Sources tell Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter links) that even though the Blue Jays have had contact with the agent for Nick Markakis, they aren’t seriously pursuing him right now. Â Currently, Toronto is prioritizing other outfielders ahead of Markakis.
Meanwhile, Morosi says that the Orioles are still trying to re-sign Markakis, but the two sides are not close on a deal. Â Last week, it was reported that there was renewed optimism between the O’s and Markakis’ camp about hammering out a new contract. Â That might still be the case, but it doesn’t sound like anything is imminent on that front. Â The two sides are said to be discussing a deal that would pay between $10-$12MM per year.
The Blue Jays are also in a similar spot with Hanley Ramirez, Morosi tweets.  Toronto has established contact with the free agent shortstop, but they’re not actively pursuing him at this time.  With Jose Reyes at shortstop, Ramirez, presumably, would be slotted in at third base with Brett Lawrie at second.  Then again, it’s unclear how serious GM Alex Anthopoulos & Co. are about pursuing Ramirez, who figures to be among the most highly paid free agents of the offseason.
jays seem to be toe dipping on every free agent and trade.
They do this every year. Someone in their FO has an open line to the national reporters and apparently they feel like it’s in their interest to make the rumor mill periodically.
A GM is not doing their job if they don’t do that. It’s just that not every team is leaking it. Sometimes you find a player that a team doesn’t value as much, or a free agent that gets way undervalued. Maybe they don’t want to guarantee Markakis $50MM, but there is a point where he makes sense.
Jays always seem to have their options open, but never seem to choose any of those options and instead defer to dumpster diving in the waiver wire.
Orioles fans have been saying a lot of the same things the last few years… and then they won the division… now everyone is praising the dumpster diving that Dan Duquette did…
Orioles didn’t dumpster dive to get where they are. They made plenty of smart trades acquiring guys like Chris Davis, Tommy Hunter, J.J. Hardy, Chris Tillman, and Adam Jones for pretty much nothing. Plus, unlike the Jays they have a lot of homegrown talent like Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Matt Wieters, Zach Britton, and Nick Markakis. They also weren’t afraid to spend some money once they built their foundation by adding guys like Nelson Cruz, Ubaldo Jimenez and then at the deadline when they were in the hunt, they added Andrew Miller and Alejandro De Aza. That’s how you run a franchise and as a Jays fan I can tell you ours is nothing like it.
While I am disappointed and would like the Jays management to do a big trade and sign top agents in UFA, you cannot ignore the potential talent that can be acquired through waivers. Edwin Encarnacion was brought to the Jays through waivers, and now he is one of the best player for the Jays and the league.
Encarnacion was acquired via trade, claimed off waivers from the A’s, non-tendered, then the Jays signed him again,
Thats part of it, but Steve Pearce, Nate McLouth, Oday, Ryan Flaherty, Delmon Young, Miguel Gonzalez were low risk flyers, waiver wire rejects and a rule 5 pick that seriously helped the Os the past few years.
The amount of players from the farm on the Jays comes no where near the amount for the Orioles
Pretty upscale dumpster they found Nelson Cruz in.
It was in the 8 million dollar dumpster
It’s the Ritz Carlton of refuse bins.
Dumpster diving: Melky signing, the huge Marlins-Jays trade, the trade for then CY Young award winner Dickey.
While I agree with you that the Jays make a lot of moves through waivers, I disagree with you on the reasons why they use it. I believe the Jays use the waiver wires because they don’t have any options. If you followed Jays last off season, the Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers agreed to a trade but Kinsler used his no trade clause and blocked a trade to Toronto. The Blue Jays made a great offer to Santana but he decided to sign with the Atlanta Braves. Last afternoon, there was another report that said either Chase Utley or Howie Kendrick blocked a trade coming to Toronto. What would you suggest the Jays to do, if the player blocks trade coming to Toronto and many free agents refusing to sign here unless the Jays vastly over pay?
The free agent rumors connecting the Jays to Martin, Martinez, Sandoval, Ramirez, Markakis, and Cabrera are all the same. There should just be one giant headline that says : “Blue Jays have checked in on everybody, but aren’t seriously pursuing anybody.”
Whoever gives Markakis the contract that he wants is going to regret it from day one. The guy posted his highest fWAR in five years, but still wasn’t worth a full win above league average, and over the last six years he’s only missed time in one season but still averages out to be a hair below league average and is on the wrong side of 30. That’s pretty bad for a guy in his peak years averaging 150 games a year.
Trust me don’t bother preaching this to anyone in Baltimore. All you will get is you’re a hater replies. I’ve been saying this for years. He’s untouchable in this town.
