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Bichette: No Extension Talks With Blue Jays Right Now

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The Blue Jays’ core players are about to get more expensive. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has already reached arbitration as a Super Two player, agreeing to a $7.9MM salary in his first of four passes through the arb system. Teoscar Hernandez is earning $10.65MM this year, his second of three arb seasons. Cavan Biggio, like Guerrero, qualified for Super Two and is in his first of four arb seasons, making $2.1225MM this year.

As for Bo Bichette, his two years and 63 days of service time fell shy of this year’s Super Two cutoff of 2.116, meaning he won’t be able to earn a meaningful salary increase until after this season. As for whether an extension is in the cards, the 24-year-old had told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith that his camp and the club have had some conversations, but that “right now we’re focused on the season and accomplishing what we think we’re capable of. Right now, we’re not talking.” Most players usually prefer not to continue extension talks into the regular season, meaning it’s likely they won’t resume until the end of this campaign, when Bichette will have reached arbitration and earned himself some more leverage in any future negotiations.

Team president/CEO Mark Shapiro doesn’t seem overly stressed about the situation. “It’s not like we are a small market where if it gets towards the end of the contract and we can’t extend them, we need to panic and trade them for prospects,” Shapiro tells Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. “I understand fans or maybe someone externally might think you need to extend these guys. I felt that way when I was working in Cleveland. I do not feel that way working in Toronto.” That’s not to say they won’t try at all, of course. “Those players are both under control for three more seasons (beyond 2022),” Shapiro said of both Bichette and Guerrero. “That is a very long time. During that time, it’s safe to say we will continue both formally and informally to explore extensions with them. Should that not happen, we’re very comfortable that our market gives us the ability to go year to year and pay them year to year. And if they happen to get to free agency, we obviously will be a team that will pursue them in free agency, too.”

Despite a 2020 season in which the team played their home games in Buffalo with no fans, and a 2021 season in which they bounced from Dunedin to Buffalo and then back to Toronto with limited capacity, the club is running a franchise record Opening Day payroll this year. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource pegs it at $172MM, topping the $163MM from 2017, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. However, there will be need for future moves, as a big chunk of the roster will be hitting free agency after the 2023 season, including Teoscar Hernandez, Hyun Jin Ryu, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Matt Chapman. “You won’t need to ask, you can just look at the attendance numbers, look at the ratings and that will give you your answer,” Shapiro said of the future spending. “If we get back to levels we were at in ’15 and ’16, we will be fine to sustain or even grow our payroll. If we do not, we will probably have to reconsider our roster.”

As for Bichette, Davidi reports that the Blue Jays offered him a salary of $747.1K for this year, just barely above the $700K league minimum. Bichette refused this offer, a move often taken by pre-arbitration players as a form of protest against compensation they consider insufficient. Whether that will hamper future relations between the two camps is unknown, but Shapiro’s comments illustrate he views the future health of the club as connected to larger issues than an individual player’s contract. As Davidi points out in his piece, the club was content to let Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien sign elsewhere, while turning to alternatives like Kevin Gausman, Matt Chapman and Yusei Kikuchi for replacements. While the merits of that strategy can be debated, the public relations will certainly be different with players like Bichette and Guerrero, who have been the focus of Jays fans since well before their debuts, as opposed to vets on short-term deals like Ray and Semien.

AL East Notes: Guerrero, Bichette, LeMahieu, Camden Yards

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The futures of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are “the most pivotal bigger-picture personnel matter facing the Blue Jays,” Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi writes, and it remains to be see if both young stars will remain in Toronto over the long term.  Guerrero and Bichette are both controlled via arbitration through the 2025 season, and since their price tags will only rise (Guerrero is already arb-eligible as a Super Two player and projected for $7.9MM in 2022), locking them up sooner rather than later would be beneficial for the Jays.  That said, the two players have already done enough to ensure any long-term extensions would cost the Blue Jays a sizeable amount, certainly far more than $200MM and maybe even nearer the $300MM mark depending on the number of years involved.

As Davidi notes, Jose Berrios is the only Toronto player under contract beyond 2026, so the Jays have somewhat kept their long-term ledger clear in the event that Guerrero and/or Bichette are indeed extended to major deals.  Speaking of the “and/or” usage, the Blue Jays might opt to just extend one of the two, “and the relationship dynamic between team and player could be impacted if there’s only one extension.”  It will make for a fascinating topic for the coming years in Toronto, as Guerrero and Bichette’s contract situations weigh heavily on both the Jays, and on other players and teams around baseball looking to those two as possible precedents and comps.

