The Blue Jays have signed outfielder Michael Saunders to a minor-league deal, per a club announcement. He had been released recently by the Phillies, who’ll pay all but a pro-rated portion of his $8MM salary for the rest of the season.
Saunders, 30, struggled badly after landing in Philadelphia over the winter. He ended his tenure there with 214 plate appearances of .205/.257/.360 hitting and six home runs. The Phils will also owe Saunders a $1MM payment to buy out his $11MM club option for 2018.
Toronto is obviously quite familiar with the veteran outfielder, as he posted a strong year therein 2016. Finally healthy for a full season, Saunders turned in a .253/.338/.478 batting line with 24 long balls over 558 plate appearances. Of course, he also fell off quite a bit in the second half after earning his first All-Star Game berth.
For the time being, Saunders will head to Triple-A. But it’s not hard to imagine him arriving back in the majors before too long. The Jays currently feature a corner outfield mix consisting of right-handed hitters Jose Bautista and Steve Pearce along with the lefty bats of Ezequiel Carrera and Ian Parmley. Adding Saunders to the mix could potentially allow the Jays to utilize Pearce at second base on occasion as well.
Welcome back Captain Canada
Captain Canada gets to Captain Buffalo now
Booooo
MSaund, we hardly knew ye…
Wow, with that move, here comes the World Series!! I thought Shapiro and Atkins are supposed to be some kind of wunderkinds! What a debacle!!
Saunders is a depth move and will make little of no difference in wins. Shapiro and Atkins clearly are not doing the significant things to help this team win. When they acquire an elite starter and and a very good releiver and send Biagini back to the pen, I’ll be impressed. Until then, pfffft. Blow it up then.
Jays current brass loves to tinker. Saunders was awful in the second half last year, I don’t see much value in Saunders. Jays need to figure out where they are as a ball club, make a decisive move. The better the Jays do, the more Canadian kids play baseball. Sounds overstated, but it’s not. Little League enrolment is up in Nova Scotia since the Jays recent run – fact. That’s a cool influence, to put it simply. Jays fans deserve better and here’s hoping the Jays make some good moves. But, all hail the Red Sox.
minor baseball in alberta has been up around 25% the past 2 years!! crazy what the blue jays players can do to kids!!
Acquiring an elite starter isn’t as easy as you make it seem. The Rays won’t trade Archer in division, so that probably leaves only Quintana. Anything with him would have to center around Guerrero. The very good reliever would likely then cost Bichette. I don’t think I’d be willing to completely punt the farm to support an aging team that’s going to see Donaldson depart after 2018 personally
Acquiring a big time starter requires shipping out ready prospects. If this team is going to compete, they should have done an elite starter deal in the off=season as I said in January. It was Ra=Ra koolaid to think that this rotation was good enough to win. If the Jays brass isn’t going to “punt” the farm system, that sends a clear picture to me that they only want to win for as long as it doesn’t compromise the best prospects, which is utter nonsense. I understand the Jay’s brass has a long term “let’s be competative” strategy which means no big deals costing prospects. That translates to me, no winning, and therefore no spending money on tickets for me. Let’s stop the phoney baseball speak “we are waiting to see if this team is going to be close enough” crap and trade NOW so that the Jays can be close enough at the deadline or blow it up now. Enough is enough.
The Jays don’t really have a farm system to punt. They have Vlad and Bichette, then a bunch of B tier prospects. Plus, they are competitive right now. I’d rather them ride it out than trade for a starter and a reliever that will do nothing to address the fact that they are incapable of hitting in clutch situations. I also don’t get the huge rush to blow the team up. Lots of time left.
I guess I am a win or rebuild now, on or off type thinking, nothing in-between thinker. There is not a lot of time left. This team will not win unless there are upgrades now. Why watch a team that cannot win a championship? I can only watch so much Jays baseball for the fun of it if I know that they cannot win. I won’t pay for a ticket knowing they cannot win a championship. I have long predicted that the Jay’s brass don’t have the stones to upgrade what is necessary to win this year. Since this team is so old, it requires serious upgrades or blowing up. Next year they will be worse. Martin, Bautista,Tulowitski, Estrada, Lirano all gotta go for a whatever they can get, if they can trade any of them, especially the big ticket contract guys.
if you dont want to pay for a ticket because you think they might not win the championship, are you even a fan?…. a little harsh!?
Harsh? it seems silly to me to pay for a ticket to a team that has no chance of winning. It is like no hope to win. Why bother? I want to be emotionally attached to a winner. Even though I am a devout baseball fan and have been all my life and I enjoy watching games for the great plays. Each game is different – never see the same thing twice. .
I worked in the baseball community, I scouted for clubs. Harsh? I am wired to win, not just compete and watch great plays. And it goes deeper, because of the scouting background and ability, I called this Jays “mess” in the off-season and in spring training, I proposed exactly what they needed to do to become a championship calibre team. So when what I called comes true[this mess], and there are things that the Jays brass can do now to build up this team to give them and shot of winning and they don’t take those steps, it becomes more frustrating than pleasure watching this team.
I am a great fan and probably too emotionally invested in this team and that is why I don’t want to pay for a ticket. I can’t stand to see mistakes made over and over again in the name of competing without a chance of winning. I called them a 3rd place team in the ALEast with no playoff unless an elite starter and 2 very good relievers were added in spring training. It is probably too late to add pieces now, unless they are elite which would cost bigtime prospects. Sigh.
Indians have been drafting better and making more sound trades since the Shapiro ship shipped…
Called this !!
Thoughts and prayers.
Great move!!