Blue Jays Discussion: Off-Season Pt VI: I declare this the summer of George!

[phillipmike]

Pitching Notes: S. Gray, T. Williams, Urena, Phils, Jays, Matz

Before the Mets avoided arbitration with Steven Matz on a $5.2MM agreement, they reached out to the Blue Jays to gauge their interest in the southpaw, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. No trade came together, of course. Toronto would have been hard pressed to consider Matz an upgrade for its rotation after he recorded a horrific 9.68 ERA/7.76 FIP in 30 2/3 innings last season.

Jays were interested back in December.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Making room on the 40 man for Semien or someone else?

 

[phillipmike]

 

[Woodman19]

The optics of this is sweet. The Mets lost out on Springer to the Jays and now are dumping salary to the Jays as well. Mets fans might not be getting that owner who operates with a $1 Billion payroll they seem to had been expecting perhaps?

 

[habamillions]

Making room on the 40 man for Semien or someone else?

Diaz was likely to be put on waivers for semien one way or another. No loss there. Winchowski and foley are the pieces here. Was hoping foley would have moved to the pen

 

[phillipmike]

 

[trellaine201]

Head scratcher.

 

[dredeye]

Hopefully they do eat some of it

 

[chaosrevolver]

So what changed from 2018 and 2019 to 2020? Was it just the shoulder injury?

 

[dredeye]

Making room on the 40 man for Semien or someone else?

The someone else is Matz

 

[chaosrevolver]

The someone else is Matz

Does open up a roster spot at least.

 

[phillipmike]

Jays got 60M+ coming off the books next season;
Marcus Semien - $18
Tanner Roark - $12
Robbie Ray - $8
Kirby Yates - $5.5M with 4.5M in incentives
Steven Matz - $5.2M
Tulo Buyout - $4M
Shun Yamaguchi - $3.17M
Tyler Chatwood - $3M
Rafael Dolis - 1.5M
Anderson buyout - $0.5M

 

[phillipmike]

Does open up a roster spot at least.

For Semien.

Off the 40 man roster: SRF and Diaz

Going to be added to the 40 man: Matz and Semien

 

[habamillions]

The someone else is Matz

Exactly. Matz for reid foley. Diaz for semein. Get something instead of nothing. Gamble for 1 year. Maybe walker can get something out of him. He reminds me of ray. Jays still need someone who can eat innings though.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

The someone else is Matz

I'm really hoping they arent planning on keeping him. But, I know better.

 

[Natey]

Matz isn't as bad as some are making him out to be.

 

[TF97]

I wonder if a shift towards using more 4-seamers would benefit Matz. He has all but moved away from using that pitch the last couple of seasons in favour of his sinker, but he seems to have issues locating his sinker anywhere other than the middle of the plate. He has always had potential in his arm so hopefully Walker can unlock that and correct any mechanical/pitch mix issues.

 

[phillipmike]

2014 MLB leader in HR against: Marco Estrada

Then traded to the Jays and turns his career around in 2015.

2020 MLB leader in HR against per 9: Steven Matz

Matz gave up 14 HRs in 2020 in 30 innings. Leaders wee Trevor Williams and Matt Boyd with 15 but they had over 50 innings each.

Matz threw 95mph last season, if he is going to the pen, that can play in the upper 90s.

 

[zeke]

Thats a pretty annoying classic shatkins value rebuilding move right there. Kinda gross.

There better be a real SP coming.

 

[phillipmike]

So its down to the Mets, Dodgers and mystery teams?

 

[Avilaj07]

I actually think Matz is a sneaky good pickup. He has all the tools, it's now just getting Walker to help him put it all together.

 

[DropTheGloves]

I actually think Matz is a sneaky good pickup. He has all the tools, it's now just getting Walker to help him put it all together.

It’s a decent enough bet, I get the idea if he heads to the pen and works on his stuff from there. Not liking it if he’s meant to be a starter but I think Shatkins has one more trade up his sleeve.

 

[Woodman19]

Thats a pretty annoying classic shatkins value rebuilding move right there. Kinda gross.

There better be a real SP coming.

I would bet money on another starter being added. But here we are essentially creating a 40-man spot and upgrading a fringe guy like Reid-Foley to an actual MLB arm for taking on the money. Good depth upgrade.

 

[Hoverhand]

So its down to the Mets, Dodgers and mystery teams?

I could be wrong but didn't the Bauer to the Dodgers rumours start super late? It reeks of his agent trying to drum up a bidding war that's probably been dry for months.

I'd put it above a 75% chance that if Bauer signs elsewhere that it's going to be a contract where most of us go "we could've pretty easily done that.

 

[TF97]

Ross Atkins at roughly 6:00 on Tim&Sid:
(paraphrasing) "what Stroman tweeted about the front office doesn't bother me it is part of the job"


Ross Atkins at roughly 10:00:



I see you, Ross. I see you.