December 16: Bassit’s deal has now been officially announced by the team, with left-hander Anthony Kay designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The contract is split into three even salaries of $21MM, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. The first season will actually be a $3MM signing bonus and $18MM salary, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
December 12: The Blue Jays have agreed to a three-year, $63MM contract with free-agent righty Chris Bassitt, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Bassitt is represented by Meister Sports Management.
In adding Bassitt, the Jays have fortified a rotation that saw Ross Stripling reach free agency, lost Hyun Jin Ryu to Tommy John surgery early in the summer, and experienced substantial struggles from righty Jose Berrios and lefty Yusei Kikuchi in 2022. The ultra-consistent Bassitt will step into the mix behind third-place Cy Young finisher Alek Manoah and ninth-place finisher Kevin Gausman, with Berrios and Kikuchi likely to follow.
Bassitt, 34 in February, is a late-bloomer who didn’t establish himself as a consistent big league rotation piece until his age-29 season — partly due to Tommy John surgery wiping out the bulk of his 2016 season and all of his 2017 campaign. However, since a 2019 breakout with the A’s, he’s been among the sport’s most effective arms. In that time, Bassitt carries a sharp 3.31 ERA with a strong 23.1% strikeout rate, a tidy 6.7% walk rate and a 44.3% ground ball rate that’s a bit better than average.
Though Bassitt’s results have been excellent, he hasn’t quite yet solidified himself as a 30-start workhorse, although that’s not necessarily through any fault of his own. He missed the first few weeks of the 2019 season due to a leg contusion he suffered late in a spring training game but came back to make 28 appearances (25 starts) of 3.81 ERA ball. In 2020, he made 11 starts and tallied 63 innings during the pandemic-shortened 60-game schedule.
Bassitt looked well on his way to a career-best season in 2021 but was interrupted by one of the most frightening scenes in recent baseball memory, when he took a 100 mph line-drive off his face. The right-hander immediately dropped into a heap on the mound and had to be carted off the field with a towel covering his face. While there was originally some concern of long-term vision problems, Bassitt incredibly escaped with “only” fractures in his cheekbone and jawbone, with no further damage being revealed on a subsequent CT scan and no long-term vision issues. Bassitt not only avoided a worst-case scenario but returned from surgery just six weeks later and pitched 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball across two appearances to close out the season.
Traded to the Mets as part of the Athletics’ fire sale following the 2021 season — Oakland acquired righties J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller in the deal — Bassitt made a career-high 30 starts and reached a career-high 181 2/3 innings in New York. He also averaged better than six innings per start, turned in a career-best 48.8% ground-ball rate and recorded a 3.42 ERA with fielding-independent marks to match in what’ll now likely be his lone season in Queens.
The Mets made Bassitt a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he unsurprisingly rejected, recognizing the opportunity for just this type of lucrative multi-year deal. By signing him to this contract, which lands right in line with the three-year, $60MM predicted by MLBTR at the outset of the offseason, the Blue Jays will be required to forfeit their second-highest pick in next summer’s draft. They’ll also see the cap on their international bonus pool for amateur free agents reduced by $500K.
That’s all of minimal concern to the Blue Jays, who are clearly in win-now mode as they look to keep pace in one of the game’s most competitive divisions. Adding Bassitt is a large step toward that end — one that ostensibly aligns with a push to improve the team’s run-prevention, perhaps at the expense of some offensive thunder.
Toronto kicked off its winter by trading its final year of club control over Teoscar Hernandez to the Mariners — a deal that netted them an under-the-radar but high-end reliever, Erik Swanson, and a fairly well regarded pitching prospect, Adam Macko. The Jays remained largely quiet in the weeks to come, but just this weekend struck a deal with longtime Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier — one of the premier defensive players in the sport (when healthy). Of course, staying on the field has been difficult for the oft-injured Kiermaier and his devil-may-care approach to defense in center; he’s currently on the mend from season-ending hip surgery.
While the financial specifics of Kiermaier’s contract have yet to come to light, the sequence of moves will surely bring the Jays up to a franchise-record payroll. Bassitt alone brings their projected payroll a bit north of $200MM — already a club record — and Roster Resource projects their luxury-tax ledger to check in a bit north of $225MM. It’s possible that Kiermaier alone will push them to the $233MM first tier of luxury penalization, which would mark the first time the Blue Jays have crossed that barrier.
Of course, the entire picture could still change — at least to some extent. Toronto is also in the market for a left-handed bat to add to an near-entirely right-handed lineup, and the Jays’ front office has reportedly been willing to listen to trade offers on its trio of MLB-caliber catchers: Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno. Free agents Michael Brantley and Michael Conforto are among the most obvious fits, but the Jays could also ship one-third of that catching triumvirate out as part of a deal to acquire a younger left-handed bat and/or additional reinforcements to a bullpen that could still benefit from an arm or two.
However the remainder of the offseason plays out, Bassitt’s addition to a pair of righties who generated some Cy Young love in 2022 should give the Jays a formidable rotation, even if none of Berrios, Kikuchi or sixth starter/swingman Mitch White bound back in 2023. Not only will the Jays be strong on a per-inning basis, but the combination of Manoah, Gausman and Bassitt have all averaged better than 5 2/3 innings per start in recent years, which should go a long way toward helping keep the team’s bullpen fresh.
