Blue Jays Discussion: Turn out the lights, the season's over.

[dredeye]

Exactly... talk to everyone, find out what the costs will be for various options, and put a plan together.

I'm as high as anyone on Jansen, but I don't understand how anyone could be opposed to signing Grandal. He's averaged 5 fWAR per season over the last five years. Even if you don't believe in pitch-framing or something, he's still been a consistent 4 fWAR player. He's an elite defensive catcher and a switch-hitter with a 118 career wRC+ and no platoon split (114 from the left side, 119 from the right).

That's a star player, and there's no QO. If he's open to a reasonable deal, you sign him, plug him into the middle of the lineup, and figure out the rest.

Thinking about it more I suppose this is the right way of looking at it. It could also be a matter of Grandal ends up being the cheapest dollar big free agent to grab that would be impactful and you can then use a cheap salary option with control that teams love to address say pitching with another cheap controllable option.

 

[Discoverer]

I don’t have any issue with exploring your options, and I’d be relatively ok with trading McGuire depending on the return because I’m not a huge believer in how real his season was last year offensively. If someone was willing to overpay sure. Jansen however I’m pretty high on, and I don’t expect anyone would be willing to pay enough that the Grandal, McGuire, and the Jansen return is anywhere near Grandal, Jansen, and the McGuire return or Jansen, McGuire and the reallocated Grandal money. I’d want a legit top 2 young starting pitcher under control for at least 4 years. I don’t think we’d get that. We have about 6 4-5 guys already, and about 6 more tweener guys we can plug in after that. Just diminishing returns unless the guy is a top 2 guy it’s not worth trading Jansen IMO. A Jansen CF equivalent might be more intriguing because we have little to nothing there and little to nothing in the system.

Yeah, and that's basically what I'm thinking: sign the star catcher, flip McGuire for a solid asset or flip Jansen for a similar player (age, ability, track-record, etc.) who fills another need. I don't think anyone is suggesting trading Jansen for whatever you can get.

 

[phillipmike]

 

[Amadeus]

Have a chance to be competitive next year. I would retain him as we need a closer.

 

[Epictetus]

Grandal is one of the best catchers in baseball and only costs money. Sign me up.

 

[Muston Atthews]

 

[hoc123]

Looks like Odorizzi might be off the table

 

[Canada4Gold]

Might just be posturing to try to get a better offer

 

[Discoverer]

Might just be posturing to try to get a better offer

I think you're probably right, but if the offers are, for example, something in the 3/45 range, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for him to accept and then try again next year. Even factoring in significant regression, I bet he could easily get a similar deal next year without the QO.

He's an interesting case because you really have to believe in his breakout to give up the pick to sign him.

 

[Mach85]

One of AA's strengths was checking in on EVERYBODY, even if it annoyed us a bit because we couldn't separate the signal from the noise in trade rumours. It costs nothing to talk and you never know what you'll find out. There are numerous deals that one can point to where it seemed like a guy wasn't shopped around before he was traded (e.g., Donaldson deal) and increasing your likelihood of stumbling upon one of those is always a good idea. I hope this seeming increase in activity is a trend, even if it doesn't always lead to action.

 

[Amadeus]

I trust our management team. May be a minority here but they’ve been consistently good and gearing up for some great years ahead.