Blue Jays Rumors

Jesus Montero Receives 50-Game Suspension

By Jeff Todd | September 29, 2016 at 3:56pm CDT

Blue Jays Triple-A first baseman Jesus Montero has been slapped with a fifty game suspension after testing positive for a banned stimulant, dimethylbutylamine, the league announced. Montero was once a hyped prospect, but has been trying unsuccessfully to revive his career in recent years.

Montero, 26, never panned out with the Mariners after he was shipped to Seattle in exchange for Michael Pineda in rare swap of high-end young talents who had each reached the majors. All said, Montero owns a .253/.295/.398 big league batting line in his 865 career plate appearances.

This year was the first since 2011 in which Montero failed to earn any MLB action. He did post a strong .317 batting average over 518 Triple-A plate appearances. But he only walked 23 times, resulting in a .349 OBP, and didn’t show much of the power that he had long been expected to provide (11 home runs, .438 slugging).

Of course, Montero was originally a catching prospect; now that he’s limited to first base and DH duties, the bar is raised for his bat. It’s not clear what kind of opportunity he’ll have in the future. For one thing, he’ll need to serve his ban at the start of 2017; for another, it’s not his first, as Montero also took a fifty-game hit after he was caught up in the Biogenesis scandal.

Joaquin Benoit Out 2-3 Weeks With Torn Calf Muscle

By Steve Adams | September 27, 2016 at 4:37pm CDT

4:37pm: Benoit is in the Jays’ clubhouse, tweets Nicholson-Smith, and says that he’s been told he could be ready to return in two to three weeks. He’s currently wearing a walking boot and using crutches.

3:35pm: Blue Jays right-hander Joaquin Benoit, who left the park on crutches last night, has been diagnosed with a torn calf muscle, manager John Gibbons told reporters, including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter links). Benoit suffered the injury while running in from the bullpen on the heels of a benches-clearing brawl. Worsening matters for the Blue Jays is the fact that Gibbons also said that second baseman Devon Travis got his shoulder “tangled up in the brawl” and subsequently aggravated it on a swing. He’s now day to day with said injury.

For the Blue Jays, the loss is significant, especially when considering the nature in which Benoit’s injury occurred. Since coming over from the Mariners in exchange for Drew Storen, Benoit has pitched to a brilliant 0.38 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against 3.4 BB.9 in 23 2/3 innings of work. While injuries are a natural part of the game, incurring one in the midst of what was a senseless and entirely avoidable brawl last night is undoubtedly frustrating for both the team and fans alike.

Looking to the future, the injury is clearly disheartening for Benoit, who will presumably be unable to participate in the postseason and will also enter the free agent market on the heels of an injury. While the calf tear probably won’t impact his stock in the same manner that an arm injury at the age of 39 would, it nonetheless deprives him of the opportunity to further distance himself from what was a dreadful first three months of the season while pitching with the Mariners. Benoit struggled to a 5.18 ERA with Seattle due largely to poor control and a susceptibility to home runs, but he righted both of those trends to a large extent while pitching with the Jays and had done quite a bit of work to rebuild some of his free agent stock.

Blue Jays Designate Brady Dragmire For Assignment

By Steve Adams | September 27, 2016 at 4:12pm CDT

The Blue Jays announced that they have designated right-hander Brady Dragmire for assignment (hat tip: Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, on Twitter). Dragmire’s roster spot will go to fellow right-hander Chris Smith, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A, per the club. The Jays also added that infielder Andy Burns has been recalled for the final few games of the season as well.

The roster moves were necessitated by a pair of injuries sustained by Joaquin Benoit and Devon Travis in last night’s benches-clearing brawl. The scrum, seemingly, could have been entirely avoided, but the Blue Jays will now be without one of their top setup men for the remainder of the season and the duration of the postseason (assuming they advance into at least the Wild Card game), as Benoit has been diagnosed with a torn calf muscle. Travis, meanwhile, is day to day with a shoulder injury.

Beyond that, the Jays have had to make a 40-man roster move sooner than they may have preferred, though Dragmire’s spot was already in jeopardy following a rocky 2016 season at the Double-A level. In 72 innings with Toronto’s affiliate in New Hampshire, Dragmire logged a 4.38 ERA with 5.1 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9. He did post an excellent 63.6 percent ground-ball rate, though, and he won’t turn 24 until February, so there’s some reason for optimism.