Berrios, at his best, has been similar — averaging six-plus innings per outing in 2018, 2019 and 2021. However,, the 2022 season was a wildly uncharacteristic one for Berrios, who in many ways paralleled Bassitt in terms of consistent, year-to-year results prior to his first full campaign in Toronto. If any of Bassitt, Kikuchi or White can turn in a strong showing this coming season, Toronto’s rotation could very well rank among the best and deepest in Major League Baseball.
Seems like a perfect #3 for the Jays. Great pickup
Hoping Berrios can bounce back in to that spot
Remember when $21m salary used to get you like 3 pitchers like Chris Bassitt?
Blue Jays fans will now pay $37 for a corn dog.
Remember when MLB had 30 teams competing before the billionaires came in and turned it into a 6 or 8 team league and maybe one young team that outperformed before the rich guys bought all their best players. I actually remember those days but I’m old and a Pirates fan. Just hope Reynolds gets traded to one of these haves and gets payed and gets to compete for a title. He deserves it!
So Rogers is lowering the price of corn dogs? Sweet
Heh. When was that? In the late 90’s it was Yankee city with 4 titles in 5 years. From 1995-2007 the Yankees made the playoffs every single year. The Jays didn’t make it once from 1993-2014, O’s from 1998-2011, the Rays from 1998-2007 – so 3 teams in the AL East were out of the playoffs from 1999-2007. So when was this time that ‘all 30 competed’? The 1980’s one could argue (just 26 teams but only the Dodgers got 2 titles, 0 for the Yankees) The 2010’s were the first decade the Yankees didn’t make it to the World Series since the 1910’s.
We are in a flux period now where the luxury tax is set so low that it no longer is an issue to many teams and more will cross it this year. The penalties have also been reduced so much as to make it near meaningless (one draft pick down 10 slots in a draft? Scary stuff kids). The raw $ of the tax are also secondary to most clubs. I suspect in a few years you’ll see only teams tanking going sub $100 million as it’ll be impossible to be competitive otherwise. I expect the players and owners to have an ugly battle next contract over this.
Most of us weren’t born when Ted Turner, Gene Autry and George Steinbrenner bought their teams, but they were the first “buy a championship” owners
Shapiro and Atkins hounded Bassitt. Schneider, Mattingly and Walker will keep Bassitt on a short leash.
I don’t know, Manny, I think they may work Bassitt like a dog.
Jays won the World Series in 1993.
Joe Carter’s walk off……
I see what you did there.
Would absolutely love to have Bryan Reynolds on the Jays. I’d feel pretty decent about this off season if we added his switch hitting bat to the outfield. Kevin Kiermaier seems at best to be a defensive sub upgrade from Zimmerman but not a real replacement for Teo, but Bryan would be a true replacement.
If Reynolds joins the Jays please join us as a fan, you can watch every game on mlb.tv. I live in the US and root for and watch the Jays .
Pepperidge Farm remembers
You’re allowed to bring your own food (but not booze) into the Rogers Centre.
I had to read that twice.
Put a “bootmiki” in your sock. It’s only 200ml(.845 cups) of any hard liquor(vodka,whisky,gin,etc.). Lol
Imagine thinking 30 teams had a chance to win in the 1980s or whatever false reality you lived in at the time. Franchises have never been ran better then now and dumb people have a problem with it. Even in the sports with a cap there’s only a handful of teams who have a chance and yet dumb people think parity is king in all these sports.
That’s $27 USD, so a relative bargain at Nats Park.
Bassitt will have to pick up his pace with the new pitch clock, that woulld be my main concern. Pitchers and hitters are creatures of habit!
Yes, and 6 teams have never won the series, the Rays, Rangers, Rockies, Mariners, Padres, and Brewers.
Thats correct
He was Blooms top priority, only 50 million more and he would be heading to Boston instead.
Guardians would’ve had him if they didn’t blow it all on Bell.
I can see the argument that Wins are an irrelevant stat in terms of pitcher wins. But why do you think it’s illegitimate when ascribed to the team’s manager? The manager may not have hit the homerun or thrown the shutout that enabled the win, but he was managing the team all nine innings when they produced that win, so why shouldn’t he get credit for it in the record books?
Looks like a good deal – reasonable AAV, only 3 years.
I feel confident he will. Last year was anomaly.
I think Berrios is why they signed Bassitt. Strikeouts/9 were down. Has he lost velocity? On a permanent decline? Looking like Twins may have gotten the better of that trade.
Berrios’ pitch metrics were apparently not changed noticeably but he tinkered a lot with delivery and release points so maybe couldn’t tunnel well. A lot of chatter about pitch tipping as well.
Jansen was also tipping pitches on the pitchers with his leg setup and it took almost 4 months before it got corrected.
However you could say that effected all the pitchers he caught but I think it effected some more than others.. Not saying that is the only reason Berrios had troubles but just as part of the pitch tipping thing.
Velocity wasn’t down. Still had great movement on his breaking balls. Did have trouble locating his fastball. When he got hit, he got hit hard. So numbers a bit inflated.
Too early to say twins got better of the trade. Austin Martin has zero pop in his bat, probably makes the majors but won’t be an everyday player. The pitcher they got has potential to be a solid starter, but only time will tell.
Berrios has always been overrated.