More from around the AL East…

  • Yankees officials believe DJ LeMahieu’s lackluster 2021 could be traced to a sports hernia that the infielder tried to play through before finally getting surgery after the season, The New York Post’s Dan Martin writes.  A healthy LeMahieu that could return to his 2019-20 form would be an enormous help for the Bronx Bombers as they continue to figure out their infield picture, as LeMahieu’s position next season is still up in the air.  Presuming New York does acquire a regular shortstop, LeMahieu seems set to toggle between third, second, and first base, with Gleyber Torres set for regular duty at the keystone and Gio Urshela and Luke Voit penciled into at least part-time duty at the corner spots.
  • Renovations to Camden Yards’ left field area are intended to make the ballpark a little less treacherous for Orioles pitchers, and also to any future pitchers the team might be looking to eventually sign.  As GM Mike Elias told The Athletic’s Dan Connolly and other reporters, the Orioles’ ability to attract free agent pitchers was “definitely a significant factor in” the decision to renovate.  “The conditions here have been very extreme, towards the very most extreme in the league….It has been the case for decades and part of having a winning program is the ability to recruit free-agent pitchers, and that has been a historical challenge for this franchise,” Elias said.  While Connolly doesn’t believe the team will ever be a true destination for ace-level free agent hurlers, changing the dimensions might at least help the O’s land some mid-level veterans or bounce-back candidates, who might’ve been normally wary about working at such a hitter-friendly venue.

AL East Notes: Schwarber, Bichette, Arozarena, Kiermaier, Johnson

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Although the Red Sox got some very good news today, in the form of Chris Sale’s imminent return, there’s also some not-so-great news. Kyle Schwarber’s rehab has hit a snag, according to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. According to McCaffrey’s sources, “Schwarber has suffered a minor setback with left groin tightness in the midst of his rehab from a right hamstring strain.” Before the injury, Schwarber having his best offensive season to date, putting up a wRC+ of 137. The Red Sox acquired him at the trade deadline with the idea to transition him to playing first base. Any increase to his time on the shelf will put a squeeze on the amount of time he has to get acquainted with his new position as the end of the season creeps closer.

Elsewhere in the AL East…

  • Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette is out of today’s lineup because of shin contusions, reports Scott Mitchell of TSN. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet connects the injury to Bichette fouling balls off himself yesterday. Bichette is in the midst of an excellent season at the plate, slashing .293/.342/.478, for a wRC+ of 123 over 473 plate appearances. At the start of today’s games, the Jays were three games back of Oakland for the AL’s final wildcard playoff spot and will surely be hoping for Bichette to return in short order, as he’s been one of their most valuable contributors this year.
  • Randy Arozarena could be activated on Tuesday, per Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. The outfielder was placed on the COVID-IL on Friday because of a close contact. If he is expected back so quickly, it can be assumed that he has not tested positive himself. After a huge breakout in 2020, Arozarena is having another excellent season, with a wRC+ of 125 over 427 plate appearances.
  • Kevin Kiermaier left last night’s game with knee soreness but appears to have avoided serious injury, per Topkin. The outfielder is having a fourth-consecutive subpar season at the plate, slashing .232/.297/.324, producing a wRC+ of 77. Though on account of his excellent defensive work, he’s still been worth 1.1 fWAR this season.
  • DJ Johnson left today’s game with right shoulder discomfort, per Topkin. The 31-year-old was just acquired from Cleveland before the trade deadline and has had seen very limited MLB action this year. In Triple-A, he has a 3.32 ERA over 21 2/3 innings, with an excellent strikeout rate of 34% but an elevated walk rate of 10.7%.

Extension Notes: Lindor, Correa, Bieber, Bichette

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New Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor revealed that there’s “mutual interest” in an extension, though he believes “it’s too early” for serious talks to start, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com. Lindor said in early January, shortly after the Mets acquired him from Cleveland, that he wouldn’t want to discuss a new contract during the season. His feelings on that subject seemingly remain the same, as he notes, “It would be unfair for me and the rest of the team to have ongoing conversations on an extension, and we show up on Opening Day and our mind is somewhere else.” Considering Lindor’s stance, the Mets figure to spend the next month-plus trying to lock up the 27-year-old, who has been a premier player throughout his career and who was the biggest acquisition the club made in the offseason.

