- The Blue Jays hope lefty Robbie Ray will return to the rotation this week, according to Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star (via Twitter). The southpaw threw 63 pitches in a simulated game yesterday. The last hurdle to clear is just seeing how he feels over the next couple of days.
Blue Jays Rumors
George Springer Suffers Quad Strain
APRIL 8: Springer has a low-grade strain, according to manager Charlie Montoyo. He’s unlikely to debut until at at least April 15, Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets.
APRIL 7: Blue Jays center fielder George Springer looked as if he could make his 2021 debut Thursday, but there’s no longer a chance of that happening. Springer felt tightness in his right quad while running the bases on Tuesday and has undergone an MRI, Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star was among those to report. The Jays are still awaiting the results of Springer’s MRI.
When Toronto signed Springer to the largest guarantee in free agency – a six year, $150MM pact – the hope was obviously that he would be part of their lineup beginning Opening Day. But the three-time All-Star suffered a Grade 2 left oblique strain during spring training, which has prevented him from debuting this year, and this latest issue will keep him out for at least a little more time. Springer appeared in 140 or more games in each season with the Astros from 2016-18, but he missed 40 contests in 2019 and sat out nine times during the abbreviated 2020 campaign.
The Blue Jays planned to enter the season with Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. flanking Springer in the outfield. Sans Springer, they have mostly turned to Randal Grichuk in center. Grichuk has gotten off to a hot start and helped offset Springer’s absence, though there’s no doubt the latter is the better option when he’s healthy.
Blue Jays Sign GM Ross Atkins To Five-Year Extension
9:32am: Atkins’ contract begins at the end of this season, so it covers the 2022-26 campaigns, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet tweets. He’s now signed one year longer than Shapiro.
8:37am: The Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they’ve signed general manager Ross Atkins to a five-year extension. The exact length of Atkins’ prior contract wasn’t publicly known, though he last inked an extension in June 2019. This new five-year pact lends some clarity to his contractual status and cements that Atkins and president Mark Shapiro, who was extended through the 2025 season earlier this year, will continue to head up Blue Jays operations for the foreseeable future.
Originally hired as the team’s general manager in Dec. 2015, Atkins has spent the past five years heading up Toronto’s baseball operations department. There were some lean years for the Jays from 2017-19 as Atkins, Shapiro and their front office team turned over the farm system and worked to compile a core upon which they could build. The Jays currently have the game’s third-best farm system, according to both Baseball America and The Athletic. The fruits of those efforts to restock the farm already began to manifest in 2020, when the Jays nabbed a playoff spot in last year’s expanded field.
With the likes of Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez all coming together at the big league level, the Jays began supplementing that core on the free-agent market heading into the 2020 season. Hyun Jin Ryu inked a four-year, $80MM deal to head up a rotation that had vaunted pitching prospect Nate Pearson on the horizon, and the Jays made a larger splash this past offseason when they inked George Springer to the largest deal in franchise history: a six-year, $150MM contract.
Some of the current roster — Guerrero, Rowdy Tellez, Danny Jansen — was acquired prior to the hiring of Atkins. As is the case with most front-office shuffles, there’s some groundwork laid by the prior group that continues to shape the long-term direction of the club and some continuity from regime to regime. Tony LaCava, for instance, was an assistant GM under Alex Anthopoulos and still holds a key position (senior vice president of player personnel) in the current group.
[Related — GM Trade History: Blue Jays’ Ross Atkins]
Acquiring Hernandez from the Astros in exchange for Francisco Liriano is likely the most notable success on the trade market under Atkins, while key international signings like Gurriel and Alejandro Kirk have begun to provide value at the MLB level as well. Time will tell whether the investment in Springer proves fruitful, but the Ryu investment has paid off so far and it’s hard to fault a one-year pact for a player of Marcus Semien’s caliber. There have certainly been missteps along the way — the Randal Grichuk trade worked out nicely; his extension did not — but Atkins has clearly commanded the confidence of ownership and is now being rewarded with a lengthy extension for his efforts.
For all of the Jays’ recent spending, the affordable nature of their young core gives them the flexibility to continue being aggressive on the market next winter. There was a clear stopping point this winter, as the Jays cooled their spending despite some a relatively questionable rotation composition. But the Jays only have about $65MM committed to the 2022 roster at present, and the only sizable arbitration raises on the docket figure to be Hernandez (who’ll get a bump from this year’s $4.325MM salary) and Guerrero (who’ll be arb-eligible for the first time).
The Blue Jays aren’t considered division favorites in 2021, but they have one of the game’s top farm systems, a promising core of controllable young big leaguers upon which to build, and considerable payroll flexibility heading into a historically strong class of free agents next winter. The future looks bright.
