Here's the latest from baseball's two East divisions….
- Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos acknowledged to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca that his priorities this winter are pitching, second base, and left field. "There’s no question the priority is definitely in the rotation, with the dollars we have available, we have to be creative," he said. "Our payroll is going to be up from what it was last year but it doesn’t mean it’s a bottomless pit, there is a limit and there is an area we can go to."
- Ken Davidoff and George A. King III of The New York Post write that Yankees GM Brian Cashman is likely to meet with every agent who attends this week's GM Meetings, including Larry Reynolds. He represents both Torii Hunter and B.J. Upton.
- Edwin Jackson hasn't ruled out returning to the Nationals next season, writes Dan Kolko of MASNSports.com. The right-hander did make it clear that he will listen to offers from any team, however.
- During a recent radio appearance, Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said that he is not leaving the ACES agency according to WEEI.com's DJ Bean. ACES is currently being investigated by MLB for its role in Melky Cabrera's PED-related suspension.
Still don’t understand why the Nats didn’t make Jackson a qualifying offer…
because he would have taken them up on it. suppose for some reason he didn’t and signed somewhere else they would lose a draft pick. rizzo likes his draft picks, especially first round draft picks
Jackson was what he was when he came to the Nats; a .500 pitcher. The way in which he does it confounds most GMs i am sure. he could be sublime and look untouchable. then follow it up with a game of him serving up batting practice. You would almost prefer a guy that is just okay. The pitcher that won’t blow your mind any games but he won’t make you want to blow your brains out any either. However you look at it, $2million dollar raise was not coming Jackson’s way. Not from the Nats.
In 22 of his 31 starts he surrendered 3 ERs or less.That’s 22 starts where pitched well enough for a good team to win. $13.3 million is a lot for a guy who’s basically your 5th best starter, but it isn’t a lot for a guy who will make every start, pitch well enough to win most of his starts, completely dominate a few starts a year, and who will eat innings for you.
And he wouldn’t have accepted it. He wants a multiyear deal. There’s a reason he canned Boras.
And what are you talking about when you say the Nats would lose a draft pick if Jackson turned down the qualifying offer and signed somewhere else. The exact opposite would happen if he turned down a qualifying offer from the Nationals and signed somewhere else.
I think he might of taken it. I am not sure many team would have been ready to give him a multi year deal PLUS a draft pick. Any team that would have signed him would have offered him a lower AAV because of the draft pick.
He might have, but from what I’ve read he seems more interested in staying in once place for more than 6 months than maximizing his AAV. Plus the team who seems most interested is the Blue Jays and their first round pick is protected.
you were right, i was an idiot about the draft pick stuff. anyway you look at it Jackson had a slightly below average year. a kind of year they could have got out of Lannan. only difference would have been the strikeout total.
even if he wouldn’t have taken it my point was the Nats don’t want him back. Rizzo doesn’t want him back. no worries about a guy taking an offer you don’t really want him to take if you don’t give him one.
Nope.. Boras ALWAYS shops around, even when his clients have -0- chance of getting what the offer could have been and I can give you 2 really blown calls of his right off:
Jason Varitek after ”08 turned down 11m and ended up with 2/8m
Felipe Lopez after ’10 turned down 1m and ended up not getting squat…MiLB deal and finally dumped Boras for his ineptitude.
Zack, melki and eche at 2nd… And see ya in october!!!
Its disheartening to hear AA say he has to be creative with the limited dollars he has. The past two seasons we’ve been shovelled the line that Rogers will pay good money for a good product. Management has put their foot in the door to backtrack and claim they don’t feel its responsible to spend… disappointing
I’d say platoon McCoy and Hechavarria at second base next year, sign a starter who has potential for 1-2 year deal if we can’t afford someone worth a long term deal or that made sense…then figure out a package trade that benefits either LF or another Starting Pitcher or even both. Looking forward to seeing things unfold the rest of the off season…
McCoy is not a ML player. He is a depth player… AAAA… he’s the back up to the back up. A September call up to pinch run… nothing more. No way you platoon the guy.
