2018-2019 Blue Jays Off-season thread

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by fleury

I suspect the same strategy for Rogers, but I can't agree with the last paragraph. The Jays cannot afford to sign a player like Harper - it was absolutely screw the rest of the team as the pay structure would become top heavy. Plus a 13 year contract as we all know, is crippling. I have no problem with them pursuing Harper or anyone else who is demanding a contract greater than 6 years, especially at a premium price. And I don't feel bad about it as 80% of the league can't afford that contract given the tv contracts most franchises don't have (or gate revenue). Makes sense for them to sign two really good guys at that price rather than 1 franchise guy, IMO.

The Jays can afford to sign a player like Harper and other pieces around him. They are one of the biggest markets in baseball. They simply chose not to given their ownership structure. Their decisions are not a matter of “can’t” , they are a matter of “won’t”..

[howard_the_duck]

Signing Harper now would have been a disaster. Why would we possibly do that now?

Save the big budget loading up when the team is primed and ready to contend.

We're not quite there yet, but it shouldn't be long given the state of the farm.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Signing Harper now would have been a disaster. Why would we possibly do that now?

Save the big budget loading up when the team is primed and ready to contend.

We're not quite there yet, but it shouldn't be long given the state of the farm.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting trying to sign Harper would have been a smart move. Just commentating again on the fact that the Rogers spin machine likes to out there that the Jays gave a call to his agent when everyone on the planet knows the Jays wouldn’t sign Harper if he showed at Rogers Center on his own dime wearin a Jays jersey begging for them to sign him.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

The Jays can afford to sign a player like Harper and other pieces around him. They are one of the biggest markets in baseball. They simply chose not to given their ownership structure. Their decisions are not a matter of “can’t” , they are a matter of “won’t”..

I don't buy this for a second. Just because they have the biggest market in Canada (potentially), you have to see how that translates to dollars. Merchandise I read, is exempt because that is distributed among the league equally, so it's simply gate revenue and a tv contract. Rogers owns the team so there's no third party paying them a crazy amount of money for broadcast rights. Even if it weren't Rogers owning them, nobody's paying a contract like the Yanks and Dodgers have. So how can the Jays reasonably sign Harper now or down the road, without having the TV contract to justify it? Gate revenue isn't increasing because they "have" the biggest market. I'm not totally enamored with big corporations owning the team, but they haven't been cheap given the revenue in Canadian dollars and the economics revolving around it. I completely agree with Rogers putting an unnecessarily stupid spin on it by saying they called is agent up, which was probably formality, but nothing newsworthy as the A's probably called his agent up as well to find out what was going on. But there's very little justification in signing him for this market.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by fleury

I don't buy this for a second. Just because they have the biggest market in Canada (potentially), you have to see how that translates to dollars. Merchandise I read, is exempt because that is distributed among the league equally, so it's simply gate revenue and a tv contract. Rogers owns the team so there's no third party paying them a crazy amount of money for broadcast rights. Even if it weren't Rogers owning them, nobody's paying a contract like the Yanks and Dodgers have. So how can the Jays reasonably sign Harper now or down the road, without having the TV contract to justify it? Gate revenue isn't increasing because they "have" the biggest market. I'm not totally enamored with big corporations owning the team, but they haven't been cheap given the revenue in Canadian dollars and the economics revolving around it. I completely agree with Rogers putting an unnecessarily stupid spin on it by saying they called is agent up, which was probably formality, but nothing newsworthy as the A's probably called his agent up as well to find out what was going on. But there's very little justification in signing him for this market.

The tv argument is not accurate. Rogers may not get any TV revenue directly but they get to broadcast Blue Jays game for nothing 162 times a year and all the advertisements/promotions are pure profit. It’s just moving the money between buckets in the same company.

[calculoso]

https://jaysjournal.com/2019/03/05/b...jr-assignment/

The Blue Jays have designated outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. for assignment to make room for the newly signed Clay Buchholz.

[browna]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Signing Harper now would have been a disaster. Why would we possibly do that now?

Save the big budget loading up when the team is primed and ready to contend.

We're not quite there yet, but it shouldn't be long given the state of the farm.

I don’t trust that the money will be there then either.

The year before the first playoff run, the players almost revolted in spring training when they looked good, appeared on the cusp, needed, and could’ve got a pitcher (Liriano? Can’t recall).
AA sided with the players but Rogers promised the usual BS,
But Rogers also specifically said that if the team was contending at the all star break,they would add pieces. Jays within a game or so on the division lead, and had the division lead for a few days a few weeks earlier.
No peices came. The team lost 10 of their next 15 or so after all star break and sank.

As mentioned, AA the next year either promised the Rogers he would quit to squeeze the money out of the Jays to get Price et al. Or was so fed up that he had to quit. Either way, Rogers pushed him out before the second year with Shapiro being announced in late August, in an unnecessarily awkward situation.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by calculoso

https://jaysjournal.com/2019/03/05/b...jr-assignment/

The Blue Jays have designated outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. for assignment to make room for the newly signed Clay Buchholz.

They just traded him to the Orioles.....for 500K in international free agent signing space.

https://www.tsn.ca/jays-trade-of-smi...oles-1.1270166

[TheAlpineOracle]

I dont understand why we protected Smith Jr. from the Rule 5 draft. We lost Romano and Bergen in that draft. 500k doesn’t do #### in the international pool.

[flames_fan_down_under]

I know its Spring Training so numbers are essentially meaningless but Bo Bichette is legitimately looking good. Hit a two run home run today and is hitting .368 so far. Again, spring training, but it certainly is reason to remain optimistic about Bo's future with the Jays.

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

I know its Spring Training so numbers are essentially meaningless but Bo Bichette is legitimately looking good. Hit a two run home run today and is hitting .368 so far. Again, spring training, but it certainly is reason to remain optimistic about Bo's future with the Jays.

Hes Definitely a keeper but ya spring training like Hockey's preseason is a crapshoot.

[transplant99]

Of course he did.

It appears the Toronto Blue Jays won't have to deal with service time issues with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The top prospect in baseball strained his oblique muscle in a game Friday and will be sidelined at least three weeks, general manager Ross Atkins announced Sunday.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2...-least-3-weeks

[agulati]

I hope they don't go ahead and burn bridges with Guerrero Jr. They need to get a star or four, to build the team around.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Bo Bichette hit two more spring training home runs today! Bo is gonna be fun to watch in AAA this year. Hopefully he pushes his way into the majors by seasons end. There is something so exciting about a SS that can hit for power too.

Though I agree that the Atkins Shapiro regime is about as credible as Sean Hannity I doubt they would go as low as to fake an injury of a player to manipulate service time. It's not like Vlad has been tearing the cover off the ball in ST either. I also doubt any bridges will be burned with Vlad Jr either over him injuring himself.

[bluejays]

His injury probably puts his conditioning in perspective for himself. He's definitely looked Prince Fielder like this year, so you hope he goes on the keto diet or something to get his health in check, which could even better improve his bat speed (not that it's a problem).

[browna]

Regardless, lets the Jays off the hook. 3 weeks off, if that’s the actual exepected recovery for his oblique, brings it to the 31st.

Jays can then say 2 weeks rehab brings, which it to the 14th and he passes the threshold and doesn’t lose a year. Timing works out eerily well.

[bluejays]

I actually they keep him in the minors a bit longer to start the year to make sure he's fully recovered and comfortable, then bring him up. He's their main ticket, you never want to mess that up.

[habernac]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1106289070202908672

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Now Bichette is sent down to minor league camp.

He was hitting .417 with an OPS of 1.308

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Nm