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Blue Jays, Derek Holland Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays are in agreement with Derek Holland, the left-hander playfully revealed on Twitter. It’s a minor league contract for the 35-year-0ld, who opted out of a non-roster deal with the Red Sox over the weekend.

Holland didn’t get a big league crack in Boston, and he’ll try to pitch his way onto the MLB roster in Toronto. If he eventually earns a call, it’d be the 14th consecutive year in which he reaches the majors. Holland spent the bulk of that time as a starter, but he’s moved to relief more or less full-time going back to 2019. Holland has just a 5.98 ERA in 174 2/3 innings over the last three years, but he’s held left-handed hitters to a paltry .211/.281/.294 line over 226 plate appearances.

Last season, Holland made 39 outings and tossed 49 2/3 frames of 5.07 ERA ball with the Tigers. He signed a minors deal with the Red Sox in mid-March and forwent his first opt-out opportunity at the start of the regular season. Assigned to Triple-A Worcester, he allowed nine runs in 11 1/3 innings. Holland punched out 13 batters but also issued seven walks in that stretch. He was one of a handful of veterans afforded a May 1 opt-out right by the collective bargaining agreement, and he triggered that provision. Boston elected to release him rather than add him to the major league roster.

The Jays already have a fair bit of left-handed bullpen depth, so Holland could have his work cut out for him getting back to the big leagues. Tim Mayza is locked in as the primary lefty set-up man, while offseason signee Andrew Vasquez is in the majors. Tayler Saucedo and Ryan Borucki are each on the injured list, but the latter has progressed to throwing live batting practice sessions. Borucki is out of minor league option years, meaning the Jays will have to keep him on the active roster when he returns or take him off the 40-man entirely.

Dexter Fowler Granted Release From Minor League Deal With Blue Jays

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Outfielder Dexter Fowler has requested and been granted a release from his minor league contract with the Blue Jays, reports Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports (Twitter link). Toronto elected not to select him onto the big league roster, and Fowler is now a free agent.

The 36-year-old Fowler signed with the Jays during Spring Training. He didn’t appear in a game with Triple-A Buffalo until last Thursday, as he finished his recovery from the ACL tear that ended his 2021 season in April. The veteran switch-hitter only played in three games with the Bisons, collecting five hits (all singles) in 12 at-bats with a pair of walks and strikeouts apiece.

Fowler will now presumably set out in search of another MLB opportunity. A respected 14-year veteran, he’d surely at least find more minor league interest if he’s amenable to another non-roster deal. It’s not clear whether he’ll find an immediate big league job after just 15 Triple-A plate appearances, but perhaps a team dissatisfied with its internal outfield options could turn to a player with a solid .259/.358/.417 career line.

The Jays have relied on George Springer, Teoscar Hernández, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Raimel Tapia and Bradley Zimmer thus far. Tapia and Zimmer have each struggled, but the Jays acquired both players via trade in recent weeks. (The Zimmer acquisition came after Fowler had signed with Toronto). Hernández has been on the injured list because of a oblique strain, but he’s set to head out on a minor league rehab assignment. It seems the Jays are content with that quintet as their outfield grouping for now.

Blue Jays Notes: Ryu, Hernandez, Borucki

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The Blue Jays currently have seven players on the injured list and Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic provides updates on each of them. (Twitter links) Hyun Jin Ryu will make a rehab start for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons this Saturday as he begins to work his way back to the mound. He was only able to make two starts this year before elbow inflammation landed him on the injured list.

The rotation has fared well in his absence, with Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah and Jose Berrios providing excellent innings at the front end. Berrios had a disastrous start in the season opener where he allowed four earned runs and only recorded a single out. However, he’s been able to correct course since then, recording a 2.66 ERA over his next four appearances. Manoah’s ERA is sitting at 1.44 on the year while Gausman’s is at 2.27, the latter not allowing a walk yet in 31 2/3 innings.