Why ?
Shapiro once traded Brian Giles for Ricardo Rincon while in Cleveland.
Shapiro has never won anything.
Jays are missing AA, he is thriving with the Braves. Jays had all the hype last year and coulldn’t make it to the finish line. The Rogers group has all the money in the world, now is the time to spend, they have most of their players in their prime. I think spending more for one of the elete pitchers. If Gausman or one of the other pitchers is injured, they will fall short. They need to trade for more bullpen peices.
Manoah, Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios is one hell of a top 4. Now sign Michael Brantley and we’re good to go!
And still trade one of the catchers hopefully, and see what we get back there as well. Turning out to be a really solid offseason after all for the Jays.
Agree. It’s funny that literally just yesterday people were commenting that the Jays “failed” the offseason. Still early. A lot of time left.
The Mets right now have a payroll of 415-425 mil and all reports are that Correa and the Mets are getting closer to a deal. Steve Heisenberg Cohen wants somebody he’s the one who knocks and signs them.
With luxury tax
Good fit for the jays and to replace Striplings production, looks like they also didn’t give up a 4th year which is good.
The team still has more work to do though.
It has work to do but doubt they will do it now unless they unload some money.
Based on Shapiro’s comments, when asked about going up against or even over the luxury tax he said “I don’t foresee that happening for we are not that type of team but we have funds available now to better this team.” So that being said adding in this contract and 3-4 million for KK (details still not out how much) the Blue Jays sit at roughly 225 million (tax salary not actual) So if they are not going against the 233 million tax line they have roughly 4-5 million left to spend including mid season upgrades.
Rogers can well afford to go over the tax threshold but my guess is they won’t.
When and where is that quote from? Shapiro’s most recent quote ( last week) was below.
Also your numbers are way off, with Bassitt they are probably around 210, depending on what KK got.
“It’s not what will limit us. We’ll budget and we’ll have a budget that we limit to. But the CBT is not going to be what sets our budget.”
The quote was some interview done during the winter meetings, I think it was on MLB network.
As for the payroll it was at 198 995 998 before Bassit and KK. So adding in both of them puts them at around 225 000 000. remember this is not based on actual payroll it is the luxary tax payroll which has a bunch of other factors mostly based on AAVs of the length of contracts not current year value.
So according to Sportac as of right now without KKs actaul salary the Blue Jays are sitting at a tax payroll of $219 156 492 million. So adding in KK at 3-4 million and you get 223ish million.
As for Shapiro we all know he flip flops on what he says so who knows for sure.
That includes Ryu’s 20 mill which will sit on the IL and is insured most of the year.
Why are you quoting Shapiro if he ‘flip flops’ as you put it?
I used his quote, if you read, to say that I doubt they will add more IF he stands by it and they are going no where near the luxury tax.
But like I said he does flip flop so if they go over (IMO they won’t) then I will not be shocked because as I said he does flip flop on what he says from time to time.. Don`t get so nit picky on the little things.
It matters not if Ryu is insured it still counts against the tax payroll.
@dusyy
You have no idea if Ryu’s contract is insured. It also still counts against the CBT tax either way.
I have every idea because it was confirmed by the team. Thanks
lol
My mistake.
I am shocked that they were able to get that insured. Must’ve been a hefty premium.
Wow. $21m/year?
If he’s worth that then Rodon must be worth 10 million a year more.
Rodon will get $30+ over twice the years – a much riskier contract to sign. Someone will give him it though. $180 over 6, maybe $200+.
only 3 years though which is a shock in this market
Oh damn..
The stove has been hot almost everyday with signings and trades this offseason. Anyone else remember how miserable last offseason due to the lockout?! It was only fun right up to the deadline before the lockout started. Go baseball
Heckuva foursome
AAV isn’t bad, but since he got the QO, it’ll cost picks.
I kinda feel like the Mets chose Senga over him because if they signed Bassitt they don’t get the pick.
If Senga comes close to Bassitt’s production then it’s kind of a savvy move for the Mets to now get Toronto’s second pick in the draft.
I’m pretty sure because of their payroll last year they only get picks after the 4th round per the new CBA unfortunately
Just a second round one. Could be a quality guy (Jays have had a few in David Wells, Derek Bell, Bo Bichette (all 10+ bWAR), but that is it for 6+ WAR guys they’ve drafted in round 2 out of 53 total drafted. So about a 6% shot at a star level player for a solid 3 years of a starting pitcher. Sounds like a good risk to take.
Middle of the rotation getting 20+ and back of the rotation getting 15+ now
Yup. It’s a players market. I think these long term low AAV deals will end up looking like steals with the way contracts are inflating yearly.
Good for them. These players are among the very best in the world and are the reason people pay to attend and/or watch games.
Why couldn’t we re-sign stripling???
Still should
I love Stripling but Bassitt is an upgrade.
I don’t see him coming back, in hindsight they should have given him the QO
Don’t need hindsight really, should have offered it at the time as most people said.
The bassit signing I would guess all but guarantee stripling is not a blue jay next season . Dustylambchops23 is correct , bassit is a upgrade
Yeah, I wonder where Stripling ends up. Maybe Philly.
Or the Mets.
Philly seems pretty set with their rotation, although I wouldn’t mind some added depth. Mets are already deep in SP wealth.
