The Blue Jays are making a push to re-sign slugger Edwin Encarnacion, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. According to Davidi, the two sides have already had some “fruitful” contract discussions that have “given [Encarnacion] something to think about.” Davidi notes, too, that Encarnacion’s preference is to remain in Toronto, which obviously works in the Blue Jays’ favor. He does caution, however, that an agreement between the two sides is no sure thing, even though there’s apparently been some progress in negotiations.
The Jays extended a one-year qualifying offer to Encarnacion and teammate Jose Bautista earlier today, though there’s never a great chance that either — especially Encarnacion — would accept the $17.2MM pact for the 2017 season. While the QO can have an adverse effect on the market for some free agents, Encarnacion’s status as arguably the top available bat of the offseason makes it unlikely that he’d run into much difficulty even with the burden of draft pick compensation hanging over him.
The 33-year-old Encarnacion (34 in January) is coming off yet another excellent season at the plate, having slashed .263/.357/.529 with 42 home runs in 702 plate appearances. Since breaking out with the Blue Jays a half-decade ago, Encarnacion sports a robust .272/.367/.544 line with 193 home runs in 727 games — an average of 44 homers per 162 games played. It’s not clear whether Encarnacion’s camp would forgo a lengthier trip through free agency in order to quickly re-up with the Jays, but it’s worth noting, of course, that Encarnacion has yet to even be granted the right to negotiate with other clubs. The exclusive window for clubs to negotiate with their own free agents ends tonight at midnight, though, so Encarnacion could quickly get a sense of how Toronto’s current level of aggression stacks up with the rest of the market.
If the blue jays do not sign Edwin, everyone cancel their roger services
i’ve already notified them of my intentions to do the same
That is silly. Remember, teams can’t FORCE free agents to sign.
And don’t forget how fans howled about “cheap” Rogers when they didn’t even try to sign David Price, signing Estrada and Happ instead. That turned out to be a great decision.
Are you dumb? Eddy said he wants to stay in TO
It all depends on the $$$$ now, hence why I said that , Rogers is one of the richest companies in Canada, they can afford it
Cause Rogers will actually care that you’ll cancel your service…
1 or 2 no. But a whole Nation I bet is a BigYES !!!!
And in a couple of years when he starts to decline, are you going to be cursing Jays ownership for extending him so long and for so much? At the very least, he’s probably going to get 4 years and at least $20 million per (as a minimum, I highly expect him to get more money and probably another year or two). I get the need/desire to resign him, but I think the Jays ownership/front office should set a respectable number and let him decide. In my opinion, a 5 year $100-125 million deal is the most I would be comfortable giving him (and even then, I think that’s one year too many but given the free agent market, it’s whats necessary to sign him). Jays should only go past “their number” if the deal is frontloaded, comes with deferrals, or has team/mutual options.
Yea, because the entire nation of Canada is going to cancel their Rogers service because of a post on MLBTR.
As a dodger fan who hasn’t been able to watch a game in 2 years, trust me they don’t care.
Jays don’t wait long Just lock him up and let’s Go !!!
He will sign with the Red Sox.
You may have missed this article.
link to espn.com
I thought Red Sox would be the Jays’ biggest rival in signing EE, but if they are unwilling to fork enough money to sign Trumbo let alone EE, then I like the Jays’ chances in resigning him.
Maybe they’re shoring up their cash for EE though.
Did you miss this?
“We’ve already heard that the Blue Jays are making a play to retain him, and Kinzer tells WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford that he also sees the division-rival Red Sox as a great fit. Encarnacion loves hitting in Boston, says Kinzer, and also likes the idea of stepping into the sizable shoes of fellow Dominican David Ortiz. “
I agree. To BOS goes EE.
If the Red Sox do in fact end up signing EE, do the Jays have a case for tampering considering a Boston employee (Ortiz) publicly pushed for the signing of EE this past season?
MLB already investigated Papi(and maybe Sox but can’t recall) for his quotes and found no wrong doing. As a Jays fan, if he goes to Boston, it’d suck but I’d in no way throw more tampering accusations Boston’s way.
Boston isn’t NY. Not even close. But where would you want your baseball legacy to be… Boston in Fenway Park or Toronto? Pretty simple decision if the contract offers are similar. Boston wins every single time.
