While the Blue Jays have lost David Price and some other key parts of their division-winning team, CBS Sports’ Dayn Perry notes that the Jays will receive two significant roster upgrades in 2016 in the form of Troy Tulowitzki and Marcus Stroman playing full seasons in Toronto. Tulowitzki, of course, didn’t join the Jays until the trade deadline and also missed half of September recovering from a cracked shoulder blade. Stroman missed almost all of 2015 after a Spring Training ACL tear before returning in September to make some key starts down the stretch and in the postseason. Here’s some more from Toronto…
- Since the 2016-17 free agent market is looking thin, ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required) writes that a larger-than-usual number of star players could become trade targets this summer. If the Jays are struggling at midseason, some executives see them as seller candidates given that Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Cecil are entering their last season under contract. It’s even possible the Jays could see what they could get for Tulowitzki or AL MVP Josh Donaldson. Any deals of this nature, however, “would be a really tough sell” for the club given how ownership and the Mark Shapiro-led front office has already faced criticism from fans in the wake of Alex Anthopoulos’ departure.
- Also from Olney’s column, he doubts the Blue Jays would get an acceptable return in an R.A. Dickey trade. Dickey is entering his age-41 season, is only under contract for 2016 and earns $12MM, so Olney doesn’t think a trade partner would be willing to give much up for Dickey with so many other pitching options available in free agency or on the trade market.
- The Drew Storen-for-Ben Revere trade was a old-fashioned type of deal, MLB.com’s Tracy Ringolsby writes. The Jays and Nationals are both contenders who had a surplus at the other team’s position of need, and the result was a relatively straight-forward one-for-one swap (with some extra money and a player to be named later also involved).
- In other Jays news from earlier today, GM Ross Atkins addressed the Dickey rumors, bullpen usage and extensions for Bautista and Encarnacion during an MLB Network Radio interview.
I don’t think people realize just how good the Blue Jays will be in 2016. They had the best run differential in the league by a long shot.
This was with just 15 (15!) starts by Price and Stroman.
The idea that they would entertain trading Donaldson is well.. something. They will be a force in 2016.
Jays simply don’t want to pay Donaldson and plan on moving Tulo to third. If jays wanted to win they would had extended Price and offered Donaldson a multi year deal similar to what the Rays did for Longoria years ago. Jays simply want to be good enough to sell tickets and broadcasting.
I absolutely agree with you. If the jays starting rotation can be around a 4ERA I think they will run away with that division with there now elite bullpen. Having Sanchez, Cecil, Osuna and now Storen definitely makes it an elite bullpen. Those are 4 absolute shutdown guys. If they can get good use out of 2 more guys, wow. The blue jays are the most complete team in the MLB Offensively and Defensively. Martin, a top 5 catcher in the MLB, with Tulo and J-Don on the left side of the infield mashing and playing top notch D. Having a Travis and Goins tandem at 2nd will be amazing as well. In the OF they have a gold glove caliber speedster in Pillar and Joey bats who will do his thing. LF is a bit uncertain but we have some depth there in Saunders and Pompey. Such a complete team on the field. The only question mark is the rotation. Stroman will do his thing, Dickey as well. Question marks to me are Estrada (can he repeat?). If not, jays could be in a little bit of trouble. Happ should hover around a 4 era unless searge tinkered something significant in Happ in the ‘Burgh. Chavez is a very good #5 with Hutchison in the mix too. This team is going to be a force and super exciting.
I agree, but still wondering who leads off for this team and also questioning the back up catch. Really hope it’s not going to be Thole, we all remember Martins 2nd half struggles. Imagine he gets hurt and Thole is in there every day??
The Jays didn’t lose that much, but I think the biggest question will be Tulo. His half season in Toronto was underwhelming. If he gets back to form then the Jays will have a powerful middle of the order. If not then less so.
His D has markedly better than that of Reyes.