I thought of them because I heard they were in on Bassitt.
Stripling was worth $21M last year, but Bassitt is more likely to be worth $21M next year.
Good for Bassitt. That’s a lot of dough. I hope he does well there.
This is a really solid deal. High AAV but not as much risk at a 3-year deal. Better than signing a pitcher for 6-7 year deals.
Don’t forget the QO penalties though.
In dollars, it’s definitely solid for the Jays. Compare the deal to Taijuan Walker’s 4/$72 million. I would rather have Bassitt hands down, from a purely financial perspective. But there’s also the QO draft pick compensation for Bassitt. I definitely thought Bassitt would get at least 4/$80 million.
Yea exactly. The penalties are pretty significant. Hence why guys like Walker and Taillon got more in total. Bassitt is the better pitcher, but the price is steep.
Jays will give up their second highest pick and 500k out of their international pool.
Meh.
Always wonder when a team like the Mets with Cohen let him go, and now the Jays have to give up a draft pick and only sign him for 3 years in this market. I think when teams get burned like the Jays did with Berrios , they get gun shy. Still this is a good signing for the Jays. They are contenders, but still need to address their pen and lefty hitter. Keirmeyer gives them a upgraded defense, but hurts their offense.
Manoah, Gausman, Bassitt, Berrios, Ryu….looks incredible if Berrios and Ryu bounce back. Berrios in particular is essential.
Ryu at best will be back towards the end of the season so they probably aren’t counting on anything from him.
Ryu is unlikely to pitch another game as a blue jay again .
If the Blue Jays could develop pitchers they wouldn’t have to throw money at them.
And if a team can’t develop pitchers, it can’t maintain the ones they overpay for.
Only a matter of time.
Cough Alek Manoah …
Uncough….
One in how many years?
Guess you never heard of Doc, Stieb or Clancy ? Or are teams supposed to have Cy young caliber pitchers coming through the farm every year?
Good lord that was decades ago – 1970s if I’m not mistaken. Jays are right on par with the Cubs when it comes to developing viable starters. Once in a blue moon.
You cant uncough….
Covid!
Maybe…..
But I can reason.
Honestly you are not wrong but id say the statement is a tad bit generalized. Certainly lately the Jays have had some bad luck with Nate Person falling apart due to injury but over the last 6-8 years they have definitely developed a bunch of homegrown talent and players that have made it to the majors not sure how that compares to the rest of the league I would be curious to understand what you are basing the opinion on? A hunch?
Some teams are better at developing hitters, some pitchers…no team is perfect at everything.
Wagner>Cobb;
Lots of teams do both…..
Particularly those that are sustainable contenders.
Who is top tier at consistently developing star pitchers and star hitters? I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I could be wrong.
The Dodgers & Astros
Astros
Ahh son of a!!!…Halos were supposed to scoop this guy up!!!!
I can’t believe more teams weren’t in on this guy for this price at only 3 years! I know he isn’t an ace, but looking at contracts around the league (ie, Tallion / Walker, and up from there) this is still pretty reasonable given his relative durability.
I think this is a good signing by the Blue Jays. I do wonder if Moreno has taken a Hitler-WWII approach to this offseason by accepting total defeat and hiding in the bunker with his mistress……
Clip, Arte is more a WWIII kind of guy. You think Halos could use Greinke???
Certainly could. Greinke is elite, man. Even though he isn’t an ace any more, that guy can still pitch.
Yeah he is a tricky vet. I don’t recall seeing the projection on him or if he made the top 50 FA list. I could see him winning 15 games still no problem.
The bigger question might be why did Cohen and the Mets let him go!
Two years TOO many plus no-trade clause for Moreno!
I hope that we can retain Stripling after this. I do like this signing though.
Woohoo! Now trade a catcher to Arizona for Daulton Varsho!!
Could not agree more with this
In my mind Jansen isn’t enough to get that deal done and I don’t like the idea of trading Kirk for Varasho as is bat isn’t amazing. I wonder if there a moraneo Carroll deal that can be worked out. 2 of the games top 10 prospects only Moreno “graduated” last year
Carroll is basically untouchable. Only Thomas, McCarthy, Varsho, and their minor league guys are available (and they still might hold on to all of them). Carroll is the crown jewel of their rebuild. They can just keep all of them and sign Vazquez for 3 years.
Vazquez went to Minnesota.
#scoutseyes
Stripling returns to Dodgers?
Stripling to the Dodgers makes a little bit of sense, Stripling to the Giants makes more sense.
Great pickup.
Excellent pickup for Toronto. Rarely misses a start. Was a rock mid season for NYM when Max was down.
It’s amazing how quickly the Mets were willing to let go of guys like Bassitt and Walker, who carried that Mets rotation for long chunks. They were able to replace these guys with decent talent, but it remains to be seen if they can carry the weight that Bassit and Walker did.
Good fit for Jays.
Quality signing. I guess no one would give him that fourth year.
Or the fifth year that he was reportedly looking for
He’s not a 5th starter
If Bassitt wasn’t set for life financially he is now…And his childrens, childrens, children as well. Good for him.
After the government takes their cut he isn’t really looking at multigenerational wealth there, unless he invests wisely.
Ted you could be right…I was figuring 10mil to the kids, 10mil to the grand kids, and 10 mil to the great grand kids…Probably less with taxes and inflation huh?
