Although he’s fresh off arguably the best offensive season of his career, 30-year-old outfielder Michael Saunders remains on the free agent market with spring training gradually approaching. Along with Toronto, where the Canada native played last season, Saunders has drawn connections to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland this offseason.
While it’s unclear whether Saunders is currently in negotiations with the Phillies, Orioles or Indians, he revealed Saturday that he is in talks with multiple teams, including the Blue Jays. Saunders also indicated that his preference is to re-sign with the Jays, via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith (Twitter links).
“I’m waiting for the right deal for me and my family,” said Saunders. “I’m hoping to stay in Toronto and hopefully finding out soon.”
With both Saunders and Jose Bautista no longer on their roster, the Blue Jays are wanting in the corner outfield, where Steve Pearce, Ezequiel Carrera and Melvin Upton Jr. represent their top options. Bautista is superior to Saunders, though the book could be closed on the unsigned slugger’s illustrious run up north. Even if the Jays are interested in re-signing Bautista, he’d come at a higher price than Saunders in multiple ways. Not only would Bautista cost more in dollars, but Toronto would punt the chance to secure a first-round pick in the 2017 draft by letting him walk. Because Bautista rejected the Jays’ qualifying offer at the outset of the offseason, they’ll be entitled to compensation if he leaves. On the other hand, the Jays didn’t tender Saunders a QO, though it looked as if he was playing his way to one during the first half of 2016.
Thanks to an outstanding .298/.372/.551 batting line with 16 home runs in 344 plate appearances over the season’s initial three-plus months, Saunders earned the first All-Star nod of his career. The ex-Mariner followed that with a .178/.282/.357 line and eight HRs in 214 post-All-Star break PAs, thereby damaging his appeal entering free agency. While Saunders did recover from a couple injury-ravaged years to appear in a career-high 140 games, he didn’t help his cause in the outfield, where he ranked toward the bottom of the majors in Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating.
Despite his faults, Saunders would at least give the Blue Jays another experienced, offensively capable outfielder. Plus, in re-signing him, the Jays would have the option of shifting Pearce to first base – his primary position – and sending their projected starter, the unspectacular Justin Smoak, to the bench.
“The unspectacular Justin Smoak”, that may stick around as his nickname for me. He has the arm span of a condor and the speed of a fat house cat.
That sums up my athletic ability too haha. 6 1, with ridiculous wingspan, but slow as molasses.
Hahaha. “sending their projected starter, the unspectacular Justin Smoak, to the bench.” Poor Smoaky
Blue Jays are going to be soooo bad….lol….
Sub 500, exactly what we’ve been accustomed too
So bad? What makes you say that? Good staff good defence fringe average hitting =\= terrible.
Ya the best rotation in the AL plus Donaldson, Tulo, Martin, plus is going to be sooooo bad
Tulo and Martin havent provided much offensively in a while. The rotation is great, but you have to be a well rounded team to compete and the Jays are not.
Do give them a pass on their defense alone though. Martin might be the reason we have the best rotation and tulo made Reyes look like little league when it comes to defense. It’s not ideal, but hopefully tulo can become 3/4 of Colorado tulo and whatever Martin brings offensively is just icing on the cake.
Id* for the first word, sorry.
Actually, for their respective positions they play, they still put up solid offensive numbers. The defensive side is where they still shine and it’s very important to have that at catcher and shortstop.
I wouldn’t hate having Saunders back though it’s not ideal. He’s not as bad as his 2nd half showed and those struggles could be attributed to some quad issues he played through. I think if you can get him for $10 million per or less(preferably less), he’s well worth the gamble.
Blue Jays better start making moves….. …resign Bautista and trade for Jay bruce. Then add two releivers a lefty and a righty …
Bautista for 1 year would be great but a huge no on Bruce. Saunders is arguably better and likely to cost less per year on what’ll likely be a 2 year deal.
Agreed on adding 2 relievers though if they can, I’d go 3 and add 2 lefties so Loup is depth instead of a regular.
Jays need 2 very good relievers, a right handed power-bat outfielder that can play defense and a top of the rotation starter. Jays starting rotation is not making it like last year..
Sign Bautista for one year and try one more time for the World Series. Him along with Donaldson and Tulo would represent a great 3-4-5 combo. Jays fans were spoiled with the offense (power), considering these three are still middle of the order calibre And they lost Encarnacion. Morales will be fine and may hit 30 at Rogers Centre.
You’re probably right about the rotation not duplicating last season but there is still optimism for both Sanchez and Stroman to be even better this upcoming season.
Resign Bautista and trade Shapiro and Atkins.
Shapiro and Atkins have done a great job, stop pushing a ridiculous narrative
Everyone acts like Shapiro and Atkins are complete idiots
They helped build the Indians who made it past Toronto. Yes the new regime did some tinkering and added miller. But the core is Shapiro doing.