  • The Astros’ Carlos Correa could join Lindor as part of a star-studded class of free-agent shortstops next winter, but he would also like to secure a new deal before the upcoming season, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com writes. “If the Astros want to extend me, I would like to get it done before the season starts,” Correa said. “I feel good, my body feels great and I feel I’m going to have such a great season. Once the season starts, I don’t want to be involved and distracted with those conversations.” Correa, 26, put up uncharacteristically mediocre production in 2020, but he stayed healthy for the first time in a few seasons. He avoided arbitration Feb. 6 with an $11.7MM agreement for 2021, but he and his agent haven’t heard from the Astros about a long-term deal since then, McTaggart relays.
  • Indians ace Shane Bieber hasn’t discussed a long-term deal with the club, but he’d be willing to do so, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets. The Indians don’t necessarily have to urgently sign Bieber, who won’t be eligible for arbitration until after 2021 or free agency until the end of 2024. But with the club’s low budget in mind, it could behoove it to extend the reigning AL Cy Young winner sometime soon.
  • Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette told Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet and other reporters that he’s open to an extension, but the team hasn’t made him an offer so far. The 22-year-old Bichette has been a revelation for the Blue Jays dating back to his 2019 debut, having slashed .307/.347/.549 with 16 home runs and eight stolen bases in 340 plate appearances. Fortunately for Toronto, it isn’t in danger of losing Bichette in the near future, which would explain the lack of urgency in inking him to an extension. Bichette still has two pre-arbitration years remaining and isn’t slated to reach free agency until after 2025.

Blue Jays Notes: Bichette, Shoemaker, Vlad

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Bo Bichette figures to be one of the centerpieces for the Blue Jays for the foreseeable future, but the budding superstar said on Sportsnet’s Good Show this week that a contract extension isn’t anything he’s thinking about at this time (audio clip).

“It’s been brought up and it’s definitely something I’m interested in, but at the same time I’m not going to sell myself short,” said Bichette. “We’ll see what happens. Right now, I’m not too worried about. I’ve still got a lot to prove in my career, and really the last thing on my mind is a contract extension.”

He’s only played in 75 games at the MLB level, but Bichette looks the part of an All-Star right now. The former top prospect has put together a .307/.347/549 slash with 16 home runs, 27 doubles, a triple and eight steals through his first 340 trips to the plate. He won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2022 season and is controlled all the way through 2025, however, so there’s ample time for the Jays to worry about financial matters down the road. Of course, the more Bichette established himself and the closer he inches to arbitration or free agency, the more the price tag on an extension will rise.

A couple more notes on the Jays…

  • Right-hander Matt Shoemaker also joined The Good Show this week to chat about his time with the organization and his upcoming venture into free agency. The 34-year-old was dominant in five starts with the Blue Jays in 2019 before suffering a torn ACL that ended his season. He returned in 2020 with lesser results, but Shoemaker’s overall body of work in Toronto was solid: 11 starts, 57 1/3 frames, 3.14 ERA, 4.30 xFIP, 50-to-18 K/BB, 49.7 percent ground-ball rate. Home runs were a huge issue in 2020, but Shoemaker could represent a reasonably affordable piece of rotation depth and made clear that he’d love to return. “I just want to go to a team that’s just hungry, right?” said Shoemaker. “And the Jays are hungry, man. Like, we’ve got this really young team who just love the game, fiery players, really talented.”
  • Toronto GM Ross Atkins said at season’s end that the Jays haven’t given up on the idea of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. being able to play some third base, even if he’s not a primary option there. The Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm makes a case against prioritizing versatility in this case and opines that Guerrero should simply be left to try to hone his craft at first base. Chisholm notes that defensive metrics and the eye test alike have panned Guerrero at both positions but likens Guerrero’s move across the diamond to the one made by Edwin Encarnacion several years ago — a move that eventually resulted in Encarnacion putting up some solid defensive marks at the less-demanding position. Guerrero still needs to develop better instincts at the spot, and getting regular reps at the spot should help.