He’ll invest it in crypto
I want Bankman-Fried’s 2nd in command to handle the portfolio. Caroline the “Crypto Queen” the naughty little minx.
Chump change for Steve Cohen!
Agree, gotta be tough trying to figure out how to stretch 63 million. Here’s hoping him and the kids can get by.
Hahahahahahaha
Considering the $17.6 million he has already banked, I think he can be the anti-Sprewell and still feed his family.
Good fit for Bassit and the Jays. Good deal too money and year wise.
Bassitt is a really good pitcher and was the second best option on the market (or did I overlook someone besides Rodon?). Getting him for $ 21m AAV is not bad and the three-year term makes it a brilliant deal for Toronto.
Gruß,
BSHH
Congrats on the signing. He was a solid pitcher for us last year. He left s bad taste in my mouth from last couple of starts including playoffs but had a good year. Mets are the real winners here getting senga amd quintana for 28 mill while walker and bassitt got 39 mill.
I wouldn’t say with certainty that Senga/Quintana outperform Bassitt/Walker in 2023. Bassitt is the best option of the bunch IMO, with Senga having the highest ceiling.
But Senga/Quintana did not replace Bassitt/Walker.
Scherzer stays number 1
Verlander replaces Bassitt as the #2
Senga takes the place of the moved down in the rotation Carrasco at #3
Quintana replaces Walker at #4
Carrasco replaces the Megill/Peterson at #5
Peterson moves down to be the Williams replacement swing
man at #6….a 101 ERA+ guy at number 6….
Many keep counting deGrom but he only made 11 starts and the 101 win team went 6-5 in those, he really wasn’t significant.
You can’t leave out deGrom. Another pitcher on the Mets may only make 11 starts for all we know.
The point was they are 11 million cheaper for year. Quintana can be a wash with walker for 7 million cheaper. Senga could be better cause guys have never seen him. Bassitt left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the season.
Not sure how repeatable last year is for Quintana. Last year was the first time since 2016 he had an ERA under 4.00.
I also feel like his 0.4 hr/9 innings is unlikely to be sustainable. That mark led the league and was less than half his career mark.
Not to mention that he’s mainly a groundball pitcher, and the shift won’t exist.
O thank god!
I had no idea Ryu had TJS surgery a few months ago…
Great pickup for Jays. Tough loss for us Mets fans. Bassit was solid just don’t know how he’ll adjust to the pitch clock. Gonna take a little getting use to for him. He’s gonna feel rushed? We’ll see. I’d rather have Bassit over Quintana any day.
You got Verlander, Quintana, and Senga lol let someone else have one
Bassitt is likely a safer bet over Senga even.
Probably lower risk but Senga def has the higher ceiling.
Yes. 100% agree.
First Manaea and now Bassit. Today is a good day for former A’s starters
….but is Frankie Montas the next Sonny Gray, do the Yankees preemptively flip him now while people can still ignore his ugly 2nd half?
The only difference is on this Yankee team is their #5 starter, while he was the ace for the A’s Plus Yanks only have him for a year at reliever money in todays market!
hopefully he can help judge increase that strikeout total. #StillBitter
Good signing. Happy we didn’t have to go longer then 3 years. Cap hit is a little high, but not so bad when you take into account the canada premium we always have to pay
Low key one of the most overlooked free agents. Really good addition for Toronto.
Not a bad 4th/5th starter. You can clearly see the benefit that RingCentral Coliseum has to pitchers given the difference between his stats in Oakland and in New York. May be a few more balls get hit out of Rogers Centre down the two lines, given the shorter distance than in New York. If he posts a sub 4.00 ERA, that’s a bonus.
Was kind of hoping for a Melvin/Bassett reunion in San Diego. Looks like the Padres may need to go “all in”, if they haven’t already, and go hard for Rodon to fill out their rotation.
Nice move. And a relatively short-term contract.
Anyone know the QO cost for the Jays on this? If Berrios gets back to normal as a good number 3 then having Bassit as a very good number 4 is perfect. Jays have alot of money tied up in their pitching right now: Gausman at 22M, Berrios at 15M, Ryu at 20M, Kikkuci at 12M, Manoah league minimum. Total of basically 70M annually. And i might be missing something here. Honestly, would not mind them signing Stripling for 3/30M and make him the 5th starter, swingman as needed. Put Kikkuci in the pen as long reliever and compliment Mayza.
2nd highest pick and 500k out of international bonus pool
Also Ryu’s contract was insured so they probably save majority of the 20 mil from that
Great signing, now I want to punch Atkins in the face 5% less for that BS Kiermaier signing.
What’s wrong with KK as the Tapia replacement ?
Better bat, can move Springer to RF late in games, wil bring some more women to the ballpark.
For starters, because right now he’s not officially the 4th and until then, I see him playing too many games. Why sign a dude who’s lower half has been destroyed by turf to play on turf right after his worst season for injuries lol does that make any sense in the world to you? Jays fans need to stop thinking that they just signed the old Kiermaier that used to rip on the Jays, he’s a shell of that guy at best. Springer gets hurt all the time, when he does, his replacement will be hurt inside ten games playing everyday CF, then what? Let’s see who they sign to start in CF, they dropped the ball on Nimmo, just pay Benitendi whatever he wants or trade with Arizona. Oh and there’s the matter of him stealing from them during a game and bold faced lying about it. character guy. Beyond lighting up the eyes of cougars Canada-wide, he has no purpose.