Smith, meanwhile, joins Toronto after posting a 1.93 ERA with 12.0 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 60 2/3 innings between the Jays’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. He’s been with the Blue Jays since 2015 and, prior to that, spent the 2014-15 seasons in the Yankees organization. Smith was an undrafted free agent who cut his teeth in the independent Frontier League and overseas in the Australian Baseball League before eventually signing with the Yankees. If he enters a game for Toronto, he’ll be making his big league debut after a lengthy and unique journey to the game’s top level.

Joaquin Benoit Leaves Park On Crutches

By Jeff Todd | September 27, 2016 at 8:31am CDT

Blue Jays reliever Joaquin Benoit left the ballpark last night on crutches, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). The veteran is suffering from a leg injury — suggestions are that the issue is in his calf — that arose during a bench-clearing dust-up in yesterday’s game.

It would obviously be rather disappointing if it turns out that Benoit will miss any significant portion of time. After all, the Jays need him not only for the final week of the season but for the postseason to come.

Things had been going quite well for Benoit in Toronto prior to this. Since coming over in the trade that sent Drew Storen to the Mariners in a swap of struggling relievers, Benoit has allowed only a single earned run over 23 2/3 innings of work while permitting just 17 hits and carrying a 24:9 K/BB ratio.

That turnaround has not only provided a huge boost to the Blue Jays, but has set up Benoit nicely for free agency. He had posted some rough results in Seattle over the season’s first half, but his work in Toronto is more reminiscent of Benoit’s consistently strong production over the previous half-dozen campaigns.

AL East Notes: Trumbo, Red Sox, Bautista, Encarnacion

By Steve Adams | September 26, 2016 at 10:23am CDT

The latest column from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports focuses on the league-wide home run surge in 2016. MLB is on pace to set a new record for the most homers in a season on a per-plate-appearance basis. Passan profiles players either experiencing shocking levels of power output (e.g. Brian Dozier, Freddy Galvis) or enjoying a significant rebound in the power department, led by Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo. Acquired in a salary dump with the Mariners, Trumbo’s one-dimensional nature created virtually no trade market for him, Passan notes, and while his power spike will improve his stock this offseason, the one-dimensional questions will still exist. Trumbo is one of baseball’s worst defensive outfielders and has a below-average OBP because he walks less than the prototypical slugger. Still, a much older Nelson Cruz parlayed a 40-homer season into a four-year, $57MM contract, Passan notes, and he came with similar defensive question marks. I’d imagine that a team hoping to put Trumbo at first base wouldn’t be as concerned with his glove, but the combination of his defensive reputation, lack of OBP and a the presence of a qualifying offer will all be working against him.

Poll: Should The Blue Jays Issue Michael Saunders A Qualifying Offer?

By Mark Polishuk | September 25, 2016 at 9:45pm CDT

Back on August 16, I posted a forecast of which free agents could receive qualifying offers from their teams this offseason. Michael Saunders was listed as one of my “easy calls” to receive the one-year, $16.7MM contract, with one important caveat. Saunders, at that point, had been in a month-long slump, so I noted that the Blue Jays could re-consider issuing Saunders a QO if his slump continued, given his lack of track record as an upper-tier hitter.

Well, fast-forward six weeks and Saunders’ bat has yet to wake up. In 27 games between August 16 and September 23, Saunders is hitting just .207/.286/.427 with four homers over 92 plate appearances. In the second half altogether, Saunders has contributed a .179/.284/.375 slash line over 195 PA, though eight of his 24 homers on the season have come since the All-Star break.

So while Saunders has retained some of his pop (he has a respectable .196 isolated slugging mark in the second half) since the Midsummer Classic, the rest of his batting numbers have fallen off the table. This has made Saunders a sub-replacement level player for the Jays, since if Saunders isn’t hitting, he can’t contribute much on the basepaths or as a corner outfielder. An above-average baserunner early in his career according to Fangraphs’ BsR metric, Saunders has unsurprisingly been subpar in that category since tearing his meniscus during a freak Spring Training accident in 2015 and subsequently missing much of that season due to knee problems. It’s fair to guess that the knee injury has also contributed to Saunders’ poor defense, as his minus-9 Defensive Runs Scored and -12.1 UZR/150 this season in the outfield is well below his pre-meniscus tear career standard as a decent left fielder and a very good right fielder.

