Ross Stripling played two and a half campaigns in Toronto after being acquired from the Dodgers in a 2020 deadline trade. The right-hander had a quality second full season as a Blue Jay, throwing 134 1/3 innings of 3.01 ERA ball over 32 outings (24 starts) last year. It was a well-timed return to his early-career form, as Stripling hit free agency for the first time this offseason.
That set the stage for a two-year, $25MM pact with the Giants — one which allowed him to opt out and retest the market next offseason after collecting half that sum. Stripling tells Shi Davidi of Sportsnet the incumbent Jays were among four teams that remained in the bidding throughout the process and said the club was willing to match the $25MM guarantee. However, he indicated the Giants’ willingness to include the opt-out was a decisive factor in his call to head to San Francisco. “I loved my time in Toronto and they were in the mix to the very end,” he told Davidi. “Essentially what it came down to was the Giants offered me an opt-out after the first year and the Blue Jays wouldn’t. That made it a no-brainer, really. … Once (the opt-out) was on the board, it was like, man, you can’t walk away from that. It’s as simple as that.”
The 33-year-old Stripling pointed to the three-year, $63MM deal which Toronto gave Chris Bassitt headed into his age-34 season as an example of the kind of earning power he could have next winter if he pitches well in San Francisco. Stripling began last year in a swing role after struggling between 2020-21. Replicating last season’s production over a full rotation workload could position him as one of the more intruding mid-rotation options in next winter’s class.
In other Toronto news:
- Manager John Schneider discussed the team’s catching duo, telling reporters the club isn’t planning to utilize the likes of Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk at designated hitter as often as they did last season (link via Keegan Matheson of MLB.com). While Jansen was only penciled into the DH spot three times, Kirk was in the lineup for 50 such contests. Curtailing that workload isn’t too surprising considering the Jays signed Brandon Belt away from San Francisco to work as the primary DH. Belt’s 2022 season was cut short by a knee procedure but Toronto nevertheless rolled the dice on a $9.3MM free agent deal. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. locked in at first base, Belt is likely to log the vast majority of his work at the bat-only position. That’d keep Kirk and Jansen behind the dish, with Schneider estimating there’ll be a “pretty even split” at the position. Matheson notes that Kirk figures to be behind the dish for Alek Manoah’s starts. An injury to Belt could change the calculus but the current plan seems to be for the Jays to use their backstops a little less often to keep them fresher. Toronto’s enviable depth at the position allowed them to deal top prospect Gabriel Moreno to Arizona to add Daulton Varsho to the outfield.
- Moreno’s departure vaulted left-hander Ricky Tiedemann to the top of the Jays’ farm rankings at Baseball America. The 6’4″ hurler had a breakout showing in his first fill professional season, reaching Double-A at age 20. Now one of the top pitching prospects in the sport, Tiedemann has been in MLB camp as a non-roster invitee. The youngster recently experienced a bit of soreness in his throwing shoulder, Schneider told reporters (including Hazel Mae). It doesn’t seem the club is particularly concerned, as the manager indicated Tiedemann could throw a side session on Wednesday after being shut down for a few days. The former third-round pick isn’t a candidate to break camp with the big league club; he figures to start the season at Double-A New Hampshire if healthy.
They’re not built to truly contend (as usual). Simple as that.
They won 90+ games the last two years.
@More_Than_4000_AB_In_MLB
I’ve learned never to argue with the uninformed.
Lol here’s the guy saying he’s ‘done with baseball’ as the first commenter on every post.
Absolute joke of an organization that hasn’t won 1 in 30 years and is reliant on the obese. And there should be no MLB in Canada.
Somebodies cranky
Your opinion is noted, & summarily tossed in the trash.
Good luck to your team against the team “reliant on the obese,” because they’ll likely need it.
You gotta do better than that. That is just comical.
Says this guy. Who are you ?
Baseball is better when the Blue Jays are bad.
Must be a fan of another ALE team.
Unfortunately, it appears that baseball will be terrible for you for awhile yet.
Keeping Kirk fresh will help prevent him cratering in the second half like he did last year. Catching Manoah and DH’ing against lefties should get him about 300 PA’s. Belt handles most of the DH’ing against righties and Jansen handles the rest of the catching.
As with all sports – pro and college – MLB is a young mans sport.
There have always been teams such as the current Jays, Padres, and Mets – that win the offseason spending money to bring in more and more aging big name players to get over the top.