Tapia started 120 games 🙁
Meh,I disagree.
First off he’s definitely the 4th OF already, at this point Whit would start, not ideal so yes I hope they do improve RF but KK is not going to start. Moving in to a part time role should also help keep him on the field.
KK still plays a nice CF and has a .785 OPs Vs RHP. He’s a nice ninth batter to turn the lineup over Vs RHP.
Kirk dropped the card, similar to easy to read signs, if you’re slipping it’s the other teams duty to make you pay. Don’t see any issue with it, kirk needs to protect the cards a lot better, he also dropped it again this season.
All 3 starting outfielders were hurt last year at various points, so yah Tapia did start way too many game, but they’ve since added Whit, will hopefully add another RF, so KK shouldn’t see anywhere close to that many starts
Exactly and no way Kiermaier can play that many games on turf.
Show me Benitendi, a trade with Arizona etc but as of right now, he’s in a role where he’s going to have to play 80+ games by design. We know he can’t do that and Jesus that possibility is depressing. He can’t play his way out of a paper bag anymore. His defense used to be his only remaining selling point but now turf killed his knees and hips so again, what’s the point of this signing? Waste of everyone’s time.
We haven’t seen the term for KK yet but I’m sure if it’s anywhere near 10 million per season then he’s not coming in to be a fourth outfielder. He’s coming to be the starting center fielder against righties with Springer moving to right. Merrifield will start in Center against lefties and platoon elsewhere.
Even if KK has lost a step he still has as much talent as any outfielder in the game. His reads and deadly arm are enough for me to get excited about. Other than the occasional bullet from Gurriel at home, the Jays literally had zero chance a lot of the time throwing out runners trying to advance at any base. Easily one of the worst in the league. That’s going to change the way teams run and take extra bases on the Jays which is huge in close games.
Not sure if you know this but KK has not had more than 10 assists since 2015.(he had 15) His highest being 7 in 2016 however Hernandez had 10 last year and 7 in 2021. So thinking KK is going to come in and throwout a bunch of runners is a bit much.
Maybe we as Blue Jays fans might miss Teo`s arm, even if his head seemed like it was in the clouds on some days.
It’s not the number of assists, its the bases not taken because of his arm.
But assists is when those bases are stopped from being taken. I know assists are not everything but just making the point that KK may not be as good as you think and Teo may have been better than some think.
I just don`t see this massive shift of players all of a sudden not running because KK is in the outfield over past options like Teo (at least on the days he seem to have his head in the game).
Yeah looking at throwing ability can be very misleading if you’re basing it on runners thrown out. When guys are running on you all the time because you’re rarely accurate then you’re bound to catch some guys over a season. Guys stopped running on Keirmaier in tight spots straight up. Teo is run on all the time just like the rest of the Jays usually are. Im not saying he’s coming in to throw out a bunch of guys, I’m saying he keeps runners from trying to advance in the first place. He’s always done that his entire career. Runners aren’t just arbitrarily choosing when to run. They are basing it off the quality of the arm on the outfield. And Teo has always been brutal sorry to say. That’s a horrible comp there.
I do wonder how the clubhouse fit is going to work out for KK, given his history with us. TB fans seem to have loved him and thought he was a leader on the team. I don’t think the Jays players (and fans) are going to be as welcoming. I do think he’s an upgrade over Tapia, regardless. We shall see…
People said the same thing about Springer. He will fit in just fine.
Ah, yes. Good point!
Teo has a great arm and threw out his share of runners,but sometimes seemed “lost” in the field,like his focus was way off(Seattle will still love his bat). KK will be a huge upgrade defensively, as long as he doesn’t play too much and end up getting hurt
One of the better contracts. Nice move.
All things considered, it’s a solid deal. Now the jays can shift to finding a left-handed CF and a bullpen/starter guy, ideally lefty
big boi;
The last 2 year teh Jays keep spending money to fill holes with veterans.
Are they getting any better?
Maybe not a popular opinion but I don’t feel they have a true great staff. Maybe Alek is a number 1 but he definitely needs to go past 6 innings and time will tell if the league adjusts. Berrios is the most overrated pitcher. Bassist will be a great number 3. If Ryu can fi d his old form then yes it will work.
You forgot to mention Gausman. The Jays have an elite 1-4 starters. There’s not many teams with an elite 1-5. Berrios will be better. It’s a very solid rotation and if we can continue to improve our defence and bullpen then I’m optimistic about the season.
Okay but you forgot Gausman. Its Manoah/Gausman….Bassit/Berrios..
Berrios is definitely overrated though, so if he can settle into a solid #4 he will be overpaid, but a balanced rotation. #5 is a dumpster fire.
Berrios has 5 years ( out of 7) where his ERA+ was 108 or better, and 3 years where it was 120 or better.
Prior to 2022 he was one of the most consistent pitchers in the league, not great but always good and reliable.
He’s 29 years old next season, no reason he can’t be the high 3 era x 190 Innings pitcher he’s been most of his career
Having seen Bassitt with the As, he’s a really solid #2 or 3 pitcher, to me a much lesser risk than Rodon but not as high upside. $21M/year is crazy for that but in this year’s free agent market anything goes.