Ross Stripling has also carried himself well so far this year, putting up an ERA of 3.79, starting the year as the bullpen’s long man and then stepping up to take over Ryu’s starts in recent weeks. Yusei Kikuchi has been the weakest link so far, with a 5.52 ERA in four starts, including an alarming 18.1% walk rate. Ryu began his Blue Jays tenure with an excellent showing in 2020, logging a 2.69 ERA and 26.2% strikeout rate in the shortened campaign. He couldn’t quite sustain that into 2021, though, with his ERA swelling to 4.37 and his strikeout rate dimming to 20.4%.

Also going on a rehab assignment is outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, who landed on the IL after just six games this year due to an oblique strain. Somewhat overshadowed in the hype surrounding youngsters like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, Hernandez has somewhat quietly emerged as an excellent hitter over the past few years. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, he’s hit .295/.347/.538, with his 136 wRC+ in that time ranking him 15th among qualified hitters, just ahead of guys like Matt Olson and Mookie Betts. His absence has opened up more playing time for Bradley Zimmer, who’s slashing .067/.125/.167 on the year. The return of Teoscar will unquestionably give a boost to the lineup.

Reliever Ryan Borucki is also making his way back, as he is set to throw live batting practice soon. The southpaw began the season on the injured list with a hamstring strain, before returning to the club and making a pair of scoreless appearances. However, he then went back on the IL with a blister. After transitioning from the rotation to the bullpen, Borucki seemed to emerge as a weapon in 2020. In 16 2/3 innings on the shortened season, he logged a 2.70 ERA with a 28.8% strikeout rate, though with a concerning 16.4% walk rate. He reduced that to 11.2% in 2021 but also saw his strikeouts dip to 21.4% and his ERA jump to 4.94. Now out of options, the 28-year-old will have to produce to hold onto his spot on the team. Rosters were just shrunk today, going from 28 to 26, along with a 14-pitcher limit that lasts until May 29, with the limit squeezing to 13 after that.

Blue Jays Place Tayler Sauchedo On Injured List, Recall Bowden Francis

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The Blue Jays have sent southpaw Tayler Saucedo to the 10-day injured list with right hip discomfort. Taking his roster spot, Bowden Francis has been brought back to the active roster, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com (via Twitter). Francis was only just optioned to Triple-A yesterday. Saucedo was roughed up in 2 2/3 innings of work, yielding four earned runs and six hits, including three home runs.

  • The Blue Jays have a couple of key players that might be coming back soon. Teoscar Hernandez and Hyun Jin Ryu have both returned to baseball activities and could be gearing up for a rehab assignment, per The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath. Ross Stripling has held the line in Ryu’s stead, but the offense could use a jolt of Hernandez’s trademark power.

Offseason In Review: Toronto Blue Jays

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The Blue Jays continued to aggressively shop in both the free agent and trade markets, adding what they hope are the finishing touches on a postseason contender.

Major League Signings

  • Kevin Gausman, SP: Five years, $110MM
  • Yusei Kikuchi, SP: Three years, $36MM
  • Yimi Garcia, RP: Two years, $11MM (includes $1MM buyout of $5MM club option for 2024; option vests for $6MM if Garcia hits innings/appearance thresholds)
  • Andrew Vasquez, RP: One year, $800K
  • 2022 spending: $42.8MM
  • Total spending: $157.8MM

Trades & Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

The Blue Jays headed into the offseason with three of their biggest 2021 contributors entering the free agent market, and the entire trio signed with new teams before the lockout.  Marcus Semien’s seven-year, $175MM deal with the Rangers was the priciest of the bunch, with Robbie Ray also landing five years and $115MM from the Mariners, and Steven Matz receiving a healthy four-year, $44MM payday from the Cardinals.  There wasn’t much expectation that the Blue Jays would re-sign all three of these players, though it perhaps counted as a bit of a surprise that none of the three ended up returning.

Still, given how it was another “in on everyone” offseason for the Jays’ front office, it was clear the team had plenty of contingency plans in the event that all three free agents did indeed leave town.  Since Semien and Ray rejected qualifying offers, the Jays also netted two extra compensatory draft picks, so Toronto will now be picking four times within the first 78 selections of July’s amateur draft.