The Dodgers, Braves, and Astros won the last 3 WS’s. They all had a strong core of players they’d developed (not just 4-6 guys). They weren’t out filling the roster full of over age 30 FA’s.
I could go back further.
Vlad, Bo, Manoah, Kirk
Jansen, Romano, Espinal
@samuel This is an incredibly dumb take.
What are you referencing Samuel? The Jays’ offseason was pretty restrained in terms of committing a bunch of future dollars. On balance, they made trades for younger players just as much as they spent money on veterans. Bassitt’s 3 year deal was the only multi year commitment and it was pretty modest. I don’t love the offseason they had, but for different reasons than your take.
Last year the Jays avg. age was younger then the Astros
They’ll likely win that division.
I’ve always found Boss Ross to be intrusive. Easy bet he’ll be one of the more intruding rotation options heading into free agency next winter.
I caught that before I read your post @wallabeechamp. Hence, my post below.
I wonder if the jays were in on Stripling and then went to Bassitt? I can’t see them trying to sign both
Or in on both at the same time until they found the value they wanted. I find it interesting that with so much of the rotation locked in for a while they would have balked at the idea of matching that opt out. If Stripling were to opt out, they might finally have been in a good place to replace him internally. Bassitt is likely the better pitcher, but given Bassitt’s age, the contract, the draft and international compensation, Stripling seems to offer more value. Bassitt has the floor and durability they really need though.
Your comment also made me think about a couple of times where they had a plan A and B but executed plan B first and instead of checking off that box and moving on to other needs, followed up with plan A as well. Like when they were in on Roark from the beginning of the offseason for his high floor and durability. Then they had an opportunity to take Chase Anderson who was the same type of guy. They still followed it up with Roark. This year, would they have signed Kiermaier if they’d already pulled off the Varsho trade?
@KamKid
Agreed about Bassitt. 3 yrs at 21M seems like an overpay by a year. Just like they had to do with Ryu and Springer. IIRC, the Dodgers and Yankees offered Ryu 3yrs, while the Mets offered Springer 5yrs.
Strip and Bassitt are essentially the same age (months apart) and Bassitt is the better pitcher. You obviously need to pay more for FA players but based on the type of pitcher Bassitt is, I’m not too worried about his deal.
In isolation, Bassitt’s deal is fine given what was thrown around on pitchers. But because of that, I think Stripling’s contract is pretty good value. The Blue Jays context though is that the starting depth isn’t confidence inspiring so durability is probably weighted pretty heavily. The one thing about the Bassitt deal I don’t love for the Jays in particular is that I don’t think there was a realistic avenue to getting under the CBT so with signing a qualified free agent, they’ve committed to 2 consecutive years of draft and international penalties. Tough for a self proclaimed player development focused front office.
@KamKid
I don’t think there are many teams which have a high degree of confidence in their starting depth. As it should be. Most are not-quite-ready prospects, major leaguers on the down side of their careers, things like that. My problem with the Bassitt signing was the length. He’ll be under contract through age 37. A 2 yr I would have been fine with. A 2 year for Stripling would be fine. Hell, a 1 year for Syndergaard would have good too. But 3yrs seems to one year too long for essentially is a #3/4 type pitcher.
Yeah, but keeping in mind that the valuation of each year is different. 3/$60m doesn’t turn into 2/$40m. It’d be more like 2/$50m. In that case, if Bassitt can really help now, in year 3 you might have a veteran swingman at a modest salary or he might still be bringing up the back of your rotation and that’s okay.
Bassitt giving you #3 stuff for 180 innings is more valuable than Stripling fiving you the same quality for 130 innings plus 50 innings of Casey Lawrence and Thomas Hatch. I’m just not sure the value is that skewed as even the most durable pitchers go down and Stripling is probably more capable of logging innings than he has been given opportunity to show.
Chickenstrip had one good season as a Jay. I wouldn’t give 2years at 12 with a opt out , he just ain’t proven, More than happy when I heard he went to the giants. Hope Bassitt works out better defiantly has put up better numbers over the last few years.
Yeah you can’t give an opt out to Strip. Then everyone will want one.
stripping one of the most “intruding” options”? Not being funny, but is that a typo? I think maybe Anthony meant “intersating” ( I’m a former editor, so, yeah, I’m one of THOSE guys, ha).
I’m a former editor who also can’t type, apparently. Spelled Stripling’s name wrong… didn’t capitalize his name… spelled “interesting” wrong. No wonder I’m “former.”
I’m a numbers guy, and not a wordsmith, but I’m not sure what the word “intersating” means.