George Springer Could Make Season Debut Thursday
- Blue Jays center fielder George Springer took live batting practice Tuesday and seems to be on track to make his season debut Thursday, Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets. The Jays signed the former Astros star to a six-year, $150MM contract in the offseason, but they have been without Springer so far because of a Grade 2 oblique strain. Toronto nonetheless entered Tuesday with a 3-1 record, though, and has received tremendous production from center field fill-in Randal Grichuk in the early going.
Blue Jays Outright Reese McGuire, Breyvic Valera
TODAY: McGuire and Valera have both cleared DFA waivers and been outrighted to the Blue Jays’ alternate training site, as per a team announcement.
APRIL 1: The Blue Jays announced Thursday morning that catcher Reese McGuire and infielder Breyvic Valera have been designated for assignment. Their roster spots will go to infielder Joe Panik and lefty Tim Mayza, whose contracts have formally been selected.
McGuire, 26, was the 14th overall pick by the Pirates back in 2013 and came to the Jays by way of the 2016 Francisco Liriano trade. The longtime top prospect hit well in 2018-19 (.297/.343/.539, seven homers in 138 plate appearances) before his bat fell off a cliff in 2020 (.073/.073/.146 in 45 plate appearances). That downturn in production, a bizarre and troubling Feb. 2020 arrest, and the breakout of fellow catcher Alejandro Kirk all combined to spell the end of McGuire’s days on Toronto’s 40-man roster.
Valera, meanwhile, has bounced around the league via the waiver wire for the past couple seasons. The Jays have claimed the versatile switch-hitter twice in that time, but he’s still only appeared in five games with the club. The 29-year-old Valera is a career .223/.294/.298 hitter in a small sample of 138 plate appearances, but he carries a much more appealing .302/.374/.442 line through 1550 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
The Jays told Panik that he’d made the roster last week, marking the second straight season that he’s cracked their big league club after inking a minor league pact in the offseason. Mayza, 29, pitched 104 innings with the Jays from 2017-19 but missed the 2020 season due to Tommy John surgery that he underwent in Sept. 2019. He’s healthy now and rattled off 6 2/3 shutout innings during Spring Training, yielding just one hit and two walks with six punchouts along the way.
Braves Hire Devon Travis As Minor League Coach
The Braves announced their minor league coaching staffs earlier this week (The Atlanta Journal-Constitutional was among the outlets with the full listing), and one of the many notable names on the list was former Blue Jays infielder Devon Travis, who is joining the staff of the Braves’ Gulf Coast League rookie ball affiliate. The news would seem to indicate that the 30-year-old Travis is ending his playing career after four Major League seasons and seven overall seasons in pro ball.
Originally a 13th-round pick out of Florida State in the 2012 draft, Travis turned some heads in his early days in the Tigers’ farm system, even landing on Baseball America’s top-100 prospect ranking prior to the 2014 season. In an intriguing swap of promising young talents in November 2014, Detroit traded Travis to the Blue Jays for Anthony Gose, and Travis made an immediate impression in his rookie season. Quickly stepping into everyday second base duties for Toronto, Travis hit .304/.361/.498 with eight home runs in 239 plate appearances for the eventual AL East champions, though a shoulder injury ended Travis’ season in late July and prevented him from taking part in the Jays’ push to the ALCS.
Unfortunately, injuries became the story of Travis’ career. Finally returning in 2016 after two different shoulder surgeries, Travis then developed knee problems that hampered the remainder of his playing days. Between the shoulder procedures and surgeries on both knees, Travis ended up playing in only 316 games (all with Toronto) from 2015-18, and hitting .274/.314/.437 with 35 homers over 1246 plate appearances. He hasn’t played at all since the 2018 season, and Travis chose to become a free agent after the Jays outrighted him off their 40-man roster following the 2019 campaign.
Travis embarks on this new phase of his baseball career under the familiar eye of Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, who brought Travis to Toronto in Anthopoulos’ previous job as the Jays’ GM. We at MLBTR wish Travis all the best in his coaching endeavors.
Blue Jays Select Tommy Milone
The Blue Jays announced they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Tommy Milone. Reliever Joel Payamps has been optioned to the alternate training site in a corresponding move. To clear space on the 40-man roster, the Jays placed reliever Kirby Yates on the 60-day injured list. Yates will miss the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Toronto signed Milone to a minor league deal in February. The soft-tossing lefty started nine games between the Orioles and Braves in 2020, including getting the nod for Baltimore on Opening Day. After a decent start to the year with the O’s, Milone got knocked around in Atlanta. All told, he pitched to a 6.69 ERA/4.12 SIERA despite a career-best 22.1% strikeout rate (just worse than league average) and a stellar 3.3% walk rate.