As it pertains to Saunders’ free agent stock, teams will certainly think hard about offering a big multi-year deal to a player who may already be turning into a bat-only type as he enters his age-30 season, especially when his bat may not be that potent. If Saunders and his representatives at Meister Sports Management feel that these question marks and the QO-attached draft pick compensation hanging over his free agency could limit his market, he could accept the Jays’ qualifying offer and aim for 2017 as that true breakout year where he is both healthy and consistently productive.

If the Blue Jays think there’s a chance Saunders accepts a QO, would they be comfortable offering it? The Jays may be wary committing $16.7MM to a player with Saunders’ limitations. There’s also the fact that Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista are also free agents this winter, and both will certainly be issued qualifying offers. Encarnacion will definitely reject his, while there’s a chance Bautista could accept given his disappointing and injury-plagued season. If both signed elsewhere, the Jays would probably welcome Saunders accepting a QO just so they could retain one important bat for the lineup. Encarnacion’s departure would also free up the designated hitter spot for Saunders and other veterans in the Blue Jays lineup. If fatigue has been a factor in Saunders’ second-half slide, regular DH at-bats would help keep him fresher and perhaps more productive over all 162 games.

This all being said, let’s not forget just how tremendous Saunders was in the first half of 2016. Only 13 players in baseball topped Saunders’ first-half wRC+ of 146, and the outfielder hit an impressive .298/.372/.551 with 16 homers over 344 PA. Saunders had long been rumored to have middle-of-the-order bat potential, and it was all clicking for him in the first 3.5 months of the season.

Given that teams are increasingly preferring to be flexible with their DH spot rather than have one designated hitter, a team with holes at both DH and corner outfield would certainly consider Saunders to rotate between both positions. As mentioned earlier, 2017 will be Saunders’ age-30 season, which gives him an age advantage over some of the other notable corner outfield/DH types on the market this offseason. Teams may be more willing to surrender a draft pick for a player who could still be coming into his prime, so it’s quite possible that Saunders will find a nice contract elsewhere and the Jays can recoup a draft pick via the qualifying offer.

Far from being an “easy call” anymore, Saunders now stands as one of the most intriguing QO cases of any free agent this winter, particularly given how his situation could influence how the Blue Jays approach re-signing Encarnacion and/or Bautista. How do MLBTR readers feel? (link for app users):

Should The Blue Jays Issue Michael Saunders A Qualifying Offer?

No 64.04% (3,183 votes)

Yes 35.96% (1,787 votes)

Total Votes: 4,970

Cafardo’s Latest: Orioles, Bautista, Hellickson, Reddick

By Connor Byrne | September 24, 2016 at 9:03pm CDT

The Orioles and agent Scott Boras discussed impending free agents Matt Wieters and Pedro Alvarez in a meeting last week, but no progress was made toward extensions for either, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. As a result, Wieters and Alvarez look likely to depart Baltimore at season’s end. Wieters, the Orioles’ top catcher since 2009, accepted a qualifying offer from the club for $15.7MM a year ago, but they probably won’t tender him for $16.7MM during the upcoming offseason. The 30-year-old is in the midst of one of his worst offensive seasons, having batted .241/.300/.401 in 438 plate appearances. Alvarez, a former Pirate, took a $5.75MM deal with the O’s last March and has since slashed .248/.319/.506 with 22 homers in 367 PAs. Those are right in line with the numbers the designated hitter/corner infielder regularly produced in Pittsburgh.

