2024 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[Roof-Daddy]

No surprise, as always

Hopefully the Jays get some studs with the extra bonus pool money and are able to actually accomplish something now that saga is over with.

[KelVarnsen]

I have already written off the 2025 Jays season

[Senator Clay Davis]

Funniest part is gonna be how they some defer money on this.

[JTech780]

Again Shapiro and Atkins fail. You can’t attract top end talent when you have no team passed this season. Sign your own players first and then you might have a legit shot at signing good players.

[Inferno]

Another boring and predictable signing. They don’t even need him.

[JTech780]

They better have a Vladdy, Alonso, Bregman or Santander signing or two in their back pocket to announce or this fanbase is going to lose their minds.

[browna]

Of course it's the Dodgers.

Is there a 12h buyers remorse period for Straw?

As connected as Shapiro and Atkins are supposed to be, they sure keep going back to their roots/Cleveland safe place a fair bit to do mid or low level transactions.

I'm sure there is valid number of reasons, all different, from Ohtani, Soto, Sasaki, Burnes, and any number of other UFAs we never heard about, as to why Toronto was very good but not the final call.

But whatever the reasons are, the current executives are simply not closers and getting a reputation as such.

It's been discussed in various forms here ad nauseum, but bottom line they just aren't getting the job done, and that in itself will work against them as they keep finishing as bridesmaid.

They need a culture change starting at the top for the approach to talent acquisition. Partly they need to get more good players via trade like 2014-16 and besides helping the team win, those players will be more than enough to convince other players to come here (Tulo, Price etc), if even for a couple year window. That said, Vlad and Soto are friends but the current group didn't ask Vlad to be part of that process.

And stop dicking around with your top hitters, sign or cut bait with Vlad and Bo. Be decisive if nothing else, not leaving those decisions, and thus decisions around the rest of the roster, including the decision of UFAs to sign or not, hanging out there.

[SuperMatt18]

The market just isn't a market that is going to be able to build via free agency in the current climate where the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees are spending and really hasn't been an attractive FA destination in at least 25 years.

AA didn't really sign any major free agents either. He brought in guys that were already signed long term in trades. People forget that David Price left after AA traded for him. Josh Donaldson didn't re-sign long term when AA tried to get him to either. The only major Free Agent AA was able to convince to come to Toronto was the Canadian, Russell Martin.

In the end the issue with Atkins and Shapiro isn't that they are getting involved in these bidding wars and losing...because that's actually expected.

The problem is they don't seem to have any other plans when it doesn't work.

Honestly re-building is probably the best decision right now...try to have a contender ready to go for when the Dodgers, Mets, etc teams have aging players and bloated pay rolls and aren't contending anymore.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I am shocked he chose the Dodgers. That came out of nowhere.

Seriously though, the Jays do need to sign a few guys soon. Including Vlad. If you overpay a bit, then overpay. Because right now I'm guessing there are a lot of fans like me right now, whose interest in the team is fading fast. Need something to care about.

[Wastedyouth]

What a joke

[bluejays]

A lot of good points made in these recent posts. It’s overly simplified to say the following but I think we now have a good sample size to say that Atkins simply can’t close a deal and isn’t an authentic salesman to get the job done. As others have said, they keep dicking their own players around, and don’t have backup plans when things don’t work out with their star outside targets. It’s pathetic. I was recently apologetic to Shapiro because of his reputation. But if he’s not getting involved enough to close the deal then it’s clear that people don’t trust these bums. The experiment is long over and it’s putting the nail continuously in the coffin. They simply can’t get it done. It’s maddening now.

[flambers]

Not surprised in the least, really curious what are the next steps for the Jays

If any

[cross16]

It's past Atkins at this point. This is such a directionless franchise.

Such a mess. There are going to look awfully stupid on the Myles Straw trade if there wasn't Plan B considering the Dodgers waited until they actually signed him before they made a deal for bonus pool money.

[nixon45]

It was inevitable. At this point there is absolutely no reason to waste any time watching this team. My evenings will be so much more productive. Just can't watch while these clowns in the front office are at the wheel.

It's just pain and misery as a Jays fan.

[Fire]

I am willing to miss 2 seasons if the MLB can get a hard salary cap.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Fire

I am willing to miss 2 seasons if the MLB can get a hard salary cap.

Cap wouldn’t even help this - Dodgers are paying him less then Straw

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by cross16

It's past Atkins at this point. This is such a directionless franchise.

Such a mess. There are going to look awfully stupid on the Myles Straw trade if there wasn't Plan B considering the Dodgers waited until they actually signed him before they made a deal for bonus pool money.

I've seen people giving them crap for that online and i don't agree with that.

They tried to make a move they were comfortable with to put more pressure on Sasaki to take their offer. I like that they were aggressive with that.

They were always the underdog position to try to get this done and tried to do something to put some pressure on the whole thing by being able to up their deal.

They get in crap for being passive and not trying to close deals, and then when they tried to be aggressive they get crapped on for that too.

Ill repeat the problem isn't them being involved in these things (Soto, Ohtani, Sasaki), getting close, and then failing. I'd rather they take those big swings. The problem is they don't have a plan B when it hasn't worked.

I blame the Phillies for doing anything to help an NL rival add Sasaki.

[JTech780]

They could go sign Bregman, Alonso, Santander and Flaherty, it still won’t matter if they don’t sign Vladdy.

[Inferno]

The Phillies can pound sand too for agreeing to trade bonus money to the Deferrals.

[bluejays]

Sasaki was the exact signing they had to nail. Young potential star at a reasonable cost. They can’t twist arms but they had to do everything possible and it wouldn’t cost them a ton of money. There was little downside. So annoying to see they just don’t have the prowess to close deals.