Bo Bichette Nearing Return

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The 24-19 Blue Jays are firmly in possession of a postseason spot at the moment, and an already-strong roster could soon get a major reinforcement. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that young shortstop Bo Bichette could return from the injured list in tie for this weekend’s series against the Mets. Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet tweeted yesterday that Bichette was 2-for-3 in a simulated game Tuesday before taking four plate appearances and playing six inning at shortstop in another sim game Wednesday.

Bichette, 22, has been nothing short of amazing through his first 60 big league games, hitting .323/.366/.595 with 16 homers, 22 doubles and eight stolen bases through 276 trips to the plate. He was particularly remarkable in 14 games this season before suffering a knee sprain, as he’d slashed .361/.391/.672 through his first 64 plate appearances. The Jays are off today, but a return tomorrow could mean Bichette returns for as many as 17 games to close out the regular season.

In Bichette’s absence, the Blue Jays have relied on the trio of Santiago Espinal, Joe Panik and recent trade acquisition Jonathan Villar have worked to hold down the fort at shortstop — with mixed results. Panik has hit quite well since Bichette went down (.327/.444/.423), though he’s spent more time at his customary second base than on the other side of the bag at shortstop. Espinal carries a .282/.326/.359 slash in 44 plate appearances dating back to Bichette’s injury. Villar, the most established player of the bunch, has struggled to a .194/.306/.194 slash in 33 plate appearances over his eight games in Toronto.

With 17 games remaining on the schedule and none against the division-leading Rays, the Blue Jays are a long shot to overtake Tampa Bay for the division lead. However, they’ll follow up this weekend’s three-game series against the Mets with three games at Yankee Stadium, and they still have another four-game set against the Yankees later this month. With the Yanks trailing the Jays by two games and seven contests between the two clubs still to come, Bichette’s impending return carries all the more consequence.

East Notes: Realmuto, Bichette, Elieser, Benintendi

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With the winter fast approaching and time running out for an in-season extension, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto will “likely” try his hand on the open market, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia observes. However, general manager Matt Klentak suggested Monday that the Phillies and Realmuto have at least discussed a new contract since the season began. “That’s not true,” Klentak said of a report that the two sides hadn’t talked, though Salisbury notes that the executive was loath to give more detailed updates. Regardless of where he signs, it’ll be fascinating to see how much Realmuto rakes in as a soon-to-be 30-year-old backstop whose trip to free agency will come off a pandemic-shortened season. Realmuto has continued to make an emphatic case for a mega-deal, though, as the two-time All-Star has once again been the game’s premier catcher in 2020.

Here’s more from baseball’s East divisions…

  • The Blue Jays have been without shortstop Bo Bichette for two weeks because of a knee sprain, though manager Charlie Montoyo said Tuesday that “he’s progressing pretty good,” according to Scott Mitchell of TSN. Bichette, if he returns, could be a huge down-the-stretch pickup for a Blue Jays club that has legitimate playoff aspirations. He began the year with a superb .361/.391/.672 line and five home runs in 64 plate appearances before going to the IL. Shortstop has become a weakness for Toronto since Bichette went down, but the team did acquire veteran Band-Aid Jonathan Villar from Miami prior to Monday’s trade deadline.
  • Speaking of those two teams, Marlins right-hander Elieser Hernandez exited his start against Toronto on Tuesday with a sore lat muscle, the Fish announced. He’s listed as day to day, but manager Don Mattingly revealed Hernandez will undergo an MRI, Craig Mish of Sports Grid relays. Any kind of absence for Hernandez over the season’s last month would be an unwelcome development for the surprising Marlins, who are in playoff contention thanks in part to his contributions. With a 2.81 ERA and 11.92 K/9 against 1.75 BB/9, the 25-year-old Hernandez has given Miami front-line production across 25 2/3 innings.
  • Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke admitted Tuesday that injured left fielder Andrew Benintendi might not return this season, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Benintendi headed to the IL on Aug. 12 with a right rib cage strain, which continued a miserable start to the 2020 campaign for the 26-year-old. If he is done for the year, he’ll end it with a .103/.314/.128 line and no homers in 52 trips to the plate.

Bo Bichette Lands On 10-Day IL With Knee Sprain

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AUG. 17: The second opinion on Bichette revealed a Grade 1 LCL sprain, Davidi tweets. It’s a “minor” injury that won’t have a long-term effect, per Davidi, but there’s no word on when Bichette will return.