Edwin would have a place among the all-time Jays greats if he played through another contract with them, that’s a “legacy” he’ll never achieve going to Boston for 4 years.
I agree, he is in the mode of cashing in and making a legacy. He was a huge part of the resurgence in Toronto, he loves the city and Toronto will be the lead dog, they are increasing payroll to give him what they need. Toronto was 3rd in attendance this year and he is a fan favourite and loves Toronto. His career was saved there, if the money is close, he’s stays in Toronto
The playing culture of the Jays has to change from a two, three run-hr to win a game, to strategies that will make baseball in Toronto great again:), esp against great pitching.
Bringing back these free agents will not change the touch-em-all strategy., i.e., if the current, ever-revolving regime wants to change that strategy. After all, attendance is at all time high up here in RC.
Anyone who tried to coach a team in any sport has probably been the whipping boy of an opposing coach who can get ‘er done, who can think during the game, knows the sport, and is so apt that he knows which player who will screw his courage to the sticking place ( to mangle Shakespeare). at a particular, crucial moment.
Toronto, from the viewpoint of this ‘rocking-horse winner”, still has a try-manager, and one who has proven he doesn’t know how to get that ‘courage’ out of his team
I think they’re more likely to re-sign Bautista.
He is averaging 42 homers in 162 game season. This year it was 44. I think he needs to make the correct decision and stick with TOR like Chris Davis did with BAL. I think EE will struggle elsewhere.
Bautista needs to bring himself down to earth, and realise he was a PT player before he came to TOR. He was hopelessly average in PIT, get a little less money and be a really really good player, don’t become greedy and go for more money and become a bust very quickly.
Chris Davis stayed with Baltimotre because no team came anywhere close to the amount of $ the Orioles gave him. I am Not saying he would have choose another team had they made a similar offer, but the $ was the big reason why he’s still an Oriole.
Since Davis resigned that contract, makes me always wonder if the Orioles regret resigning a guy that has a high stirkeout rate, including the fact that he led the league in strikeouts two seasons in a row now.
I read that The value of Rogers’ action went up during the year and a half honeymoon between the fans and the team. This is what 3 millions tickets sold and a million tv audience will do for you. Therefore, I would’ve been shocked if they don’t at least try seriously to re-sign EE after all the money they made, specially since EE raised his value by not only batting well, but also playing good defense.
Having said that, I hope, if they reach an agreement, that it won’t be more than a 4 year contract. I don’t care about the money as long as its for a short period of time.
They Jays will need to adress, pretty soon, all of their young kids’ contracts and JD. You don’t want an albatros contract for a DH/1B to impact your ability to invest in your core positions.
Exactly. I’m all for the Jays making a highly competitive offer for EE, but there has to be a line that they can’t be willing to cross. Hopefully that line is a respectable number that EE won’t see as a slap in the face but the Jays should try to avoid anything going past 4 years. The guy is playing out of his mind the past few years but he’s bound to regress soon. No guarantee it’ll happen, but if EE’s asking price is too high, they should just save the money for Donaldson and some of their young guys like Pillar, Sanchez, Ozuna, etc.
Rogers don’t care about us, yes the have money but if they say don’t go over x amount the Jays won’t if the have a payroll of 150 mil and have 30 mil to spend to sign 5 players they won’t sent 20 plus mil on Edwin, we have no say Rogers and the Jays will do what they want and all of us will still put are asses in the seats and pack the Rogers centre every game
Well, before AA made the big trades in 2013, I remember going to games where we were only 17k fans in the stadium. My point is it seems to be profitable to Rogers to put on the field a winning product. They would be crazy to take the fans for granted since RC has been empty for 15 years prior to the 2014 season.
So it’s true that they don’t care about us, but they certainly care about their shareholders’ pockets.
If I were the Blue Jays, resigning EE is more important than Bautista. EE is just two years younger but it seems Bautista hit a wall after this season. Plus, Bautista is seeking a hefty contract that I don’t think anyone would want to give him. Blue Jays would probably be better off trying to chase Cespedes or even Trumbo at RF.
They’ll make a push, but you also have to look ahead, can’t give him too much money as it may impact their ability to resign Donaldson, arguably the face of the team. Its Donaldson’s team and everyone in baseball knows that, so that is going to come into play.