AL Notes: Postseason Preparation, Holland, Blue Jays

By charliewilmoth | September 24, 2016 at 2:15pm CDT

A team’s preparation for the postseason starts well before the playoffs actually begin, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald writes. The process of scouting potential playoff opponents, for example, begins months in advance. “You have to throw superstition out the window, because you’ve got to start that process in August,” says Red Sox president Sam Kennedy. “There’s a lot that goes into it. We have actually one person who wears a variety of hats here, but he is our postseason coordinator.” Teams also must plan for the possibility of winning a World Series even when they’re far from winning one. For example, the winning team must host a gala. “You may be two and a half games out of the Wild Card, and you’re sitting around trying to book a party for 1,500 people,” says Kennedy. Here’s more from the American League.

The Rangers are moving lefty Derek Holland to the bullpen, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes (Twitter links). Holland has been a fixture in the Rangers’ rotation since 2009, but he’s posted a 5.04 ERA, 5.7 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 105 1/3 innings of a 2016 season marred by shoulder trouble. The idea behind the switch is to evaluate whether Holland help the team out of the bullpen in the playoffs. According to manager Jeff Banister, the team will likely go with eight relievers on its ALDS roster.
The Blue Jays are in the midst of plans to keep their Spring Training home in Dunedin, Florida for the next 25 years, Megan Reeves of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Under the terms of the proposed deal, the team will partner with the county, city and state to do about $81MM worth of renovating and rebuilding. Of that total, the team will pay $15.7MM. The stadium at which Spring Training games are played will be renovated, while the team will also get a new clubhouse to update its training site. The Blue Jays have been in Dunedin since their inception in 1977, Reeves notes, making them the only team that has never changed Spring Training locations.

AL Notes: Liriano, Royals, Mariners

By charliewilmoth | September 24, 2016 at 10:39am CDT

After struggling through the first four months of the season with the Pirates, lefty Francisco Liriano has enjoyed success since coming to the Blue Jays in a deadline trade, writes Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. Nicholson-Smith notes that, since the trade, Liriano has gotten opposing batters to swing at pitches outside the strike zone 35.1% of the time, up from 27.8% with the Bucs. “He’s always had one of the better arms in baseball. He’s one of those guys that can always dominate teams and he really hasn’t lost a whole lot,” says manager John Gibbons. In seven starts with Toronto, Liriano has a 3.35 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. If he can maintain similar numbers in 2017, he’ll be more than worth his $13.7MM salary, which means that the Blue Jays will likely come out significantly ahead in the trade that brought Liriano to Toronto, in which they also received prospects Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez while giving up only righty Drew Hutchison, who hasn’t been impressive in the Pirates organization so far. Here’s more from the American League.

In the coming offseason, the Royals will discuss how best to use righty Joakim Soria and lefty Matt Strahm, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. Soria signed a three-year deal last winter and has had an uneven first season in his return to Kansas City, posting a 4.12 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9. It sounds like he’ll be back in the Royals’ bullpen next year, although the team isn’t sure in what capacity. “[W]e’re going to be very active trying to make sure our bullpen gets back to what it has been. Joakim can be a big part of it,” says GM Dayton Moore. “I know it hasn’t been the type of year that he expected.” Strahm, in contrast, has had an outstanding rookie season in the bullpen, allowing just two runs while striking out 26 batters in his first 19 big-league innings. Strahm spent part of the season as a starter at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, though, and the Royals say they’ll continue to consider him as a starter and that it isn’t guaranteed he’ll break camp with the team.
The Mariners have announced that they’ve named Justin Hollander their director of baseball operations. The 37-year-old Hollander had previously worked with Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto with the Angels, and last year Hollander served as that organization’s director of player personnel.

AL East Notes: Gibbons, Yankees, Kelly, Uehara

By Steve Adams | September 23, 2016 at 1:47pm CDT

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports breaks down a half-dozen managers who may be on the hot seat. Among them, only Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons could be in a postseason-or-bust position, in Rosenthal’s estimation (he also lists Bryan Price of the Reds, Walt Weiss of the Rockies, Robin Ventura of the White Sox, Chip Hale of the D-backs and Brian Snitker of the Braves — each for other reasons), who points out that Gibbons was hired by former GM Alex Anthopoulos, who is no longer with the organization. Moreover, the Jays have a number of free agents, including Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, R.A. Dickey and Michael Saunders, and new baseball ops heads Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins could look to make a large transition with such a great deal of roster turnover already likely to be forthcoming.

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