Milone has never missed many bats or induced ground balls at an especially strong clip. However, the 34-year-old’s ability to throw strikes at an incredible rate has continued to get him MLB opportunities. When Milone takes the mound for the Jays, he’ll be suiting up for his ninth different team over the past eleven years.
Offseason In Review: Toronto Blue Jays
The biggest free agent contract of the offseason (and the biggest contract in franchise history) was the highlight of a very busy winter for the Blue Jays.
Major League Signings
- George Springer, OF: Six years, $150MM
- Marcus Semien: IF: One year, $18MM
- Robbie Ray, SP: One year, $8MM
- Kirby Yates, RP: One year, $5.5MM
- Tyler Chatwood, RP: One year, $3MM
- David Phelps, RP: One year, $1.75MM
- Total spend: $186.25MM
Trades & Claims
- Acquired SP Steven Matz from the Mets for SP Sean Reid-Foley, SP Yennsy Diaz, and SP Josh Winckowski
- Acquired RP Travis Bergen from the Diamondbacks for cash considerations
- Acquired C Juan Graterol from the Angels for cash considerations
- Acquired cash considerations/player to be named later from the Brewers for OF Derek Fisher
- Acquired cash considerations/player to be named later from the Reds for RP Hector Perez
- Claimed SP Anthony Castro off waivers from the Tigers
- Claimed RP Joel Payamps off waivers from the Red Sox
- Sent 1B/OF Ryan Noda to the Dodgers (player to be named later from August trade for Ross Stripling)
Notable Minor League Signings
- Joe Panik (contract will be selected, guaranteeing $1.85MM salary), A.J. Cole, Tommy Milone, Tyler White, Richard Urena, Forrest Wall, Francisco Liriano (released)
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
- Taijuan Walker, Jonathan Villar, Matt Shoemaker, Ken Giles, Anthony Bass, Travis Shaw, Chase Anderson, Shun Yamaguchi, Caleb Joseph
“The Blue Jays have shown interest in…” were the seven most popular words on MLB Trade Rumors over the last five months, as for the second straight offseason, the Jays at least checked in on seemingly every free agent or trade candidate on the market. This aggression stood out in a winter marked by teams cutting payroll or trying to stand pat with their spending, as Toronto left no doubt that it was looking to augment its young core with some veteran upgrades.
This doesn’t mean the Jays went overboard, however. Besides a quick re-signing of starter Robbie Ray soon after the free agent period opened, the Blue Jays didn’t start swinging any major moves until January. The long wait could be attributed to some bigger-picture factors — all teams were being somewhat cautious until more information was available about the status of the pandemic and the 2021 season, and players and agents were being cautious about signing contracts until they had a full grasp of the potential market of suitors.
In the Blue Jays’ case, however, they faced a problem unique to MLB’s only Canadian team. In essence, the Jays’ usual free agent pitch went from convincing players to play in Canada to convincing players to play in multiple minor league ballparks in the United States and (potentially) in Canada in 2021. As manager Charlie Montoyo noted in December, “the No. 1 question is if we’re going to play in Toronto. That’s rightly so. Our answer is, ’Yeah, we’re hoping so.’ ”
As the 2021 season begins, the team’s answer is still TBD….as in, Toronto/Buffalo/Dunedin. The Jays will play home games at their spring site in Dunedin through at least the end of May, with team president/CEO Mark Shapiro recently suggesting that the club will then shift games to Sahlen Field in Buffalo in June to avoid playing outdoors in the Florida summer. Depending on the pandemic and the approval of Canadian government and health officials, the best-case scenario for the Jays would see them return to Rogers Centre at some point in July.
Amidst this uncertainty, the Jays’ willingness to spend ultimately allowed them to land a couple of major targets. George Springer’s six-year, $150MM contract easily topped the list of free agent contracts in total dollars (well ahead of J.T. Realmuto’s five-year, $115.5MM pact with the Phillies) and ranked second in average annual value, behind Trevor Bauer’s three-year, $102MM deal with the Dodgers. Marcus Semien wasn’t far behind on the AAV list, as his $18MM salary is just shy of the cost of the qualifying offer that the Athletics chose to not issue to their longtime shortstop.
The Mets were Toronto’s chief competition for Springer, as New York reportedly floated a six-year deal in the $120MM-$125MM range for the outfielder’s services before the Jays made the higher bid. It was a price Toronto was willing to pay to land a proven performer in both the regular season and postseason.