The Jays dabbled in the pool of qualifying offer free agents themselves, as Toronto was linked to the likes of Freddie Freeman, Corey Seager, Justin Verlander, Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Taylor, and Michael Conforto.  As for non-QO free agents, Kyle Schwarber and Seiya Suzuki were two of the more prominent names known to be of interest to Canada’s team.

Amidst all of these targets, the Blue Jays’ biggest pre-lockout strike was a player who had been on the club’s radar for years.  GM Ross Atkins had tried to sign Kevin Gausman in each of the past two offseasons, and the third time was the charm — at the cost of a five-year, $110MM contract.  Gausman would’ve obviously come much cheaper two winters ago when he was coming off a tough 2019 season with the Braves and Reds, but after two outstanding seasons with the Giants, he’d put himself into the top tier of available arms.  At least through four starts of the 2022 season, Gausman has continued to pitch like an ace, showing early signs that his good form can carry over to the tough AL East.

The Blue Jays also moved to lock up an in-house member of their starting staff, extending Jose Berrios for a seven-year, $131MM pact.  The deal kept Berrios off the 2022-23 free agent market, and reinforced the belief that the Jays already showed in the right-hander by giving up prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson to acquire Berrios from the Twins at last summer’s trade deadline.

Berrios and manager Charlie Montoyo were the only extensions of note during the Toronto offseason, apart from the club’s two-year pact with trade acquisition Matt Chapman over his two remaining arbitration years.  It seems as though the Blue Jays have yet to really dive into serious extension talks with either Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette, but with both players controlled through 2025, the clock isn’t ticking too loudly for a long-term deal to be immediately reached.

Once the lockout was over, the Jays added another piece of the rotation puzzle by signing Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year, $36MM deal.  It was an intriguing bet on a pitcher who was quite inconsistent over his first three Major League seasons, with the 2021 campaign acting as a microcosm of Kikuchi’s duality.  An outstanding first half earned the southpaw a trip to the All-Star Game, yet he struggled so much in the second half that the Mariners (who were fighting for a wild card berth) skipped him in the rotation in the last week of the season.

In essence, the Jays are hoping that pitching coach Pete Walker can straighten out Kikuchi in the same manner that Ray and Matz were revived after coming to Toronto.  As a bit of a hedge, the front-loaded nature of Kikuchi’s contract (he’ll earn $16MM in 2022) could make him a bit easier to eventually unload if he does continue to struggle.

Turning to the bullpen, the Jays made both a notable investment and a lower-cost signing that they hope will pay dividends.  Yimi Garcia was added for $11MM to bring some more experience to the Blue Jays’ fleet of setup men, while David Phelps offers some of that same veteran stature at the lower price of $1.75MM (after Toronto selected Phelps’ minor league contract).  2021 was another injury-marred season for Phelps, who missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery and was then limited to 65 1/3 innings over the 2019-21 seasons.

With some holes on the pitching staff filled, the question of how to replace Semien stood out as perhaps the biggest issue facing the Blue Jays after the lockout.  The Santiago Espinal/Cavan Biggio tandem was penciled in for either second or third base, depending on which infield position Toronto chose to address with a new addition.

That new add came at the hot corner, as the Blue Jays took advantage of the Athletics’ fire sale by picking up Matt Chapman for a package of four younger players.  Gunnar Hoglund was one of the top prospects in Toronto’s farm system, but since the 2021 first-rounder is coming off Tommy John surgery, the Jays might have considered him more valuable as a trade chip than as a building block.  The other three players dealt (Kevin Smith, Zach Logue, Kirby Snead) are controllable and more ready to play in the majors, with Smith standing out as an interesting pickup for Oakland considering his own high ceiling and prospect status.  Surely the bonus of those two QO compensation picks played into the Jays’ thinking in trading from their prospect depth, especially considering the MVP-candidate production Chapman displayed in 2018-19.

At his best, Chapman is one of the game’s best all-around players, combining Platinum Glove-winning defense with above-average offense.  That bat hasn’t been as dangerous in 2020-21, however, as Chapman has seemingly struggled due to a hip injury that required surgery in September 2020.  In the small sample size of the 2022 season’s first 18 games, Chapman isn’t walking much or generating huge power. He’s cut down on his strikeouts a bit, however, and his hard-contact rate and exit velocity are back in line with his pre-injury numbers.

