Here are a couple quick notes from out of Toronto:
- The Blue Jays’ exchange of arbitration figures with MVP Josh Donaldson on Friday is a source of concern, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca writes. Next offseason, the Jays will face the potential free agency of Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, R.A. Dickey and several other key players, and they’ll need to remake themselves around Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin. Their farm system is relatively weak in the upper levels after their midseason trades last year, too, so they’ll have to supplement that core without much initial help from their farm system. Arbitration hearings can be contentious, and the Jays already took Donaldson to arbitration once last winter. Davidi feels it therefore seems a bit worrisome that they’re apparently set to do it again, even though the difference between their filing numbers ($11.8MM versus $11.35MM) is only $450K. On the other hand, the Jays already have about $130MM committed to their big-league payroll in 2016, and need all the payroll space they can get, not only for the coming season, but for the future, when they’ll have to handle replacing or re-signing their long list of players who are eligible for free agency.
- New Jays president Mark Shapiro is not “Darth Vader,” he tells Brendan Kennedy of the Star in a lengthy profile. Jays fans haven’t exactly warmed to Shapiro, whose arrival helped lead to the departure of GM Alex Anthopoulos, who had just helped build the Jays’ exciting 2015 team. “It’s not consistent with who I’ve been for 24 years,” Shapiro says of certain aspects of his current reputation in Toronto. “I’ve got a pretty good track record of who I am as a person and who I am as a leader. So it’s a little strange to all of a sudden go from a guy who was considered to be a nice guy to a guy who’s Darth Vader.”
You may or may not darth vader because you didnt even make a formal offer to Price. Yes I know we werent going to get him, but making a formal offer could have quieted some heat from the fans. Secondly, the signing of JA Happ was a head scratcher, im not sure if this was Shapiros doing or LaCava (interim gm before Atkins came on the scene). I think the fans were hoping for a Zimmerman type of signing or even Leake. Happ could be great and hopefully Estrada repeats. If we grab Gallardo, It would quiet a lot of tension from fans in my opinion. Gallardo would really stabilize this rotation which is the only question mark on the team. Would allow us to have Chavez and Hutchison as rotation depth which is really good. Could even open up a possible trade to grab another bullpen arm. Get it done.
Gallardo is trending downward fast, and dangerously. He’s not good and won’t be worth what he signs for,
Especially after Ian Kennedy just got what he did.
Insane $$$.
Gallardo is not trending downward. FIP is a skewed stat a lot of times, there are people who continually out perform their peripherals. People are pointing out his K rate decline. Why does he need to K people to be effective? Hes consistently living on the corners.. Id pay Gallardo 4/62 which is my guess what he will get. Hes consistent.
Gallardo is trending down, in my opinion, because of the fact that he can’t pitch past the 6th inning.
Agreed Kennedy got extremely overpayed
I disagree with the happ signing. Second half of the year he was on fire, and Pittsburg is known for turning pitchers around.
Some good points though when u look at the pricing of some of the free agent pitchers it appears like Happ is a pretty good signing. I would bet the Orioles would take him in a second right now.
I’m fine with the Happ signing. It is a reasonable contract and he’s a good #4 starter. The Jays were never going to sign a top=level free agent starter because they won’t go above 5 years on a contract. Stroman will be the ace of this staff he continues to develop. I’d prefer another starter because I don’t trust Hutchison or Chavez as a starter.
5 year limit was a beeston rule that aa adhered to
Shapiro is no Darth Vader. Darth Vader would have hunted down and killed every leader of the league and MLBPA, and created his own CBA with no free agency.
Really need an edit button lol.
Miss that already
Shipiro will be the death of this team. Rogers brought him in to make ( save ) them money. 450K difference for the AL MVP and you couldn’t say “Ok, you are the franchise of this team for years to come. Let’s make you happy to be here.” No one will ever any to play here. Players talk. Stingy companies don’t make good owners.
It’s not about the $450k this year. Donaldson still has two more years of arbitration after this one. Each year they will use the previous year as precedent. That $450k can easily become a few million over the next few years if he continues to perform.
no rogers brought himin to replace beastman and to spearhead the renos that the stadium is in need of. Shapiro wants to win and im confident he recognizes 2016 is it. I would expect us to sign another starter or if a pillow contract is considered someone like upton or cespedes.
Stingy companies make money bud!
You got that right
If the made a run to Cespedes (or Upton) they would have one of the greatest lineups of all the times.
Why would you do that if you need pitching
Pretty silly comment considering the number of teams that you would have to consider to make that kind of comment.
I’ve got an idea for you….stop drinking the Jays KoolAid and you’ll feel better by Spring Training.
Hey you’re that guy from andrewstoeten.com lol. Man you’re dedicated.
Its absurd for a lot of reasons not to just agree to Donaldson’s price. Darth Vader argues over 450k, Kenobi doesn’t, just saying.
How do these comments get worse? Ever since disquss went away its been a long spiral to pointlessness. Might as well just get rid of em at this point. Can’t even edit anymore? I’ve been clickin here for years, just seems like these stories may as well not even have a comment section anymore.
Yea it’s gone downhill. No edit and no upvoting. Really bad format
the editing aspects skews all the responses received…. i am a fan of the 15 minutes sportsnet provides to edit but they are owned by rogers doubt these guys have those kind of resources. as for up votes, we all should be smart enough to know a good comment from a bad one.
Wow. The former GM, Antroupolis sold out on everything and mortgaged the future to make a playoff run and elevate his legacy in Toronto. He lost out when the jays did and management shouldn’t be criticized for wanting to make a profit AKA bringing in a seasoned GM like Shapiro to get them there.
You all need to calm down up in maple leafville and realize that your looking at a pretty barren team landscape in a year or so.
Exactly WHAT has Shapiro done that makes him a genius? Or the guy that can get a team somewhere?? I don’t remember seeing any rings in Cleveland.
Rogers only nakes money off my cable bill. They have lost so much projected revenue by being cheap and not appearing in a playoff game up until last season.
AA did sell out the future to make a run, something that not many people would complain about. But I doubt he made those moves with the intention of leaving the Jays. As far as we know, AA wanted to return but the Jays bringing in Shapiro to take over baseball operations didn’t sit well with him.
Darth Vader redeems himself when he kills the Emperor. Kind of a bad analogy when you think about it.
Dude, spoilers!