There is undoubtedly risk in making a six-year commitment to a player who is already 31 years old, and Springer has already hit a minor setback in the form of a Grade 2 oblique injury that will require an IL trip. Still, there isn’t much statistical evidence that Springer is slowing down as a top-level offensive performer, and his defensive numbers are still solid enough that the Blue Jays can count on him in center field for at least a few of those six years. And, for the inevitable questions about Springer and the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, his career numbers on the road are actually better than his career numbers in Houston.
While multiple teams were interested in Semien, his market was more complicated. Following a spectacular 2019 season, Semien’s numbers dropped off over 236 regular-season plate appearances in 2020, though he did start to heat up at the end of the season and through the Athletics’ postseason run. The number of other star shortstops available as free agents and trade candidates both this offseason and next offseason also seemingly made teams wary of a big commitment to Semien, and multiple clubs explored moving him off of shortstop entirely.
As it turned out, Semien will indeed take a change of position, as he will be Toronto’s new regular at second base. He hasn’t played the keystone since the 2014 season, though Semien is a solid enough defender at shortstop that there isn’t much doubt he can handle the new role. With Semien at second base, the Blue Jays won’t interrupt Bo Bichette’s development as the everyday shortstop — an option the Jays at least considered, as they too looked at the broader picture of the shortstop market.
Semien’s $18MM price tag again represented an outbid of the market for the Jays, though it hardly counts as an onerous investment for a player who is undoubtedly motivated to bounce back from 2020 and prove himself worthy of a big multi-year contract. If the qualifying offer system isn’t altered once the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in December, the Jays are eligible to issue a QO to Semien next offseason, putting Toronto in line for a compensatory draft pick if Semien rejects the offer and signs elsewhere.
The one-year deal for Semien also continued the Jays’ winter strategy of not quite going all-in on new acquisitions, as aggressive as the team was in pursuing talent. Springer was the lone player signed to a multi-year deal, and he is one of only four Jays — along with Hyun Jin Ryu, Randal Grichuk, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. — who are officially under contract beyond the 2021 season. With so many intriguing young players in the pipeline or with only a bit of Major League experience, the Blue Jays are still something of a work in progress.
Giving a multi-year commitment to Semien or another prominent infielder like DJ LeMahieu, for example, would have closed off an infield spot for a team that already has Bichette, Rowdy Tellez, Cavan Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the big league roster, and top-50 prospects Austin Martin and Jordan Groshans maybe a season away from the Show. (There was room, though, for another minor league deal with Joe Panik, who will return as the club’s chief utility infielder.)
Likewise, the Blue Jays had some interest in Realmuto, but he was a luxury on a team that already had Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, and multiple other promising catchers in the minors. Springer was targeted in part because the outfield depth chart isn’t quite as crowded, though Grichuk, Gurriel, and Teoscar Hernandez are all on hand for at least the next two seasons (barring a trade) and both Martin and Biggio can also play the outfield.
A similar story applied to the pitching staff, as Ray (who will begin this year on the IL with an elbow bruise) was signed to a one-year deal, and trade acquisition Steven Matz is eligible for free agency next winter. Younger arms like Anthony Kay, T.J. Zeuch, Simeon Woods Richardson and Alek Manoah could start playing larger roles in the Toronto rotation as early as this season, so Ryu remains the only long-term veteran piece of the pitching staff.
The rotation, however, now looms as the Blue Jays’ biggest concern. This is the flip side of the Jays’ active offseason — when a team is “in on everyone,” it becomes easy to second-guess the moves that they did make. If Springer or Semien don’t produce, the argument will be made that the Jays should have instead traded for Francisco Lindor, or pushed to sign Realmuto, LeMahieu, Justin Turner, Ha-Seong Kim, or Michael Brantley (who Toronto had seemingly agreed to sign before Brantley decided at the last minute to rejoin the Astros).
One acquisition has unfortunately already backfired on the Jays, as Kirby Yates will miss the season due to Tommy John surgery. Yates missed most of the 2020 campaign after undergoing surgery to remove bone chips from his throwing elbow, and though Yates’ offseason physicals revealed more concerns about his elbow, the Blue Jays still took the risk of a one-year, $5.5MM deal on a reliever who posted elite numbers in 2018-19.
Whiffing on the Yates contract won’t make or break Toronto’s payroll by any means, and with so many other internal bullpen candidates on hand (to say nothing of possible contributions from veterans Tyler Chatwood or David Phelps), it’s possible the Jays might not even miss Yates. Still, while every other team also decided against picking Brad Hand off the Indians’ waiver wire in October, the Jays’ pass stands out since they already knew they’d have some level of spending capability, and Hand would’ve also represented just a one-year commitment.
