The Blue Jays had interest in signing Gio Urshela this offseason, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports. It isn’t known if Urshela is still on the Jays’ radar, as Nicholson-Smith notes that Toronto’s recent deal with Isiah Kiner-Falefa might’ve already addressed the club’s apparent need in the utility infield market.
There hasn’t been much buzz about Urshela this winter, which isn’t surprising given the injury-shortened nature of the infielder’s season. Urshela didn’t play after suffering a pelvic fracture in June, ending his 2023 campaign after 62 games with the Angels. Based on the initial timeline given for Urshela’s recovery, he should be ready by the start of Spring Training, though there wasn’t enough time remaining for him to both rehab his injury and ramp up prior to the end of the Angels’ regular-season schedule.
Urshela hit .299/.329/.374 over 228 PA with Los Angeles while bouncing around the diamond at all four infield positions. Most of Urshela’s action came at third base in place of the injured Anthony Rendon, and the vast majority of Urshela’s playing time in his eight MLB seasons has been as a third baseman. The Outs Above Average metric hasn’t been a fan of Urshela’s third base glovework while the Defensive Runs Saved (+10) and UZR/150 (+3.9) metrics have given positive grades to 4620 1/3 big league innings at the hot corner.
Urshela has also shown some quality at the plate, particularly when he hit .310/.359/.523 over 650 PA for the Yankees during the 2019-20 seasons. This rather unexpected breakout earned Urshela a regular spot in New York’s infield mix, though a somewhat injury-marred down year made him expendable, and the Yankees dealt Urshela to the Twins as part of their big five-player swap in March 2022.
While Urshela didn’t quite reach his offensive heights from his time with the Yankees, he still had a solid bounce-back year, hitting .285/.338/.429 in 551 PA in Minnesota. Despite these good numbers, the Twins dealt Urshela to L.A. last offseason, in part due to Minnesota’s crowded infield picture and in part due to Urshela’s escalating arbitration salary (a projected $9.2MM, which ended up being $8.4MM after he lost his arb hearing in search of a $10MM salary).
If healthy, the 32-year-old Urshela could be at least a decent signing for a team in need of infield help, with some higher-ceiling potential if Urshela can even replicate his 2022 numbers, let alone his two big Yankees years. It makes sense that the Blue Jays would’ve had him on their target list given their infield needs this winter, plus Toronto is quite familiar with Urshela due to his past time in their organization — he briefly played for the Jays in 2018, appearing in 19 games at the Major League level.
The Blue Jays’ plans at third base may hinge on whether or not the team can re-sign Matt Chapman, but if Chapman departs, it isn’t out of the question that the Jays could still pursue Urshela even with Kiner-Falefa already in the fold. IKF’s lack of offensive pop makes him an imperfect answer as a starting third baseman, so if Kiner-Falefa is viewed more as a utility piece, Urshela’s higher-caliber bat and still-solid glove could make him a better option for a regular third base role.
This is a complete non-story.
This is a complete non-comment.
Agreed. Old news. IKF was signed instead.
IKF is the new Merrifield.
This could be the cheap alternative to Chapman. The Rogers aren’t known for expanding payroll.
What?
goalie,
He’s on second.
Made you look.
Jays seeming more like the Red Sox with every passing day. What are these guys doing exactly? Puzzling off-season.
Urshela should be a Cubs target.
Would prefer Urshela over Chapman that’s for sure.
He’d be a nice insurance piece on a short contract since he can play both first and third fairly well and is a decent hitter.
Shaw and Vazquez both look good in the minors, I wouldn’t tie third up on a guy like Chapman.
Should’ve signed him instead of no-hit IKF.
Forgot he got hurt but they should still sign him. He’s better.
I was thinking the same thing. No idea why they went for IKF instead given their current needs. Unless he isn’t recovering as quickly as originally thought they signed the wrong guy.
Age
Price could be a factor.
I can’t imagine he would have been too much more than IKF given he is coming off of a major injury. A few million a season shouldn’t have stopped them from getting the player that fit their needs much better. If it was that than Atkins needs to seriously reevaluate his process.
Gio is a hitter. Pure and simple. Love his approach. Huge Gio fan and there was a noticeable correlation between his going down and the Angels starting to lose.
No, he’s going to be a white sock along with BELLI and Snell. Blue Jays haven’t won a World Series since 1982 and have no hope at all any time remotely soon.
Umm…..1992 and 1993.
Also, the Jays window is wide open, where the White Sox are in a rebuild.
Also Bluejaysnation the White Sox have not won since 2005, that is in other words 18 seasons!!
FanOfTheUmpires, Jays won their last WS in 1993 not really sure where you are finding them winning in 1982???
Confused them with the Reds.
The reds won in 1990
Cardinals
That’s a lot of confusion.
Well good news and bad news. It was the Cardinals that won in 1982, so it was a bird. And then you’ve double confused yourself as it was a red bird.
But then they won in 2006 and 2011 too.
And then in 1983 it was an Orange bird that won the WS….
26 left Fan
Blue Jays went from shopping at Tiffany’s to sneaking into the Dollar Tree for the holiday gifts.
Unfortunately Tiffany’s wasn’t well stocked this year. After selling both items everyone was left off dumpster diving out back of Walmart.
The nice thing about shopping at Dollar Tree for gifts is you can tell the recipient that you got them the most expensive thing in the store.
Blue Jays Interested In Gio Urshela
It isn’t known if Urshela is still on the Jays’ radar, as Nicholson-Smith notes that Toronto’s recent deal with Isiah Kiner-Falefa might’ve already addressed the club’s apparent need in the utility infield market.