It is a little high, but with his durability and the shorter duration, I actually like it better than the Walker 4/$72MM, or Tallion 4/$68MM.
As a Phillies fan, agree. Walker no matter who stays, goes or comes up in Philly will be a 4yr #4 starter.
It is still a valuable piece and probably a better fit for Philly in the long run….
Yup. Much prefer Bassitt to Walker and Tallion. The only reason people were gun shy with Bassitt was because of the QO compensation. All things being equal I would much rather Bassitt in my rotation than most of the FA pitchers who signed already. I even prefer Bassitt to Senga, despite Senga’s higher upside.
Feel like the contract is basically what everyone thought it’d be. Really saw him going to SF until that article stating otherwise. Also thought TOR would sign Syndergaard which seems unlikely now.
Syndergaard is shot.
He’s a quality pitcher, but I’m getting the vibe he won’t do as well in Toronto. Don’t love it as a landing spot for him. We’ll see
Good addition to the staff. This is a good regular season team that should make the playoffs. Need other big arms that miss bats to go deep in the playoffs though. A decent left bat in RF please.
1 Goose Man;
With the top of the AL West passing the top of the AL East it’ll be harder to make the playoffs as one of the wild cards. And the Orioles are kicking it in – with all their good young players they don’t have to make any moves to get better in 2023.
Toronto showing the cardinals how to get things done
He’s all yours. The guy was gagging down the stretch and cost the Mets a shot at the East and advancing through the playoffs. We’re a better team with our new arms! P.S. How did Matz work out up in liberal land?
Matz was great thanks for asking.
Is someone from New York calling another place ‘liberal land’?
I don’t understand Mets fans absolutely turning on their players so easily. Without Bassitt, Mets don’t even make playoffs. He carried that rotation for huge chunks of the season.
Matz was pretty good and parlayed his season into a four year contract lol the hell you going on about
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Bassitt was a stud for the Mets. Without Bassitt, the Mets wouldn’t have been in the hunt for the division at all.
Is it fair to call it substantial struggles if this is who Kikuchi is?
Bassitt is a bit of an overpay. A pick, 3 years and approaching the cap. He won’t likely see the 3rd year in a Jays uniform because of age issues.
Bassitt is/was like Berrios, great in the first half like a #2 then tends to fall back to earth and bcome a #4 in the second half.
The Jays still need a alpha dog because Manoah or Gausman ain’t it. The Jays still need a another flamethrower in the pen. The Jays still need 2-3 quality starters for depth from AAA which they do not have. If they are healthy they’ll do fine, if not the season is a write-off. Wait for it.
That’s what happens when the BlueJays executive only provide two elite arms in 7 years out of their own organization.
This is a truly terrible take on the Jays pitching. Manoah came in 3rd in Cy Young voting this year and you don’t think he’s an “alpha dog” as you put it? There is no reason Berrios can’t turn things around at age 29, and Bassit is an extremely solid pitcher by all accounts. This team will be competitive this year, and there’s more trades/signings to come.
Based on his other comments he’s writing Manoah off as an ace based on the one playoff start (which was really only one bad inning). It’s basically what I’ve come to expect from ol’ scout eyes (he told anyone who would listen that Bichette’s production would not translate to the majors when he first came up).
“Bassitt is/was like Berrios, great in the first half like a #2 then tends to fall back to earth and bcome a #4 in the second half.”
You have this backwards. In the last four seasons, Bassitt has pitched significantly better in the second half (for the COVID year, his ERA was over 4 in his first six starts and under 1 in his last four starts).
2019 – first half ERA: 4.29, second half ERA: 3.26
2021 – first half ERA: 3.28, second half ERA: 2.75
2022 – first half ERA: 3.79, second half ERA: 2.94
Bwahaaaa. Scouteyes gets owned again.. You should call RCT your daddy after that one. Never seen some many stupid posts as this moron makes.
I predicted 3/60 yesterday. Pretty close. I am a bit concerned about the pitch clock and new running rules.
Very few guys can throw 5 pitches for strikes. I think he’ll age fairly well because of his diverse repertoire.
Every year Jimmer makes these type of comments and every year he is dead wrong about whoever he talks about. Ray-Semien-Matz et al. Bassitt will likely finish Top 5 now in Cy Young voting after the kiss of the Jimmer.
He’s one of the worst
he is first at being the worst.
“In that time, Bassitt carries a sharp 3.31 ERA with a strong 23.1% strikeout rate, a tidy 6.7% walk rate and a 44.3% walk rate that’s a bit better than average.”
I believe you meant a 44.3% ground ball rate, Steve.
haha a 44.3% walk rate would be insane!
that’s kikuchi’s isn’t it ?
Speaking of Choo Choo (kikuchi) wonder would the Yankees and jays hookup on a hicks for Choo Choo deal. Money is almost the same 700k in difference for Hicks, for this year that is. Although with KK here now it might just be redundant..
Would be nice if a change of scenery turned Hicks into something of what he used to be.
And turn Kikuchi into what he’s never been — and do that in Yankee Stadium?
Yeah, I don’t see that happening.