Considering how many other notable position players the Jays were reportedly exploring, it will make some interesting “what if” debates if Chapman replicates his 2021 struggles.  For instance, Jose Ramirez was rumored to be a Jays trade target for years, and Toronto was never quite able to put together an offer that swayed the Guardians into dealing the All-Star.  (As it turned out, Ramirez stayed put entirely by signing an extension that stands as the largest contract in Cleveland’s franchise history.)

Adding a switch-hitter like Ramirez, or a left-handed bat like Seager, Freeman, or Schwarber would’ve made for a smoother fit at least from a lineup balance standpoint, considering how the Jays’ ideal starting lineup is almost entirely right-handed.  To address this issue, Toronto focused on adding left-handed hitters to its bench, trading for Raimel Tapia, Bradley Zimmer, and Zack Collins in a trio of swaps.

The Tapia deal was the highest-profile of the bunch, as he and infield prospect Adrian Pinto were acquired from the Rockies for Randal Grichuk and a little over half of the $18.66MM owed to Grichuk through the 2023 season.  Reports surfaced in December that the Blue Jays had also looked into moving Grichuk to the Brewers for Jackie Bradley Jr., another left-handed hitter (though known more for his standout defense).  Grichuk is off to a scorching (if likely BABIP-aided) start in Colorado, yet after three lackluster seasons in Toronto, the outfielder began to look like an expensive spare part.

If Grichuk does benefit from a change of scenery, the Jays are hoping the same is true for Tapia, Zimmer, and Collins, who were all well-regarded prospects who never broke out with their original teams.  As it has turned out, all three players have seen more action than expected in the early going, due to oblique injuries for both Teoscar Hernandez and Danny Jansen.  Collins has in particular blossomed with this extra playing time, as he has even received some DH at-bats as the Blue Jays have endeavored to keep him in the lineup.

Losing Hernandez, Jansen, Hyun Jin Ryu, and Nate Pearson to the injured list hasn’t done much to slow the Blue Jays down in April, and the team is thus far living up to the high expectations shared by the players, the front office, and the Toronto fanbase.  Given how the Jays clearly have their eyes on a championship, it seems certain that more upgrades are still to come prior to the trade deadline, and the rotation already stands out as a potential area of need in light of Ryu’s health issues and rough outings on the mound.

In the same way that Chapman will be (fairly or unfairly) compared to other star players the Jays “could have” landed instead, Gausman and Kikuchi will be competing in some sense against Verlander, E-Rod, and such pitchers the Blue Jays reportedly discussed in trade talks, such as the Reds’ Tyler Mahle or Luis Castillo.  However, Toronto is hoping that Ross Stripling can fill in for Ryu, and that Pearson can eventually get healthy and provide some extra rotation depth — at least until more reinforcements can be added at the trade deadline.

The team’s approximate $172.3MM payroll is a franchise high, though also not too far beyond what the Blue Jays were spending as recently as 2017.  While a splurge into the $200MM threshold seems unlikely, there hasn’t been any indication that the Jays have hit the top end of their budget, so some payroll space will quite probably be available for more in-season additions.

The good news for the Jays is that even as presently configured, the roster looks like a contender.  While nothing can really be ruled out for a team in win-now mode, much of the heavy lifting has already been done over the offseason to reinforce an already strong core.

Blue Jays Notes: Second Base, Hernandez, Jansen, Ryu, Pearson

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A good portion of the Blue Jays’ offseason was focused on finding infield help, both to replace the departing Marcus Semien and perhaps to create an avenue for Cavan Biggio to move back from third base to second base. Defensive metrics weren’t particularly fond of Biggio’s work at third base, but he has generally solid marks in more than 1000 innings at second.

The Jays indeed found a left-side upgrade in the form of Matt Chapman, who’ll not only serve as a defensive improvement over Biggio at third base but will also help to offset shortstop Bo Bichette’s below-average range. Chapman’s addition looked to move Biggio back to second base, at least as the larger half of a platoon with Santiago Espinal, but as Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling writes, it’s Espinal who looks to have seized the full-time job at the position.