I would say the Blue Jays lost HUGE with the loss of Price and the fact that they added nothing of quality to the rotation is a big problem. Tulo was only acceptable for defense, and if they had Goins at SS instead of him they would get even better defense at less than 1/10 the price. Outside of fielding Tulo was pretty much a disaster. The team needed big help in the rotation and instead they have a much weaker rotation now than they had in the second half of the season. A talented sophomore (he’s got less than a season worth of starts under his belt and that’s your #1 guy? Recipe for disaster) a mediocre guy coming off of a career season, a #6 type guy coming off of the only 2 good months of his career, an old washed up knuckleballer and Chavez. That’s the kind of rotation that puts a team in last place.
Regression to some degree is always expected though, every single guy on the roster isn’t going to put up the same numbers (or better) than last year. You might have a guy or two seriously outperform last year’s numbers, but there’s probably going to be one or two guys who struggle.
Only guy in that lineup that had a career year was Donaldson and he was hitting in the deathbed of O.co.
Nobody including Encarnacion, Bautista, Martin or Tulowitzki had a career year.
I was really frustrated at the beginning of the off season. Shapiro has been pretty smart. I love to have Price though that contract is out of control. Jays have made good moves so far with the exception of the Hendrik trade. Can’t believe what relievers r getting this year. Soria 3 yrs 25 mil, Madson 3 yrs 21 mil etc, they missed out on the Petit signing which would have been reasonable. Not sure why they didn’t make more of an effort to resign Lowe. Estrada, Happ signings and the Storen trade where smart moves. We r just a couple small depth pieces away 2 reliable pitchers (whether it’s a starter and a reliever or 2 relievers), a back up catcher and a depth OF which maybe can b Junior Lake. Not sold on Gibbons. Ned Yost and Bouchy make him look like an amateur. Be nice to have Dusty Baker as an assistant to Gibbons. AL east will b fun this year. Like said earlier in this thread a full season of Tulo and Stroman will b sweet. Can’t wait till we get Travis back. I think the Jays will win the division and at worse make it as a wild card. Boston is solid (they where great the last 2 months (they will make the playoffs) and the Yankees have that killer bullpen though a lot of questions elsewhere (won’t make the playoffs),
They aren’t trading Donaldson, no idea where he got that idea from.
The scary thing is that they are unquestionably an even better team at the start of 2016 than they were at the start of 2015. The rotation, bullpen, and parts of the lineup were riddled with question marks heading into 2015, namely due to the abundance of rookies and Stroman being injured. Now most of those rookies are either established or gone and the team has even been fortified further since then with the addition of guys like Tulo and Storen. Despite Boston and New York’s best efforts, I really don’t see how they can hang with the Jays. If they carry the same swagger and confidence that they had at the end of last season into the next one, I think they’ll separate themselves from the pack in short order.
But your right, I am excited to have Tulo and Stroman for the full season baring any injuries of course.
Be wary of counting chickens before they hatch though. Injuries can cause much bigger problems for a top heavy (depth chart wise) team like the Jays than a team with a well-rounded roster with high quality depth. Still think the Jays are in the best spot on paper to take the AL East at this point though.
They have depth bats in Colabello and Smoak. One of Saunders, Pompey will be the LF starter and the other will serve as either the starter in wait in AAA or bench depth, there’s upside in both. Devon Travis might be considered depth when he comes back or he could very well push Goins to the bench who’s a superb fielder. The Jays are very fine in terms of depth, which is one of the many reasons they had such a good season last year. They waived Danny Valencia who ended up becoming Oakland’s cleanup hitter because of too much depth lol.
As a Red Sox fan I envy your lineup now with ours ageing and I supported the jays throughout the playoffs as I love a couple of your players but I feel that as it did in the first half last year your pitching will let you down. You’ve lost your ace Price and your depth in guys like Daniel Norris. Chavez and Happ won’t be enough to retain the AL East
Daniel Norris is with the Tigers…..Price was never our Ace to keep. He was a rental, we all knew that… and our team on paper is better then it was. Goins and Pillar emerged last year and Martin makes our backstop so much better and frames so well. We even got better depth with our pitching then we did last year. We’ve got this…don’t you worry.