AUG. 16, 8:57pm: Bichette’s injury is a “low-grade” sprain, and he is getting a second opinion on the injury, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi reports (Twitter links).  The fact that Bichette is getting a second opinion could tie into an earlier report from the Toronto Sun’s Rob Longley, who hears from a source that Bichette could be out until the middle of September.  More will be known tomorrow, Davidi notes, once a specialist views Bichette’s MRI results.

2:45pm: The Blue Jays have placed Bichette on the 10-day injured list with a right knee sprain, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN. Santiago Espinal was recalled to replace him on the active roster. Beyond the 10 days he’ll spend on the IL, a timetable for Bichette’s return is not yet known.

10:51am: Blue Jays prized shortstop Bo Bichette is headed for an MRI on his right knee, manager Charlie Montoyo announced to reporters (including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). He reported some discomfort following last night’s game against the Rays, relays Scott Mitchell of TSN (Twitter link).

There’s no indication the situation’s particularly worrisome just yet. Any absence from Bichette, though, would be a serious blow to the 7-9 Jays’ hopes of contending. Despite the team’s lackluster start, the 22-year-old Bichette has come out on fire. He’s hitting .356/.387/.678 with five home runs over his first 62 plate appearances. In the early going, he’s significantly upped his contact rate while cutting down on strikeouts. Bichette’s seemingly well on his way to the stardom he’s appeared ticketed for since emerging as an elite prospect early in his pro career.

If Bichette were to miss time, the Jays figure to turn to Joe Panik and/or Santiago Espinal at shortstop. Veteran Rubén Tejada is also in the organization’s player pool, but he’s not on the 40-man roster.

How Good Was Dante Bichette?

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Before he became the third-most-famous dad of a Toronto Blue Jays starting infielder, Dante Bichette held a similar title in a different barbershop quartet: the Blake Street Bombers. In both groups, Bichette fits comfortably in the George Harrison role as the love-able third cog, the character actor capable of carrying a film (say, as the 3-hole hitter), but nonetheless of tertiary relevance after two obviously-more-famous counterparts (Craig Biggio and Vlad Guerrero, Paul and John, Larry Walker and Andres Galarraga). Along with Vinny Castilla (who rightly-or-wrongly has fallen into the Ringo role in the Blake Street Bombers), Bichette helped the Rockies to their first playoff appearance in franchise history (1995) and became an indelible part of Colorado baseball history.

Bichette wasn’t destined for stardom, necessarily. He capitalized with a case of perfect time, perfect place (emphasis on place, as Coors Field in ’95 wasn’t a bad place to take your home hacks). 1995 wasn’t Bichette’s first season as a productive regular, nor was it his best by WAR, but it was his loudest: .340/.364/.620 while leading the league with 40 home runs and 128 RBIs.

It was a feel-good story for both Bichette and the Rockies, the former of whom had found belated stardom at the age of 31, and for the latter, as the organization enjoyed its first taste of success as an MLB franchise. Don Baylor’s club didn’t set the world aflame, but they did scratch out a 77-67 record, good enough to capture the newly instituted Wild Card slot to make the National League playoffs. The Rockies would fall to the Braves in four games and fail to reach the playoffs for a second time in the era of the Blake Street Bombers, however. They would not return to the playoffs until capturing the Wild Card in 2007, long after Bichette’s departure following the 1999 season.

As for Bichette, 1995 wasn’t all that anomalous. He would make the All-Star team and earn MVP votes in four out of five seasons from 1994 to 1999 (including a second-place finish in ’95). Over that five-year stretch, Bichette had an overall slash line of .320/.352/.542 while slugging 146 of his 274 career home runs. All of the above considering, and Bichette looks like a classic short-peak superstar, maybe even worthy of consideration for the colloquial hall-of-very-good.

But the story changes when you get a look at his Wins Above Replacement totals. For his career, Bichette amassed a surprisingly meager total of just 5.7 bWAR across 14 seasons. There were 18 position players with at least 5.7 bWAR in 2019 alone. By measure of fWAR, Bichette was slightly better, putting up a total 8.9 fWAR. In other words, he wasn’t very good?  Frankly, it’s difficult to view Bichette’s WAR totals in context. His era brings no measure of complications, but we’d normally worry about that era from an inflation standpoint. Looking at his fellow Bombers, Castilla managed 19.4 bWAR, which matches more closely to his standing in the baseball zeitgeist. Galarraga’s numbers are lower than what one might expect for the Big Cat (31.7 bWAR), but they still point to a solid career. Larry Walker was the best of the Colorado bunch, putting up a Hall-worthy 72.7 bWAR, for which he was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.

