It was pure desperation mixed in with not being so well connected in the baseball circles (foreign player but regular MLB agent).
This wasn't acquiring international money one or two weeks ago to load up the war chest in the final stretches to signal they are interested before they even meet. This was days after meeting him and hours before he made a decision that they scrambled to get some more money.
It's absolute egg on the face when after all that work (going back the Cleveland, where, as I said earlier, it's the only team that they can get things done with due to Shaprios connections) and taking on an anchor contract to get $2M, and less then half a day later have it go sideways.
Whoever was feeding them intel should be fired, a complete f up in this case, and maybe they are the same sources feeding them erroneous info on the state of the UFA market and with specific player stuations this whole time?
They are paying a literally, stats wise, the worst hitter in the league, top 6 team money for 2 years. He may never play for them. All to get international money they can't use. Sasaki probably had made his mind up already with the time change in Japan when that Jays consummated the trade. Unreal.
It's one thing to be bridesmaid in this case, it's another to recklessly set back their roster and salary structure in such a sudden attempt to not be bridesmaid, that clearly made no difference in the players decision, hours later.
Whatever patience the Rogers folks have with the current executive, has to be at the end of the rope. These guys aren't connected, they are misreading the market, unable to close UFAs, have no backup plan, and have a promising team a few short years ago, with some good talent and pitching, now circling the drain. And now, they are making desperate knee jerk reactions which set the team back further.
Last edited by browna; 01-18-2025 at 12:26 PM.
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Yeah, I thought last off season was bad, but this off season is shaping up to be a failure for the ages. We're at a point where even if they get one major free agent signing of the left over options done it still won't move the needle enough to make this team anything noteworthy in the AL east, let alone the league.
Yeah, I thought last off season was bad, but this off season is shaping up to be a failure for the ages. We're at a point where even if they get one major free agent signing of the left over options done it still won't move the needle enough to make this team anything noteworthy in the AL east, let alone the league.
It’s an awful spot to be in. As much as I want Santander, Alonso, etc., you almost have to ask if it is just throwing good money after bad. Building the team around a whole bunch of expensive 30+ year old vets is going to blow up in our faces.
At some point, we need to take our medicine and decide to lay down a new foundation. Clearly the team didn’t want to build around Bo and Vlad. The team needs to spend less time going after big names and invest more time and money in revamping the team’s scouting and development to help us find our next core.
Both things are true:
- The Jays have an ineffective front office
- MLB is broken and they don't care. As long as their major markets are competitive and drawing interest - that's all that matters. But the Dodgers are showing to what extreme it can be taken. Hard to have interest in a league where the competitive imbalance is so vast.
They might be the Yankees in spirit, but until they actually win something like 4 out of 5 like the Yankees did they won't ever be that hated. I feel like there's a lot of indifference among the non-die hard baseball fans towards the Dodgers. That could certainly change, but approaching Yankees, or even Red Sox, levels of hatred still feels unlikely. And given that the playoffs are during football season, people won't hate watch, they simply won't watch at all and will go to football instead.
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"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
The Dodgers are the new Yankees. Fans will be cheering and tuning in just to see them lose. But chances are small that they will.
This almost feels bigger and more absurd than the Yankees teams of yesteryear. They're getting to a point where star players are eventually gonna end up on the bench behind other star players.
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This almost feels bigger and more absurd than the Yankees teams of yesteryear. They're getting to a point where star players are eventually gonna end up on the bench behind other star players.
I would think at some point that'll make it hard to sign guys, especially for non-retirement contracts. If you're not going to get playing time that's really bad for your career.
The Dodgers are beyond the Yankees because now they get Japan as a feeder league
This would be like if the Yankees had every Cuban star in the 90s allowed to come over and all only allowed to o sign for a few million and all just chose the Yankees
