy seasons at a 50% clip in the last 6 years... it's pretty scary.
Yes, I know we have Cavan Biggio. He's a slightly above average fielder. And we also have Merrifeld, who is a below average fielder. But that doesn't scream confidence to me - and I like both of those players! Thankfully, Varsho can move to CF if both Springer and Kiermaier end up injured, but I just don't like heading into the season with so this kind of question mark.
I'd feel a lot more comfortable if we offered a similar deal that Kiermaier got to Jurickson Profar. He opted out of his contract with the Padres which would have paid him $7.5M with a mutual option for $10M next year. I think if we guaranteed that, he'd likely sign. 2 years, $18M. It gives us another option for DH as well. Profar is a below average fielder, so he'd be DHing mostly and just giving us OF coverage if needed. Biggio is good enough defensively to replace Profar late-game in those situations.