Devon Travis might be considered depth? No, he will 100% be the starter once fully healed.
Trade the reigning AL MVP under team control for years in his prime? Yeah…ok. I’m no expert but…
Also, this is one of the most anticipated seasons for Toronto baseball. I still pick them as AL East favorites. Hopefully it’s a dog fight with Boston all year long.
Also, very exciting to see if Pillar can build on his solid 2015 and hopefully Travis can be at 100% and continue to put up big time numbers.
I am surprised the Blue Jays didn’t make a bigger effort to resign David Price or sign one of the other top free agent SPs after giving up so much for Price and Tulo. They have the best offense in the AL East, but their pitching is behind the Yankees with Chapman added to that already elite bullpen and the Red Sox now with David Price and Kimbrel in the backend.
They have a very good bullpen as well. And their rotation is arguably better than both the Red Sox and Yankees.
The Jays didn’t win the division with pitching, they won it by scoring more than everyone else and playing really good defense. Both things should continue next year.
A larger offer wouldn’t have gotten them any closer to getting Price. The second Boston announced they had a blank cheque for him, it was all over.
Pretty sure Chapman goes to jail lol
Wondering what happened to my 2 previous comments….Wierd
I don’t see any comments of yours in moderation, so either there was some technical error or perhaps your prior comments violated a policy and were removed.
There is no way that the Blue Jays trade Donaldson, Tulowitski, Cecil… I would of liked having some like J Upton even it required a huge contract because he can apply similar power to Bautista/Encarnacion who are much older and have some uncertainty in the next season+ with contract years, age and future contracts all ahead…
I’d personally of traded Pompey for pitching this off season and made a stronger push for Free Agent Pitchers like Zimmermann, Cueto, etc. when they had a chance. Truly wish we made an offer to Price although I’m glad that we didn’t shell out that much cash (despite the fact Rogers has it and won’t spend it, go figure)
The Jays will have the best offense again by far but will be expected to outscore teams. Stroman is the only pitcher on that roster that will scare teams but also don’t think he’s ace worthy (yet). We saw this happen to the Red Sox last year trying to build an elite offense without addressing pitching (Jays are better on paper than ’15 sox but more looking at strategy). They’re going into the season with ceiling expectations from guys who had outlier good years last year in Estrada and Happ and relying on Dickey to do something on top of having 2 guys who had high ERAs last year (Hutchison 5.57 and Chavez 4.18) compete for the last rotation spot? I do see the Storen signing going well but think they need to add a starter (either Chen or even kick the tires on Cliff Lee)
I do see the Storen signing going well but think they need to add a starter (either Chen or even kick the tires on Cliff Lee)
a well-written post,
those two did have outlier years, and this coming year, both will keep the team within reach for most games, rather than for half the games as was the case for the Jays’ pitchers until the trades were made last season.
I think the revere/storen trade is an indication of the goals of the new regime…trade an area of strength to fill a need, and feel that a similar kind of ingenious trade is coming, for a proven, top of the rotation lhp, or even as you suggest, a FA.
Which and how many of jays players would loosen Billy’s Sonny Gray out of Oakland, I wonder?
Trade Dicky for Hammel of the Cubs before All Star break he was the Cubs best pitcher the that hamstring pull two years in a row best first half pitcher on the north siders team both have one year left before FA hits
I can see the Jays trying to close out an extension with Edwin before the season begins, but might be more likely to with JoeyBats since he’s a fan fav, the face of our franchise and wants to retire a Blue Jay. As far as Cecil goes I can see him signing with us again if we give him a good deal. We won’t offer him a QO cause thats too expensive.
Donaldson being traded won’t happen at all..