The Blue Jays have agreed to terms with first-round draft choice Alek Manoah, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). It’s an at-slot, $4,547,500 deal for the 11th overall pick.
Manoah, a junior out of West Virginia University, was selected right in range of where he was ranked by draft pundits. ESPN.com’s Keith Law was highest, grading him ninth overall, while MLB.com had him right at the draft position. Baseball America and Fangraphs each ranked Manoah the 13th-best prospect available.
A massive right-handed hurler, Manoah is said by the MLB.com team to be “a rare college pitcher with projection.” He increased his stock this year by improving his strike-throwing ability, though BA notes his command is still a work in progress. In addition to that needed refinement, Manoah will need to gain confidence in an infrequently-utilized changeup to go with his fastball/slider combo.
Excellent by the jays to get Alek Manoah signed. Now trade him somewhere in a package to land a near ready MLB starter.
After being drafted, players cannot be traded until after the completion of the World Series. Plus, there’s no reason to trade him anyway. They need more Manoah’s, not fewer.
But why? Still at least a few years away from contention by the time the teams ready he should be as well.
The goal is to win now. They can win in 2020 if they do a cashman or dombrowski and raise the budget to 200M and trade the farm away for established players, keeping the best of what they have now at the MLB level.
It can be done.
Don’t drink the koolaid that they’ll be ready for contention in a few years. Not with Atkins, it’ll never happen. It’s all garbage.
It took dombroski and cashman only 2 years each to rebuild the Bosox and the Yanks respectively. So far Atkins has had 3 years in my book and he has got at least 3 more to go. Fire Atkins now.
And again don’t drink the koolaid sportsnet and the Jays are selling about competativeness. For the new Rogers CEO it is all about money.
yeah, instead lets all drink the jimmertee kool-aid. Give it a rest. Your posts are brutal and you ruin every jays thread.
Jimmer I’m going to tweak this a bit…
The $200-mil is a tough sell right now due to the fact that free agents do not want to join a loser. This is why going soft after 2015 and especially after 2016 was infuriating; players would have been open to playing with Donaldson and company. Who’s today’s sell? Vlad Guerrero, who’s still learning. Another year wasted.
Atkins could have come in, spent money, and then rebuild with the narrative of, “we’ve run our course. It’s time to build around Vlad and the new crop.” Instead they have new crap. I believe the fans would have been behind Atkins and Shapiro had they given a better effort for 2017 and beyond.
I blame Rogers on this. They could have sent a great message to the city and they opted for the self-imposed payroll target.
Now they have no choice but to trade Stroman, for pitching, rather than extend him. CF/OF is a problem, and SS is looking like a problem if Bo’s struggles defensively continue.
Bottom line; Jays used to have winning to sell to free agents. Now they don’t.
Agreed. I heard a behind the scenes baseball story once about free agents and money. Most [almost all] go to where the biggest money is regardless of location. I do realize there is a stigma attached to coming to Toronto for some. That means a bigger budget ragardless of the Cdn dollar.
Yah this whole Jays rebuild thing has been botched. Atkins has got a few good players [as opposed to very good or elite] and wasted so much time [years] and got virtually nothing in return for so many.
$200 M might be a tough sell but I don’t see the problem. Gillick was #1 in payroll when they won. AA and Beeston raised the total budget bar up high too. I don’t think Shapiro has the spine to do this against the Board or his pay plan allows for it. I think it might be part of the deal he struck when the Rogers board hired him. I don’t have proof on this notion .but the historial and current evidence suggests it.
I have heard though that the Rogers board has discussed selling the Jays many many times. For some on the Board it is a $1-1.5 B gold nugget, that they will be heavily compensated for. All this “competative” talk and penny pinching does suggest that they are managing for the balance sheet and income statement.
I don’t see Bichette being a good player at the MLB level. He’ll eventually stick but at 2nd base and be a below average hitter. FYI, Vlad jr has got to move to 1st. Tellez to DH. Smoak gone for a sack of fungo bats. Biggio is going to be very good much better than Bichette at the plate. Galvis gone at the deadline, I’d love to see Gurriel Jr get another shot at SS but Urena can handle it with Drury as a sad backup. I am really surprised Jansen hasn’t figured it out yet. He looks lost at the plate. He has the tools to be an elite bat, I wonder if his eyesight issues can’t handle MLB level movement on pitches?
Dude that’s so illogical I don’t even know where to begin… You guys sold your farm trying to compete with Donaldson Price and Jose. Its gonna take longer to rebuild that’s common sense because you have nothing to trade and didn’t get out early enough on guys so u didn’t get anything back in most cases. Trading your farm would screw u over even more because the roster just has way to many holes to fill. Tigers are in the same boat as you and so are the giants and look at the royals. When u mortgage your future as hard as those teams did to win earlier in the decade it’s gonna hurt later not sure why this is such a surprise to you.
Sometimes a club has to mortgage its future to win, that’s the point.
Dombrowski did that with the Tigers and won. He did it with the Bosox and won. Shapiro and his long term competatveness BS has won nothing. Dombroski is going to the HOF.
The Giants traded away most of their farm and won in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Sure their paying for that now, but who cares, they WON. and that’s the point winning at the MLB level is all that matters.
To add to Jimmer…they mortgaged the farm and it worked. Aside from Syndergaard there aren’t any players the Jays wish to have kept, and that includes Matt Boyd.
Manoah was a stud this season. I wish him the best.
Good stuff. Get him in Lansing or Dunedin and start cutting some dead weight from Buffalo downward. Time to elevate the performers in the minors.
I think the Bluejays need to stop using Elvis Luciano. Wicked arm, don’t ruin a prospect . He should have a pitch count on him either innings or pitches thrown. Let him experience MLB .:)
Elvis is a rule 5 so he pitches for the jays or he’s sits, or we trade or his rights so he can be optioned or we return him
Ya I get that point but stretching him out already in my opinion.
I liked Alex Anthopoulos way , draft , trade away prospects for proven mlb players. Alex made the blue Jays a playoff team, and went all in for the playoffs.
Starting the rebuild this year was a bad idea. I get it. You want your future prospects up right now , and look , bringing them all up at once is not how you do it. Like, this management team is doing the rebuild the wrong way .
Like Shapiro and Atkins did the Cleveland Indians rebuild
It’s tough because no MLB team goes from playoffs appearances and being so close , just to start a rebuild even though there was still a team to compete with. Except this front office staff gave up on the roster that was competitive because the front office wanted to put there stamp on it.
Like how does a franchise just give up on the fans. They say this rebuild is good for the future. Well theres a whole country watching this team and every year should be competitive . Shapiro and Atkins need to go!!