Of course, nobody was looking at Wins Above Replacement when Bichette was a player. Given his offensive output, it’s still not surprising he made four All-Star teams. His career WAR numbers actually undersell his peak abilities as a player, largely because his overall numbers were hampered by three seasons of negative bWAR, including a disastrous -2.3 bWAR/-2.1 fWAR campaign in his final season with the Rockies in 1999. Bichette’s offensive output was down that season, but it still wasn’t bad: .298/.354/.541 with 34 home runs and 133 RBIs. That hardly looks like a -2.3 WAR season – and yet – it was (the MLB average slash line that season was .267/.338/.417).

Needless to say, Bichette was not a standout defender or baserunner. He was clocked for -34 runs from fielding that season along with -5 runs from baserunning per baseball-reference. He somehow made 13 errors as a left fielder that year (while also collecting 17 outfield assists). The last time an outfielder committed double-digit error totals was Ian Desmond in 2016 with the Rangers, his first season in the outfield as a converted shortstop. It’s not so surprising, then, that Bichette’s offensive numbers don’t buoy the other parts of his game to better bloat those WAR totals. Had Bichette played in the American League where he could have been utilized as a designated hitter, perhaps his career numbers would have a slightly different shape than they do now. Of course, the same could be said for if he’s played his peak seasons for a different franchise.

Regardless, Bichette found a time and a place to make an impact on the game. Plus, his contribution continues in the form of his son, Bo Bichette, who put up 2.3 bWAR as a 21-year-old for the Blue Jays last year. Bo looks astoundingly like his father even down to the haircut, but he brings a more well-rounded game to Toronto’s infield. At this rate, Bo will eclipse his dad’s bWAR total before the midpoint of his age-23 season.

Quick Hits: MiLB, Bichette, Axford

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Minor league baseball teams are being hit particularly hard by the coronavirus shutdown, per Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper. With the shutdown coming so close to the start of the season, many minor league teams had already spent money in preparation for the season – money they aren’t likely to recoup. Some teams will consider small business loans to stay afloat, but there’s too much uncertainty to forecast too far into the future. The livelihoods of the many part-time workers that help keep minor league ballparks functioning is a primary concern, of course, but there’s definitely the possibility of losing a minor league team or two wholesale. Cooper says this of the issue, “The numbers vary, but without significant help from the government or others, estimates from people inside MiLB range from 10 to 40 MiLB clubs that may struggle to make it through the season.” Let’s head north of the border for some more updates…

  • Bo Bichette has been keeping his arm loose, trying to keep a routine and stay prepared, but with the layoff stretching longer than initially expected, he’s considering taking some time off from the even most basic baseball activities, per TSN’s Scott Mitchell. There are obviously bigger issues at play here, which is why Bichette has no problem backburnering his career for the time being while focusing on social distancing. That said, in the distant background of Mitchell’s article, the question of ballplayer health arises. It will be an interesting one to track when/if the season does get underway.
  • Speaking of complications from the current crisis, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hopes the current layoff pushes the league and players’ union to find some common ground when it comes to eventual collective bargaining. Frederickson provides a quote from Andrew Miller, who captured the sentiment of many when he said “The finances of the game, whether it’s from the player or the owner perspective, it’s in everybody’s best interest to get games going.”
  • John Axford was mounting a comeback bid before COVID-19 rearranged everyone’s priorities, per the Canadian Press at Sportsnet.ca. Axford sustained a stress fracture in his right elbow during spring training last year, missing the entire season while recovering. The once-mustachioed Axford last appeared in the majors for the Blue Jays and Dodgers in 2018, sustaining some bad luck en route to a 5.27 ERA across 50 outings. A 3.98 FIP suggests the underlying output from Axford deserves a second look. Over his ten year career, Axford made 543 appearances for the Brewers, A’s, Rockies, Pirates, Cardinals, Dodgers, Indians and Blue Jays, though no stop was more noteworthy than his early days in Milwaukee, which included a 46-save season in 2011. In total, he notched 144 career saves with a 3.87 ERA/3.67 FIP. Whether Axford gets another chance at cracking an MLB roster remains to be seen, but he’s keeping his options open for now.
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