Espinal, 27, is hitting .268/.333/.464 (128 wRC+) and, as importantly, has already posted sizable plus marks in Defensive Runs Saved (3) and Outs Above Average (3) through just 135 innings at second base. It’s still just 63 plate appearances, but Espinal has solid walk (7.9%, slightly below average) and strikeout (22.2%, slightly better than average) rates thus far in addition to a huge 48.8% hard-hit rate to begin the season.

Espinal’s play alone would likely have boosted the size of his role, but Biggio’s placement on the Covid-related injured list yesterday could further open the door, at least in the short-term, for Espinal to continue impressing. The Jays didn’t announce that Biggio had tested positive, though GM Ross Atkins told reporters that he’s been exhibiting potential symptoms (Twitter link via TSN’s Scott Mitchell).

Atkins also provided some updates on a pair of injured Jays, noting that slugging right fielder Teoscar Hernandez, who’s on the injured list with an oblique strain, could progress to live batting practice within a few days’ time. Hernandez was placed on the injured list back on April 14, and the Jays have felt his absence. Offseason acquisitions Raimel Tapia and Bradley Zimmer have been pressed into larger roles, but neither has produced at the plate. Tapia is hitting .236/.232/.327 in 58 plate appearances, while Zimmer is just 2-for-22 with one walk and 10 punchouts. Both Tapia and Zimmer have connected on a home run, but that doesn’t offset their general dearth of production.

Catcher Danny Jansen, per Atkins, is behind Hernandez and isn’t yet ready to swing a bat. Jansen homered twice in eight plate appearances before going down with an oblique strain of his own back on April 11. In his stead, the Jays have gotten a solid OBP out of Alejandro Kirk and a massive .306/.324/.611 output in 37 plate appearances from trade pickup Zack Collins. While Collins’ 35.7% strikeout rate portends a good bit of regression, he’s been productive enough for now that Toronto has even given him five starts at designated hitter.

On the pitching side of things, lefty Hyun Jin Ryu is slated for a live bullpen session this week that’ll determine his next steps (Twitter link from Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi). He’s currently dealing with a forearm injury. Righty Nate Pearson, currently out with a bout of mononucleosis, is slated to throw to hitters this weekend and could go on a rehab assignment next week. Atkins noted that Pearson may be ticketed for a “bulky” role, suggesting a multi-inning relief assignment once he’s back on the roster (link via MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson).

Still just 25 years old, Pearson isn’t far removed from ranking as the top-ranked right-handed pitching prospect in the game. The former first-rounder has electric stuff, evidenced by a fastball that averaged 97.7 mph in last year’s tiny sample of 15 big league innings. However, he’s been limited by elbow and groin injuries since making his 2020 debut, and Pearson also underwent offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia.

With just 45 2/3 innings between Triple-A and the Majors combined last season, plus 18 innings in 2020 (and some work at the Jays’ alternate training site), Pearson likely wouldn’t be relied upon to work a traditional starter’s slate of innings anyhow. The hope for the long term is surely that he’s able to eventually realize his top-of-the-rotation potential, but a hybrid role seems more prudent at this time, given the limited workloads in recent seasons. Pearson could yet make some starts this season, but with Ryu, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah, Yusei Kikuchi and swingman Ross Stripling all on the big league roster, plus Anthony Kay and Thomas Hatch in Triple-A but on the 40-man roster, the Jays have the depth to more strategically build Pearson up for 2023 and beyond.

Buck Martinez Stepping Away From Broadcast Booth

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Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez is unfortunately stepping away from the booth after receiving a cancer diagnosis. Martinez announced the decision himself with a press release, presented here by Sportsnet. The Blue Jays responded with a show of support. Martinez will undergo treatment, after which he hopes to be able to return to the booth.

Martinez has long been an ambassador for the Blue Jays, going all the way back to his playing days. Martinez spent the final six seasons of his 17-year playing career with Toronto. He would even go on to manage the club from 2000-01. He’s now been part of the Toronto organization for four decades.