Might not have much choice lol
Jays in other words will spend 85-90M next year around the same amount J.P Ricardi had to work with when we brought in BJ Ryan.
Who said they are playing”cheap” this year? Anything can happen this offseason.
Why can’t the fans understand that the Blue Jays are a tax write-off for Rogers Communications?
Ha Ha Ha. I bet you were just saying “Rogers” instead of “Rogers Communications” before the Esmil Rogers trade.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that there will be no riots even if AA doesn’t sign any premium free agents to albatross contracts..
He said “if.”
They should be creative anyway because everyone wants to sign the obvious guys like Greinke, Sanchez, etc. Anyone have any “creative” ideas for a SP the Jays should sign? How about Roy Oswalt?
No thanks to Oswalt. He’s a number 5 starter now at best.
AA has been saying some disturbing things lately.
No you don’t understand.
Rogers Com has two options:
1) invest nothing, collect revenue sharing, and pay less taxes (tax
write-off), support a low payroll and still be guaranteed modest
profits.
2) invest lots of time and money, contribute to revenue
sharing, pay more taxes, support a higher payroll, and NOT be
guaranteed any increase in profits.
It doesn’t take a genius to pick option 1.
Also the comparison to Arte Moreno and George Steinbrenner
are totally wrong. For individual owners, a baseball team is typically
their biggest investment and their biggest money maker. It is in their
best interest to generate as much money as possible. Rogers Com will never be like them.
Fans have four options available to them:
1) Whine and cry foul
2) Accept the reality and try to make the best of it
3) Distance yourself from the team or sport
4) Buy/Invest/Work for the team or industry to create the change you want
Unfortunately the majority of people pick choice #1.
“it will lose value and can potentially cut into their profits in other sectors”.
That’s exactly what they want.
If the Blue Jays lose money, they don’t pay income tax because there is no profit. This will allow Rogers Com to hide profits from other sectors of their business in the Blue Jays. The amount of money transferred is strategically picked so that the Blue Jays still post operating losses, while minimizing the amount of profits from other sectors of their business so they pay less tax. Then Rogers Com can withdraw those ‘profits’ and put them back into the other sectors of their business as necessary. The Blue Jays are then left with debt. However, since the Blue Jays receive sharing, they can use it to match their debts.
It’s creative accounting. It’s something that is frowned upon by governments and auditors, but it happens all the time. It’s technically fraud, but it’s hard to catch.
If you still don’t understand why, it’s nothing something I can fully explain on a comments section of a forum. An CA or CPA can explain this stuff.
Fans need to accept that the Blue Jays will always be nothing more than a tax write-off.
Again, you make no sense.
Arte Moreno already sold his company. It means he no longer receives money from them. It is extremely likely that the Angels are now his biggest money maker, unless he has $100’s of millions in investments in other places.
Do you even know what a tax write off is(in my best Jerry Seinfeld voice)? I think you meant to say that any losses are absorbed into the balance of the company. They can not write off losses for a sports team to a publicly traded company.
– Toronto Blue Jays suffers losses
– Rogers Com hides profits from other sectors of the business with the Blue Jays
– less taxes are paid
– revenue sharing money comes in
– money from other sectors of the business are then reimbursed
What am I missing?
Except that it is well known that Toronto’s major franchises are great
investments, regularly posting great profit margins, this includes the
Jays. That instantly debunks your profits hiding conspiracy.
Also
why would rogers lose 100 cents/$ from the jays, just to save 40c/$
elsewhere, not only that but they would also be losing big time on
opportunity costs, and the jays would eventually go the way of the Expos
with that scheme, as Joe was getting at. And if that happened Rogers
would be lucky to break even.
It is in Rogers best interests to
grow the valuation of the jays, not only does this increase yearly
profits, but sets rogers up for a big pay day should they sell.