I wouldnt’ say that. Markakis seems to be a very divisive player amongst Baltimore fans. There are a lot of fans that don’t want him back, and a lot that do. You have to remember, the O’s are the new trendy team right now amongst a lot of people who weren’t invested in the team during the down years. So many of those fans have no emotional attachment to Markakis, because they weren’t even watching the O’s during the few good years that Markakis had. And many of those new fans are the fantasy football type players who love the advanced metrics part of the game, so they don’t really think Markakis is good. But I would agree that amongst the Baltimore media and the more “traditional” fans, Markakis walks on water.
I agree with that somewhat. I’ve loved this team since birth. Even during the dreadful Sidney Ponson & Ty Wiggington days I wore my Orange proudly. Speaking of Wiggington he has been to more All Star games as an Oriole then Markakis has. Personally I did have the emotional attachment to Nick. The nostalgia of him is greater then his skill set at this point though. Numbers don’t lie and at the point in his career that should be his prime he has regressed. Maybe it was injuries the past couple years. Maybe him hitting leadoff stunted his numbers. Either way he’s went from 20 HR 15 SB 40 Doubles with a .290 Avg potential to a player that isn’t even sniffing those numbers.
It will be a shock if Markakis doesn’t return to the Orioles.
Why? It’s not like he helped the Orioles win a World Series.
Plus, maybe he want to go somewhere else and try something different.
What is ‘four’ more years going to do for the O’s or Markakis.
Lastly, where would Markakis play for the Blue Jays? I can’t imagine Nick displacing Joey Bats. Kakes isn’t fast enough to play CF. Maybe, he could switch to left, I just don’t know. However, four more years of Markakis in RF doesn’t sound like a good thing to me as of right now.
It’s about money. Four years is a bit much though. He really is a fine enough player, and he still is younger, but to me he isn’t a special enough player to give 4 years to.
He helped the O’s win the division, that’s what he did. He is a very solid player.
Everybody on the team “helped” the O’s win the division, that doesn’t mean all of them should be brought back.
Why would a player leave a team that just went to the alcs to “try something different. ” and frankly, that’s not even his style. He’s a quiet, reserved, small market minded player. It would solely be motivated by $$$. I’m frankly indifferent at this point. He doesn’t provide much upside over a player like de aza. They could find an adequate replacement for less $$$, but there are things that people on here are completely missing when evaluating his importance.
He hits lefties and eighties generally equally, and you cannot play the shift against him. For a left handed hitter, that is huge. His obp is much better than your standard oriole. His defense is stout, but his offensive numbers as a lead off guy are clearly not the best.
He could rebound in the 2 hole and perform better than previous years. If he does that, it’s likely to be a,worthwhile contract. Remember, a lot of his x base hits declined when his arm injuries occured. Fully healed, he might be back to 30 doubles 70 rbi.
Can’t he play first base or DH? He can be a platoon for the Jays. I rather have him as a DH than Navarro.
He has to look at whay he brings to the table. I like Nick and always a fan but his 6 yr $66M deal worked not as expected. he is not the guy that drives in 80 runs and bangs 45 doubles. Always a great fielder and two time Gold Glover but never an All Star. Got some great outfielders in the system as well.
I don’t understand all this talk about Markakis. Below average defense, average bat and he’s going to be 31 on opening day. Why exactly would you pay $10+ million/year for him?
That’s what major league average players (at least those beyond their arbitration years) make. It’s actually a bit low for a 2 WAR guy.
It’s not low. You don’t assume any FA is going to maintain their production. Good rule of thumb for a 31 year old FA is go subtract a .5 WAR every year. So starting at the 2 WAR player he is, what level of production are you looking at for 40 million?
My fingers are crossed that the Blue Jays management thinks exactly as you do, and stays out of the bidding.
The Blue Jays are never getting Hanley Ramirez because they don’t need him.
IIRC the Blue Jays need a 2B or 3B option pretty badly. Signing him to play 3B could go a long way to helping them next year.
I think it depends on how they view Travis as well. If they really believe he’s the stopgap 2nd baseman they need, and if he can contribute next year at the MLB level, then Hanley isn’t needed.
Going after a short term option makes a lot more sense though, giving Travis at least a full year in triple A.
Hanley 5/100. With the Dodgers, Yankees, Angles not bidding maybe Hanely will take a discount to play with his Dominican brothers.
yeah but they just got xeon travis who only needs 1 year to play second so spending a lot of money on Hanley makes no sense to me when the have lawrie
Of course, that’s assuming that he can handle it. Hanley is a fit if they decide that they don’t want to risk it or that they would rather have Travis as the backup plan. They’re so close to contention that they probably should look into getting some one proven.
Astrubal Cabrera would be a good short term fix if they were to add Aoki as well.
I cannot think of the last player that got the years they should actually get. Every single position player these says of any recognizable merit is signed 1 year or more than they should be. Nelson Cruz shouldn’t be signed to a 4 year deal, but he will. Same with markakis
It seems that the Orioles wait every year until every one signs somewhere else. then tells the press we had an offer on the table.That is we are dumpster driver.