But the 73-year-old has become closely aligned with the Blue Jays from his work in the booth. While he has some experience as a national broadcaster, he is now in his 12th year with Sportsnet announcing Blue Jays’ games, notes MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. Blue Jays games certainly won’t be the same without Buck’s familiar commentary over the next couple of months. We here at MLBTR wish Martinez a speedy recovery as he, in his words, fights the good fight.

Blue Jays Place Hyun Jin Ryu On 10-Day IL, Reinstate Ryan Borucki

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The Blue Jays announced that they have placed Hyun Jin Ryu on the 10-day injured list with left forearm inflammation. Left-hander Ryan Borucki, who started the year on the IL with a hamstring strain, will swap places with Ryu and take his roster spot.

Ryu started yesterday’s game for the Jays but managed only 53 pitches with diminished velocity, an indication that something was likely amiss. No timeline has been given for Ryu’s absence, but any arm injury for a pitcher is concerning. The southpaw had just begun the third season of the four-year deal he signed to join the Blue Jays prior to the 2020 campaign. At the time, the club was coming off a few lousy seasons, but had seen the debuts of prospects Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio, heralding the beginning of a new competitive window.

Ryu was coming off an elite 2019 season with the Dodgers that saw him throw 182 2/3 innings of 2.32 ERA ball. However, there were reasons for concern, as he’d struggled to stay on the mound over the previous four seasons. He stayed healthy in the shortened 2020 season, making 12 starts with a 2.69 ERA, helping the Jays reach the expanded postseason. Last year, he made two brief trips to the IL and managed to log 169 innings, though his ERA ticked up to 4.37 and his strikeout rate fell to 20.4%, his lowest such rate in years.

Although he may have been passed by the likes of Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah, Ryu was still pencilled as a regular member of the Jays’ rotation. With him now being shelved for an undetermined amount of time, Ross Stripling will step into his spot, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Stripling made a spot start on Friday and threw four scoreless innings against the Athletics, throwing 62 pitches in the process.

As for Borucki, he will add a fresh arm to the team’s bullpen. After switching from starting to relieving in 2020, the lefty had an excellent showing in the 2020 campaign. He threw 16 2/3 innings with a 2.70 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, though a concerning 16.4% walk rate. In 2021, he got the walks down to 11.2%, but also saw his strikeout rate fall to 21.4% and ERA jump up to 4.94. The 28-year-old is out of options and will need to stick on the roster or else lose his spot. The current 28-man rosters will shrink to 26 after May 1st.

Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. To Wait Until Offseason For Possible Extension Talks

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays agreed to a one-year, $7.9MM deal to avoid arbitration, though the Jays also had some interest in discussing a longer-term contract, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports.  However, Guerrero and his representatives at Magnus Sports preferred to wait until after the season before “exploring something significant.”

As a Super Two player, Guerrero still has three more years of arbitration eligibility, so he isn’t scheduled for free agency until after the 2025 season.  Guerrero will be only 27 years old on Opening Day 2026, so it would be likely that Guerrero could command a decade-long (or more) free agent contract if he keeps up his current level of production.

The 2025-26 offseason is a long ways away, yet Guerrero may already seem like a pretty safe bet.  Regarded as baseball’s best prospect prior to his 2019 debut, Guerrero posted good numbers in his first two big league seasons before exploding to 48 home runs and a .311/.401/.601 slash line over 698 plate appearances in 2021.  This performance earned him a Silver Slugger, the AL Hank Aaron Award, an All-Star nod, and a second-place finish in AL MVP voting.

Guerrero hasn’t missed a beat in the early days of the 2022 season, hitting five more homers over his first 32 PA.  As much negotiating leverage as Guerrero and his camp already has in contract talks, that leverage would only grow if Guerrero delivers another MVP-level season.  Waiting until next winter to discuss a long-term extension also carries some risk of injury or a dropoff in performance, though Guerrero already has the financial security of this season’s $7.9MM, some type of arbitration raise for next year’s salary, his $3.9MM signing bonus as an amateur, and three seasons of minimum salaries.

