2022 Blue Jays Off-Season Thread

[bluejays]

Reported Matz turned down a three year offer by the Jays. Happy that’s all they went with. He had to do what he had to do, but offering longer deals to guys like him wouldn’t be wise.

[Inferno]

Looks like Steven Cohen is pretty salty about the Matz signing. That's not a smart way to build relationships with agents.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1463505594887852032

[transplant99]

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen called out Steven Matz's agent for "unprofessional behavior" in a tweet Wednesday morning, one day after the free-agent left-hander opted against rejoining his former team and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I'm not happy this morning," Cohen said in his post. "I've never seen such unprofessional behavior exhibited by a player's agent. I guess words and promises don't matter."

Cohen told The New York Post that Matz and his agent, Rob Martin, had reached out to the Mets about wanting to return and that they were his first choice.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ional-behavior

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by fleury

Baseball is too volatile. You look at where things are trending with peoples short attention spans, and the history of sports in Toronto, and the Leafs will always be number one. Quickly across the country the Raps are number two and growing. Baseball by nature doesn't have many cool moves to replicate, moves pretty slow in comparison, and there's a larger investment required salary wise to field a competitive team. Gate revenue never seems like a sure thing. MLSE has a cash cow as long as they want it to be. Introduce the Jays and suddenly in bad seasons the cash cow may have to supplement the profit losses the Jays may have. I believe the Teachers Pension still owns a portion of MLSE too. If the new stadium brings a new fan base I'm sure MLSE would be interested, but as is right now Rogers Centre has a stigma and I don't believe that allows for too many new fans year in and out.

Blue Jays are THE sport that Bell/Rogers would want. You get 162 days of well viewed games - double what you get for a local NHL/NBA contract. Teams still growing wildly in value.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Blue Jays are THE sport that Bell/Rogers would want. You get 162 days of well viewed games - double what you get for a local NHL/NBA contract. Teams still growing wildly in value.

No doubt, but there are various revenue streams for sports. Gate revenue for the Jays seems to be up and down depending on how the Jays are doing. For the Raps and Leafs almost no matter how they're doing they'll get fans out. The Jays are just volatile. I like the product they have (even on bad years), as it's a relaxing sport to watch, but I would doubt it's as surefire profitable as the Jays or Raps.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Looks like Steven Cohen is pretty salty about the Matz signing. That's not a smart way to build relationships with agents.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1463505594887852032

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by fleury

No doubt, but there are various revenue streams for sports. Gate revenue for the Jays seems to be up and down depending on how the Jays are doing. For the Raps and Leafs almost no matter how they're doing they'll get fans out. The Jays are just volatile. I like the product they have (even on bad years), as it's a relaxing sport to watch, but I would doubt it's as surefire profitable as the Jays or Raps.

Do you have numbers for this? The Jays regularly draw 500k-1mil viewers per game, even during down years (obviously on the lower end during bad years) which is more than every team in MLB (the yankees are like 450k average).

If they are remotely completive they are 28-35k/game, and 35k-40k during competitive years over 162 games! The Jays are excellent at providing gate during most good seasons and a HUGE draw on TV with double the games of the Leafs and Raptors. I can't see what you're claiming to be true, but I don't have the numbers either.

I mean if you're going by percentage of arena/stadium filled throughout a season then the Jays would come last most seasons, but that's it. And I don't see how that would take away the revenue in numbers that they appear to be giving with attendance and viewership.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Do you have numbers for this? The Jays regularly draw 500k-1mil viewers per game, even during down years (obviously on the lower end during bad years) which is more than every team in MLB (the yankees are like 450k average).

If they are remotely completive they are 28-35k/game, and 35k-40k during competitive years over 162 games! The Jays are excellent at providing gate during most good seasons and a HUGE draw on TV with double the games of the Leafs and Raptors. I can't see what you're claiming to be true, but I don't have the numbers either.

I mean if you're going by percentage of arena/stadium filled throughout a season then the Jays would come last most seasons, but that's it. And I don't see how that would take away the revenue in numbers that they appear to be giving with attendance and viewership.

It's certainly not a hill I'm willing to die on, as it shouldn't have been stated as a fact (just a theory on my end). Since the lockout I've always thought fans have moved on to the more fast moving sports. I didn't realize they're bringing in that many TV numbers over the summers though - definitely impressive. Anyway, after your comment I did do a quick google search (not to prove you wrong but just to see factually) about the gate attendance. I think I'm moreso right than wrong in the volatility depending on how successful the team was they correlated with attendance. I didn't know this site existed, pretty interesting.



https://www.statista.com/statistics/...nto-blue-jays/

[Cheese]

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/blu...023534448.html

Jays sign reliever Yimi Garcia

2 years 11 mill. Team option on a 3rd.

Garcia split the 2021 campaign between the Miami Marlins and Houston Astros, registering a 4.21 ERA over 62 appearances. He served as the Marlins' primary closer for the first half of the season, picking up 15 saves. He was used in a lower-leverage role upon joining the Astros.

[bluejays]

Sounds like a good project to try out. Not great numbers but anyone seems like an upgrade on last year. Bring on Gausman next.

[Roof-Daddy]

Hopefully not the biggest bullpen signing this off season lol

He has good velocity and high spin rates so hopefully the Jays can utilize him to his strengths.

[bluejays]

Semien going home on a seven year deal. Good for him. I don’t see any threat coming long term from Texas so at least he’s out of the division. If he was on the Jays I’d do no more than four years. Seven is an albatross.

[ben voyonsdonc]

$175 million for Semien. Dude cashed in.

[flamingred89]

Holy Moly. 7 years is way to long for a 31 year old middle infielder. I think the Jays dodged a bullet there with that kind of term. Will be interesting to see what the AAV is.

Edit. 25 per. Wow. That is a massive, massive contract.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Wow. Good for Marcus! That is an insanely big contract. Best of luck to him.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Cheese

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/blu...023534448.html

Jays sign reliever Yimi Garcia

2 years 11 mill. Team option on a 3rd.

Garcia split the 2021 campaign between the Miami Marlins and Houston Astros, registering a 4.21 ERA over 62 appearances. He served as the Marlins' primary closer for the first half of the season, picking up 15 saves. He was used in a lower-leverage role upon joining the Astros.

That seems like a lot for Garcia who is just another guy. In the playoffs Astros didn’t use him in close games.

[Jiggy_12]

Semien…wow. Smart guy.

Signed a 1 year deal on a world class offense in a hitters park to prop up his value, and promptly has a monster year and cashes in.

That’s impressive

[Roof-Daddy]

Glad the Jays didn't agree to that term. 7 years for a 31 year old middle infielder.

Sucks though, leaves a pretty huge hole in the Jays roster that as of right now they are hoping Biggio can fill. Likely have to find other ways to replace that lost WAR other than just Biggio.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Always like seeing someone bet on themselves and it working.
Nothing but fond wishes for the guy.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Always like seeing someone bet on themselves and it working.
Nothing but fond wishes for the guy.

I hope he's an MVP finalist again.

I also hope the Rangers lose 80+ games