While Yates’ season-ending injury is by far the most serious problem, Nate Pearson will begin the season on the IL due to a groin injury, Thomas Hatch is out with elbow inflammation, and Ray will miss at least one start due to a bruised elbow. The injuries further thin out a pitching mix that is already relying on a lot of youngsters to establish themselves, and a lot of veterans to bounce back.
In Ray, Matz, Tanner Roark, and Ross Stripling, the Jays are putting a significant amount of faith in four pitchers who simply weren’t very good in 2020, though Ray and Matz both impressed this spring in Grapefruit League play. While walks and homers were always some type of an issue for Ray throughout his career, those issues became dire problems during the southpaw’s disastrous 2020 season, possibly due to an arm-slot change Ray made prior to the year. For Matz, he stands out as a rebound candidate just by dint of being healthy and getting a change of scenery after over a decade in the Mets organization.
Ryu was excellent in 2020, but as a 34-year-old pitcher with a long injury history, he’ll have to be monitored over the course of a 162-game season. Pearson is one of the sport’s top prospects, yet with only 18 MLB innings to his name, it may be a tall order to expect him to deliver on his potential this early in his career. While the additions of Springer and Semien will help a lineup that was already pretty strong, a case can certainly be made that a more proven arm was necessary to bolster the rotation.
In fairness to the Blue Jays front office, it’s not as if they didn’t try. Sticking to just the top names on the market, Toronto at least had some talks with Bauer, had interest in Jake Odorizzi throughout Odorizzi’s extended free agent stint, and made an offer to Tomoyuki Sugano before Sugano decided to remain in Japan. Early in the offseason, the Jays’ entire winter could have been reshaped if Kevin Gausman had taken Toronto’s reported three-year in the $40MM range rather than stay with the Giants by accepting their qualifying offer.
The Blue Jays won’t have the luxury of three extra playoff spots to work with as they pursue more October baseball, but there is certainly enough talent here to make a viable run at a wild card berth or the AL East title itself. And, given how GM Ross Atkins left no stone unturned this winter, it could be that some groundwork was laid for potential in-season moves if the Jays need a boost at the trade deadline.
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Blue Jays Acquire Juan Graterol From Angels
The Blue Jays have acquired catcher Juan Graterol from the Angels for cash considerations, according to an announcement from Los Angeles. Graterol will report to the Blue Jays’ alternate site, Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets.
The 32-year-old Graterol has appeared in the majors with three teams – the Angels, Twins and Reds – dating back to 2016. He has batted .218/.227/.266 without a home run in 129 plate appearances along the way, though he has thrown out an above-average 32 percent of would-be base stealers as a defender.
Graterol hasn’t reached the majors since 2019, and Toronto is likely hoping it won’t have to turn to him this year. But he’ll give the team some veteran depth behind the younger quartet of Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, Reese McGuire and Riley Adams – who are all on the Jays’ 40-man roster. McGuire’s spot in that group doesn’t look secure, though, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweeted Wednesday that the club could designate him for assignment.
George Springer, Robbie Ray To Begin Season On Injured List
Two of the Blue Jays’ key offseason signings – center fielder George Springer and left-hander Robbie Ray – will miss the start of the season, manager Charlie Montoyo announced to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet and other reporters (Twitter links). Springer has been dealing with a Grade 2 oblique strain since last week, while Ray has a bruised elbow.
Indications before Wednesday were that Springer wouldn’t be ready for the season opener, but this is nonetheless a disappointing way for the former Astro’s Toronto tenure to begin. The three-time All-Star signed the richest free-agent guarantee in the sport this past offseason – a six-year, $150MM contract – but will miss at least the first six games of 2021 for the Blue Jays. However, the playoff hopefuls still have a capable outfield trio with Randal Grichuk set to fill in for Springer alongside Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez in the corners.
Ray wasn’t nearly as expensive as Springer in free agency, but it did cost the Jays $8MM on a one-year pact to re-sign him. Ray has typically been a capable mid-rotation starter, though he slumped to a 6.62 ERA/5.49 SIERA with a similarly woeful 17.9 percent walk rate in 51 2/3 innings between Arizona and Toronto last season. The Jays are betting on a rebound, but that will have to wait for now, leaving Ross Stripling, Tanner Roark, Steven Matz, T.J. Zeuch and Anthony Kay as options behind ace Hyun Jin Ryu heading into the season.