In short, the only real question with a Guerrero extension might be how it would stack up against the largest contracts in baseball history.  Going beyond the $300MM threshold seems a given, and considering Guerrero’s age, his agents can make a case that their client should top Mookie Betts’ 12-year, $365MM extension with the Dodgers as the biggest “new money” deal ever.  (Mike Trout’s current extension with the Angels gave him only $360MM in additional guarantees, as Trout was already owed $66.5MM over the final two seasons of his previous contract.)

As a first-base only player, Guerrero is a bit more of a defensive question mark than Betts, Trout, Francisco Lindor, Fernando Tatis Jr., or other high-salaried players who play more premium defensive positions.  However, Guerrero acquitted himself quite well at first base in 2021, posting +2 Defensive Runs Saved and +2.5 UZR/150 (though the Outs Above Average metric rated him a -3).

Bo Bichette’s status is another factor, as the young shortstop has also made himself a candidate for a very lucrative extension.  Bichette recently said that his agents had some extension talks with the Jays but nothing really materialized, and like Guerrero, Bichette is also a free agent after 2025.  Blue Jays president/CEO Mark Shapiro said that “during that time, it’s safe to say we will continue both formally and informally to explore extensions with” the two players, and that “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.”  Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, and George Springer are the only players signed beyond the 2025 season, so Toronto does have long-term space available for inking one or both of Guerrero and Bichette.

A’s Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Athletics announced a series of roster moves Friday, placing outfielder Stephen Piscotty on the Covid-related injured list in addition to placing catcher Austin Allen, left-hander A.J. Puk and left-hander Kirby Snead on the restricted list in advance of the team’s series in Toronto. In their place, the A’s added catcher Christian Bethancourt, right-hander Ryan Castellani, left-hander Zach Logue and outfielder Drew Jackson as “substitute” players. That they’ve been designated Covid-related substitutes will allow the A’s to send all four back to Triple-A without needing to use an option or (in the case of Bethancourt, Castellani and Jackson) pass anyone through waivers. Lastly, the A’s announced that outfielder Luis Barrera, whom they designated for assignment last week, cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Las Vegas.

The series of placements on the restricted list quite likely stems from restrictions preventing unvaccinated athletes from traveling into Canada to participate in games there. Many teams will likely make a few placements of this nature in advance of road series against the Jays, at least so long as those regulations remain in place (although the Rangers did not do so prior to traveling to Toronto for last weekend’s opener).

Piscotty, 31, is out to a 4-for-14 start with four singles, a pair of walks and five strikeouts in 17 trips to the plate. He’s hoping for a bounceback season after logging a combined .223/.277/.355 batting line in 359 plate appearances from 2020-21. That he was placed on the Covid-related injured list does not necessarily indicate a positive test from Piscotty; players can also be placed on the Covid-related IL if they’re deemed close contacts or experiencing symptoms.

Bethancourt, Castellani, Logue and Jackson will provide some depth in the absence of the three players going on the restricted list. Bethancourt, Castellani and Jackson have some MLB experience — Bethancourt, in particular — but this’ll be the first call to the Majors for the 25-year-old Logue, who was one of four players Oakland acquired from the Blue Jays in the trade that sent Matt Chapman to Toronto (as was Snead). Logue has made a pair of starts in Triple-A Las Vegas thus far but will likely be available out of the ’pen, with Daulton Jefferies, Paul Blackburn and Adam Oller slated to start the next three games for Oakland.

As for Barrera, the A’s will surely be glad they were able to hang onto the 26-year-old — although the very fact that he went unclaimed speaks to the manner in which his stock has deteriorated in recent years. Barrera has long been considered one of the organization’s better prospects but hit just .276/.348/.393 in Triple-A last season, checking in at 12% worse than league-average by measure of wRC+.

Despite last year’s 10.1% walk rate in Triple-A, however, virtually every scouting report on Barrera cites a need to be more selective at the plate. Baseball America notes that he swung at 48% of the pitches he saw in 2021, which might make it tough for him to repeat that walk rate. Still, Barrera can play all three outfield spots and has above-average speed, as well as a solid track record up through Double-A.

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