Also. They gave Edwin the best contract. He didn’t sign it. Not their fault
Finally people have to look at what was available on the market. There wasn’t a player dying to come here. And the market didnt have any garuntee fixes
We have a hard enough time drawing premium free agents as it is. They ( shapiro and atkins) don’t control the view that Toronto isn’t a premier city. The fans do. And the more spoiled we act the less any respectable players will want to call Toronto home
The Sky is not falling. Shapiro and Atkins are not finished making moves. They simply are waiting for the right moves
Sometimes the right move is not making the wrong move
The Blue Jays need to sign Bautista since they lost Encarnación to Cleveland . They need to keep their offense going and with Pearce and smoak I don’t believe it will be enough. Hopefully the starting rotation put up similar numbers as last year. They are so close to a World Series. Right now is not the time to be trying to save a few dollars. They broke the 3 million fans milestone for the first time in a long time. Fans are fans if the bluejays don’t win games, fan will stop going to game and the attendance will drop quickly. They probably have two or three year of contention before Donaldson leaves and tulo is not getting any younger. If the management don’t start filing the teams needs it will take them not 22 years to make it to the postseason more like a century.
That’s a sexy second half. Shocked he’s unsigned.
As a long time Jays fan I’m not concerned. And will not be concerned until we are 500 at the break.
Yes the starters will regress slightly. Happ won’t win 20. Estrada might need a month on the DL. But Sanchez could very well win 20. Stroman will get 15 easy. And Lariano will likely get 15 without losing 15 like dickey did
Our defense will be Solid. Even if it’s pompey and Carrera manning the corners. Smoak is gold glove caliber. JD and Tulo are also beasts defensively. You can’t even start a conversation about a winning team without pitching and defense
Our offense isn’t nearly as weak as people claim. We’ve really to this point only lost EE. Our record without Bautista has been exceptional. So losing him would not hurt as much as people claim. Saunders would have been supplanted by Pompey had he not been named an all star and we were in the midst of a playoff run. So losing him isn’t going to hurt other then being canadian
Many teams would love to feature a top 4 of Travis JD Tulo and Morales.
Morales could possibly hit more HR then EE. Not because he’s “better”. He’ll get pitched to much more often and be playing in a better hitters park much more often. The fields in the central are huge. And the east is a bombers specialty
Smoak doesn’t have to be EE. He just has to be serviceable as a starter. And has the ability to be great he just has to learn to read a curveball.
I may be optimistic. But that’s why I’m a fan. I’ll go out and cheer for my team as long as the ballplayers play 100%
Good analysis, but I am going to disagree on a few points. Liriano only shows up every-other-year. Is it a good year for him this year? Stroman is a 3 not 2 or 1. But he is young and if he can overcome his “yip” inning that he is prone too as a starter, then he can win 15, but I doubt it. I’ll give him 13 wins. He’d be a much better closer, even a elite closer 35 save guy year in year out. Many in baseball believe the same about Stroman. Sanchez is the real deal but he is still learning and growing into his body. 15 wins is good for him this year. Happ is 10-13 win guy normally, Estrada is a very good pitcher, but I hear his back is jelly, so only 30 days of DL I would consider great. Smoak can’t hit a good curve ball to save his life and teams know it. He has major league power but a triple AAA OBP, Pence and Morales may rake in Rogers Centre, but we will direly miss EE and JoeyBats in this lineup. Pompey doesn’t look like he can hit in the big leagues yet and he outfield routes still need work. At the moment he is an elite pinch runner, not a 4th outfielder. Jays mgmt still has a lot of work to do or this is a 3rd or 4th place club. -jt, former MLB MT Bird Dog Scout
I think stroman will have a huge year this year. His advanced stats didn’t back up his ERA this past year and he had and elite groundball rate. If he turns into what he is expected we could realistically have four ace-ish pitchers if they pitch how they have the past two years.
Agreed. If you look at Stroman’s numbers July on from 2016, he was very solid and he hasn’t even reached his ceiling yet.
Sanchez too, he could be the ace of the staff in 2017.
It’s good to see enthusiasm. Toronto fans can be erratic.
20 optimistic Jays’ fans are counterbalanced by one humbugging patborders92.
The Blue Jays need to sign Bautista since they lost Encarnación to Cleveland . They need to keep their offense going and with Pearce and smoak I don’t believe it will be enough. Hopefully the starting rotation put up similar numbers as last year. They are so close to a World Series. Right now is not the time to be trying to save a few dollars. They broke the 3 million fans milestone for the first time in a long time. Fans are fans if the bluejays don’t win games, fan will stop going to game and the attendance will drop quickly. They probably have two or three year of contention before Donaldson leaves and tulo is not getting any younger. If the management don’t start filing the teams needs it will take them not 22 years to make it to the postseason more like a century.
The Blue Jays need to sign Bautista since they lost Encarnación to Cleveland . They need to keep their offense going and with Pearce and smoak I don’t believe it will be enough. Hopefully the starting rotation put up similar numbers as last year. They are so close to a World Series. Right now is not the time to be trying to save a few dollars. They broke the 3 million fans milestone for the first time in a long time. Fans are fans if the bluejays don’t win games, fan will stop going to game and the attendance will drop quickly.