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1-They are interested in Urshela
2-But they might not be interested in Urshela.
I know it is the off-season, but you have to put more on the plate than that. Based on the “what-ifs”, every team is interested in every player. It almost feels like the writer is arguing with himself.
1. The writer is arguing with himself.
2. But he might not be arguing with himself!
Gamesmanship … who blinks first, and who is desperate!
Could be rumour started by Jays trying to leverage Chapman, who knows, but really, I’d rather have Urshela on a one year than Chapman on a 5 year boat anchor.
I was the first one to criticize MLB-R when they said Chapman was going to get a “massive” contract.
But right now, it’s gotten to the point where I think people are sleeping on him. His HR/FB took a big hit last year, so that can revert. He had a 5.7 bWAR/650 PAs for his career, and 4.1 for the past three seasons.
If his value sinks to something like $100M/5, if I were the RS, I’d be all over that. I’d bet on 15 WAR over the life of the contract.
Be interesting to know what the Jays offer was, apparently they offered him a deal during the season. Toronto usually does a good job of valuing contracts.. be kinda funny if he falls back to them. He was frustrating at times to the eye last year. He could NOT hit a high fastball.
Which also made him chase the off speed away.
He was frustrating at times to the eye last year.
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The was I explained Giolito to RS fans is that for some flaws, these guys are $200M players.
I can make obvious decisions. GMs get paid the big money to figure whether you are getting the good player X or the bad player X,
If I can get 25 HRs and GG defense for his first three years, and a slow decline over his last two, I’d move Devers to 1st or DH.
That sounds reasonable. I always try to think of player contracts from the perspective of if I was the players agent what would I be looking for for my client and then from a teams perspective as well. Some players cause a larger gap between the two sides and Chapman is one of those players. Boras is the agent you want representing you when there is that gulf in value present. I don’t think I would engage too much with Boras and see where Chapman’s contract ends up at the end but the range you mentioned seemed right for me too. 5 or 6 years @ 21 or 22 a year.
Jays IKF signing and interest in Urshela only makes sense if the Jays are looking at a big trade that would include Bichette.
IKF is a bench piece, Urshela would start third. Who plays short?
$7.5-mil per year bench piece? Ok.
IKF was a fulltime SS in 21 and 22 putting up 3.6 and 3.0 WAR both those years. He is a light hitting SS that could do the job and has. He’s no Bo of course who put up 5.8 and 3.6 WAR in those years.
I saw it as they weren’t bringing Chapman back.
Why Oh Why Oh Why is Atkins still here ?? !!
I cannot understand why the Yankees aren’t getting him… and btw screw the defensive metrics… I saw him play as a Yankee every single day and he is a gold glove caliber 3b
@Bigtime he has never by any means been Gold Glove caliber. He has shown to be a more than adequate 3B glove tho. I ve been hoping the Tigers would sign him to a 2 or 3 year deal. He would immediately fill 3B for 2024 and from there would be a versatile veteran presence and could help provide depth throughout IF and occasional DH ABs.
yeah he doesn’t hurt you defensively. Good not great in my opinion.
Agreed. Far too many of these on here now. Team X had interest in player X but probably don’t now. Awesome. Especially for players like Urshela. 1000 words for backup players that don’t move the needle at all.
I picked him to sign with the Blue Jays so most likely he doesn’t sign with them.
Why does every report make it sound like Blue Jays are downgrading at every position?
@Cora the Explora
It doesn’t look like any AL East team is interested in winning the division.
I totally agree, im a jays fan and i understand that after people expected Ohtani everything is a down grade BUT when you need 2 impact bats aswell as a 4th/platoon OFer who can really handle LHP and you start by adding IKF and KK it has horrible optics. Gio would have been the better play then IKF as i want them to give 1 of there 2 3b/SS prospects every chance to win starting 3b, they also have a 3b/1b prospect that is more bat first but can really hit that should be given some run way, this way if they are not up to snuff Gio gets 3b. I really want Nick Castellanos to be the DH or Eloy Jeminez, Taylor woukd have been the perfect 4th/platoon OF to add and Teo Hernandez or Bellinger are they type of power bat in the OF to start. Adames would have been another good addition to the infield to add, these are the types of addictions that we expected not that KK is bad in a vacuum just he shouldn’t be playing 120+ games in this OF if they want to win and IKF can F right off.
@Cora, barring a trade or resigning Chapman, the Jays by all means will be downgrading at 3B. He is the top free agent 3B, when you are replacing the best available the only other options are downgrading unless they are able to trade.
My point exactly. I don’t see them improving so far
Money? Money!
Shatkins have the attention span of Mayflies.
Urshela is underrated. Canada Blue Jays should snag him.
It doesn’t make sense for Jays fans to be so upset. Sure it was disappointing but they still made the play-offs again – 2023 was a “good year”
89 wins in the A.L. east they’re not that far away we’ll see what happens (It is early).
I think the main reason for the unhappiness is that it feels like they are treading water.
Additionally, they came into the off-season with one very clear need.
On defense, they were the leagues best team by DRS (17 more than second place). They were the second best pitching staff by ERA+ behind only Milwaukee.
They couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position.
They were 8th in team batting average yet 20th at hitting with runners in scoring position. They left the second most base runners on base behind only the Cardinals.
They were only 16th in hitting homeruns.
It is clear they either need to add more hitters who can hit for higher contact to increase the chances of better hitting with runners on base, or they need to add more power hitters to increase the homers.
Thus far, they’ve rebuilt their defense and weakened their already weak offense
That’s where the frustration comes from, but there’s obviously still time to fix it.
Yeaaaaaaa I get it my point is look at what they DID do right. Obviously they couldn’t score runs