My guess is that he meant “intriguing”.
How is Varsho doing so far? Turning heads?
I’m not quite sure on that one. Varsho is a fine player, but if you move him from CF/RF to LF, it reduces his defensive contributions a little.
The one move that I’ve struggled with all offseason was the KK move. It just doesn’t fit.
I’m imagine an outfield of Varsho in CF Springer in RF and either Lourdes or Teo in LF. Gets better value out of Varshos defence and also adds a better bat to the lineup.
Only move this year I really don’t love
Think they’re really valuing OF defense this year. Kiermaier probably only gives you 350-375abs like usual but Varsho and Kiermaier will save some runs. They do get offense from every position on the field so it won’t kill them.
Varsho is probably better in CF than KK at this point.
Varshos value is completely wasted in LF. Teo and Lourdes, while not great defenders would be fine in LF with Varsho in Cf.
I get the priority of defence but isn’t that why they brought in Varsho?
Kiermaier and Varsho almost had as many runs and rbi’s as Teo and Jr. And Kiermaier was hurt last year. Their value is in their defence for sure and about moving Springer to left. It will probably happen in time but the team would look like asses if they just said ” Get in the easy corner old man , you suck!
i think the jays seem to be moving more towards utility, balance and run prevention than in previous years.
and when you look at the signings/ trades in that scope they tend to make a bit more sense.
i have also thought in the back of my head with schneider calling out vladdy last year, the mattingly hire, the teo and lourdes trades and bringing in james click from the astros in that order seems to signal a shift in optics, dynamic and culture. the word professional comes to mind.
i’ll be honest- teo looked really lazy at times last year and that dug out looked like a frat party more than a group of very highly paid athletes trying to win a world series.
it’s probably a combination of all things. also picking up swanson in the teo trade might end up being one of the more underrated moves the office has made by the end of the season.
I’m trying to keep an open mind. I like him well enough, but if he’s playing LF, he has to hit. I know his numbers are skewed by how much he had to face lefties, but the swing/take profile and quality of contact numbers had me concerned. Spring training is a swing happy environment, so that’s probably playing into me seeing what I do, but I haven’t been impressed with him as a hitter in the early going. Too many weakly hit balls. I hope he makes some advancements in plate approach. Had a couple line drives and hard hit grounders recently so maybe he’s just getting a feel for his timing and figuring out what he wants to hit. I’d be scrutinizing his bat less if they hadn’t promised Kiermaier the everyday CF job.
Try not to expect more than what you see . You won’t end up disappointed so much. Varsho’s profile gave him 4.9 bWar last year . Is that not enough for you as that would have put him 1st on the Jays for position players. There is value there even if he only hits .235
Bullred, I’m not expecting more. I’m really curious about him though because there is a sense he’s a major breakout candidate. I’m looking for the underlying skill sets that has ZIPS projecting a huge offensive breakout. He outperformed his expected stats last year, so the system isn’t just looking for regression. It’s seeing him do something they think he’s capable of but has never been able to do before. I think that might be the hard hit stuff. Good max exit velo but terrible average exit velos, hard hit rates, and barrel rates. That’s a plate approach thing and ZIPS seems to think there is reason to believe in a plate approach advancement. I’ve been looking for that. This spring, there’s not been much evidence of it but spring isn’t a great indicator of that type of thing.
Being a 4 or 5 win player last year is great. That doesn’t mean he will be this year. It’s hard to have a big impact as a glove only guy in LF. I suspect that will change at some point in the season though. I do expect some offensive gains as he’ll be shielded from left handed pitching more. And I don’t have a lot of faith that Kiermaier will hold down regular playing time all season.
Why did they spend almost 10 million on Belt?
@getrealgone2
Left handed power bat that can give days off to Vlad at 1B and DH against righties.
In practical terms, he’ll take PA’s away from Biggio.
also, check his OPS+ for the two years prior to last years injury. dude was a beast.
@bigfatandugly
Yep. Belt should be in the 4 hole.
Just going to be another stupid roughly 88 Win season with no championship (as usual for this chump team).
You’re the only chump here and that’s being generous to say the least. We’ve all heard your grievances with the Jay’s and Canada and no one cares about you or your uneducated, simple/narrow minded views/opinions. BTW how could the MLB call their championship a world series if there was no team in Canada or any other country?… Thanks for coming out!
Go on Ross. I’m a Dodger fan and Canadian…
think they (the Dodgers) should have found a way to keep you. I wish you all the success in the world in the MLB NLW. Except against the Dodgers.