Especially managing a 3.31 era off of 44.3% walk rate. Those would be some incredibly interesting games to watch! Imagine how much that would age a fan base constantly watching that insane tightrope act. I would probably require a triple bypass by the end of the first season!
Forget covid overwhelming our hospitals. Chris Bassitt would be the real threat!
I think I like this. Guys who have command of a lot of pitches and don’t overexpose any of them seem to have done well recently. Depending on command over stuff can be risky, but Bassitt’s done it pretty consistently. Similar profile to Stripling but over a bigger workload and sample.
I got for one am glad Bassitt is gone from the NL East. Probably a guy the Mets should have kept. I’m not sold that Verlander/Quintana/Senga is better than deGrom/Taijuan Walker/Bassitt.
I agree. Bassitt was one of the more consistent starters on the Mets.
One could say arguably, that Chris Bassitt is your quintessentially stereotypically ideal #3 starter. I will also say arguably that Bassitt is the best #3 starter in baseball currently. OFF the top of my head.
Kudos BJs. We will probably be meeting in the postseason again for awhile, signed, your born in 1977 brother from another mother, Seattle M’s
I’m pretty happy with the direction of the team right now. I would like to point out a few things that I feel are holding the Jays back. It seems Ross has developed way too much of a man crush with both Jansen and Biggio. Ever since Vlad, Bo and Cavan came up together Ross has always spoken about them to the media in terms of the Jays bright future. Cavan has not been a good mlb player, sorry to break it to you Ross, and he may never be one. I cringed the other day watching yet another interview where Ross adds Cavan in with the exciting future of the Jays. It’s time to face reality where you have a gold glove caliber second baseman in Espinal who puts up solid at bats night in night out. His results hitting might not always be there but his glove and baseball awareness are always playing. He’s a gamer. I thought it was disrespectful to him at the end of the year when he was warming the bench after the year he had. He’s the best second baseman we’ve had since Alomar and Hudson and that’s saying a lot. Let the man play this year, we need the defense more than the offence. Then to hear we could have possibly gotten Helsley from St Louis for Jansen and we thought that wasn’t enough? What are you smoking Ross cuz I might actually try some. He is the exact kind of bullpen arm we need but can’t afford or haven’t been able to develop. We are not getting Nootbaar for Jansen that’s pretty obvious. Jansen is easily replaceable with Moreno waiting and needing playing time. It was an absolute no brainer!
I would love to see Shapiro -Atkins getting Bryan Reynolds from Pirates giving up Kirk+ Cavan + Inf prospect Pinto.
Or maybe Varsho x (Kirk + Pinto)
It would take Tiederman or Tannehill or Tanenbaum or whomever your #1 pitching prospect is…at any rate ; he’s going to the Mariners. I just had Jerry on Line 2.
I don’t believe Biggio has trade value anymore, can’t sell a 28 year old coming off two terrible seasons who’s due an arbitration raise.
Reynolds is a bad defender. Not going to be a target when Atkins says he wants run prevention.
I like the fact this was 3 years, he can be a 2 3 or 4 depending on how things play out.
I like this got overshadowed by everything else today.
Welcome to TO Mr Bassitt
The years is key. Toronto seems to have to pay more to get guys to go to another country and play for not as sure of a contender. A safe bet to pitch to at least a 4 era.
3 sentences and 3 wrong opinions. That’s impressive
Innings eater who will choke big games. Paper Tiger.
That’s a more appropriate description for Verlander and Scherzer. And guess what? I wish my team had them (or Bassitt) in their rotation.
Great signing for the Jays. He fits well into the rotation and doesn’t break their bank. Bassitt has been a stud at avoiding hard contact and strikes batters out at a decent clip, both keys to preventing runs (also avoiding walks.. which he also does). Honestly I think 21 mil a year is a STEAL in this market considering what Rodon is about to get paid. I’d rather have Bassitt plus someone else to help the roster than Rodon and his health risk. Berrios sucks.. hate to say it. He’s always been overrated. He got paid by Toronto and then was his worst ever. IMO the rotation needs to go like this if they want to win and don’ t buy into the politics of ” we paid this guy so he needs to be in the upper part of the rotation”. 1. Manoah, 2. Gausman (rebound year coming) 3. Bassitt 4. Stripling 5. Berrious. Perhaps barely making the starting rotation and being put on notice of his rotation spot since Ryu is returning second half of 2023 will give him a kick in the pants. A rotation set up like this is the second best in the division if the Yanks sign Rodon. They can beat out the Yanks if they trade for Reynolds.
Correction to my post.. Berrios doesnt inherently “suck” but he SUCKED after getting paid. He would be a great 4 for them and an even better 5.
This is insulting. You’ve got SSs signing for about 26-27Mil a year contracts best in game at where they play. And Bassitt finds 21M a year to pitch thus far 30 games next season of mid-high 3ERA? 118ERA+.
Good for him. This must make the Milwaukee Brewers Starting Pitching 6 deep at a value approaching 200Mil.
Those shortstops are getting contracts that knowingly pay them for ~6 years of being over the hill. They’d be making over $50M/yr on 3 year contracts. Bassitt’s contract is only for years when there’s a reasonable chance of him being effective.
Slightly higher AAV than I thought he’d get, but a solid pickup and not too many years…unlike some contracts signed this year.
Solid move by the Jays. It will be interesting to watch how he handles pitching with the time-clock.