The Blue Jays have announced that they’ve signed first baseman Justin Smoak to a two-year extension for $4.125MM per season, with a $6MM option or a $250K buyout for 2019. The value of the option can increase to $7MM with 950 plate appearances combined in 2017 and 2018, or $8MM with 1,100 plate appearances. Smoak, who is making $3.9MM this season, was scheduled to be eligible for free agency at season’s end. He is a client of the Bledsoe Agency.
[Related: Updated Blue Jays Depth Chart]
The 29-year-old Smoak is batting .234/.333/.402 with nine homers in 246 plate appearances, demonstrating his usual blend of low batting averages, decent power, good plate discipline and average or slightly above average first base defense. That base of skills is hardly overwhelming, and Smoak has posted just 0.1 fWAR for the season and 0.5 for his career.
From that perspective, it’s somewhat surprising that the Jays elected to extend Smoak, even at the modest total price tag of $8.5MM. Still, he could have value for an AL club as a left-handed option at first base and perhaps occasionally at DH, particularly since Smoak was rather young for an impending free agent. The extension also hedges against the possible departures of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, who are both eligible for free agency this winter. There currently seems to be a gap between what Bautista is asking and what the Jays would like to pay, and Encarnacion appears set on testing the market.
SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter) and Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reported details of the structure of the deal. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Why ….
Probably because they are going to lose Encarnacion and Bautista this year and feel that Justin Smoak can be a decent replacement and would be cheap. But who knows. Not who I would’ve chosen.
If they have any brains they would resign Edwin
Yes, brains are the only hang up with that deal. If only they were smart enough.,..
And you do realize Edwin is going to cost probably $18 million or more per season right? While I agree that it’s questionable to lock up Smoak now, he does provide an insurance policy (albeit a bad one) if EE and Bautista leave.
Going to be way out of there price range. Tulo, Martin and company cost a lot. Plus Donaldson is going to cost a fortune and I’m sure they will take the younger bat with a solid glove long term over EE and Bautista as they climb to the upper 30’s and eventual decline. They’ll end up being the next Philadelphia Phillies type. Bunch of near 40 vets who can’t hit.
The Jays are owned by Rogers .. They have the money and don’t let anyone tell you different
Doesn’t mean they will want to spend on those guys tho. I think Bautistas price is ridiculous. I think he’s way past his prime. But the Jays should try to keep EE for another 2-3 Years before his inevitable decline. I don’t see him posting these same
Numbers for a lot longer. But I’m probably wrong. I think resigning Donaldson will be the #1 priority as it should be. Plus if they want hitting the 2018 FA class will be insane and they will have plenty of better options then Joey bats and EE when that time comes.
Look at the Indians blueprint. Shapiro now in Toronto will always lean towards left-handed and/or Switch hitting power potential bats over rh power bats. EE & Bautista will get QO’s & the Blue Jays will use the draft picks for power arms that could reach the big leagues quick. As for Smoak he could become a late-bloomer, very unrealistic though.
Guess things are not going well with EE and Bautista negotiations … no way Bautista can stay in RF after this year right, dont care how much Kale he eats to stay healthy.
Well that was shocking. Smoak has 0.0 WAR this year. Why the Blue Jays felt they had to extend Smoak is beyond me.
I’m not huge into the new stats categories but a .1 war implies it basically makes zero difference if he’s in the lineup or not right? I don’t know the jays farm system but why not just bring up a minor leaguer and see what he could do?
Also, smoak is the perfect example of why prospects are such a crap shoot… Smoak was supposed to be a superstar when he first came up… As a bosox fan I’m hearing a ton of people who are mad about trading Espinoza, an 18 year old single a pitcher who’s like 4 years away from maybe sniffing the big leagues, and it makes me just scratch my head when u can just draft another guy next year lol
Sox wont be drafting a guy like Espinoza or Groome for awhile (Espinoza was Int signing)… but point remains they can probably buy another when Moncada penalty expires.
Always thought book on Smoak was he has huge holes in his swing, but if he could close those then look out… hear that about a lot of guys.
Smoak has a very long swing which doesn’t work for most players if he would make his swing more compact and straight to the ball he may lose some power but his average would definitely rise, it’s the same reason some hitters struggle after the home run Derby because some of them will change there swing to a long upper cut swing to increase power which can be hard to change back.
Seems like a treadmill move
They couldn’t find a better option? He’s a career .225 hitter, has never hit more than .240 in a season, and has never reached 20 HRs in 4 years. Makes no sense to me, but what do I know?
and the high k rate to go with it
They would have been better off giving Montero a chance. At least we know he can hit. I hated Smoak when he was on the M’s and am so glad he’s gone. What a waste.
criminal or stupid
Smoak’s agent must be amazing. I dunno how a guy can keepbeing the object of trades and getting contracts and extensions with the ‘promise’ of being good in the future.
I don’t know who’s nuttier on $$$, Bautista or the Jays. Smoak is replacement level.
Bautista isn’t worth 20 cents.
Or to look at the other side…maybe they’re hopeful of signing EE or Bautista and want to have Smoak for relatively cheap for 1b next year.
It looks like a Montero/Smoak platoon is a real option for 2017, with Encarnacion walking. Smart solution for a team without unlimited resources.
Rogers could spend with the best of them
Very stupid.
Could have given him the same deal in the off season.
I still see potential in Smoak, even tho hes been struggling a bit as of late.. The one thing I don’t like is how sometimes the camera catches him chewing tobacco. I think its wrong.
I thought he was breaking through last year, and he looked good this spring, but it hasn’t carried into this year so far.
Who cares what he puts in his mouth? You could say that about lots of players. Ask anyone who has ever dipped or chewed tobacco and they will tell you that it’s more addictive than anything they could imagine, and also that they are incredibly satisfied by it. The new rules in some parks about smokeless tobacco really are unfair in my opinion.
Justin Smoak is not good at baseball, AA blew it.
A bit of a surprise signing Smoak to me as well, but I’ll reserve judgment for now, maybe there is more to it. He does seem to be a well liked player, plays good defence, and doesn’t whine if he doesn’t start, if he could just lay off the breaking ball down and in, he’d be fine. Can’t get much for 4 million nowadays in MLB. My priority would of been signing Darwin Barney as he has been a very valuable player with good defence at 3b 2b and to a lesser extent SS. Puts the ball in play, uses the whole field, true pro.
I see Darwin is arb3 next year. My mistake.
hes a 0 war player this year who strikeouts alot and a career 226 avg he just isnt good
I don’t get this at all. He’s ok, which is better than his time at the M’s, but no more than that. Unless there’s something that we’re not getting about 1B defense, I don’t get this at all…. There’s always a guy you can stick there.
I agree, hoping there is more to this.
Maybe it signifies they’re out on Jay Bruce, and obviously they’re not going to sign Bautista or EE. I thought they made a mistake not signing EE in the spring, I really didn’t even like the attitude about it, EE stated he didn’t wanna negotiate in season, and their reaction was almost a smirk, like, well we weren’t going to anyways. I understand why they can’t sign EE, they have a lot of good young players whose arb salaries will rise, don’t wanna handcuff yourself to an older DH, who isn’t all that athletic.
One of the first moves by the Shapiro/Atkins team that makes no sense. Not signing David Price and signing Estrada and Happ made sense. Trading for Jason Grilly earlier made sense. Even the trade of Ben Revere for Drew Storen made sense. Not signing Bautista or Encarnacion to long term extension in the spring made sense. This extension makes no sense. Here is why: they have a prospect named Rowdy Tellez that will be major league ready in 2017. He hits for power and has great plate discipline. He is probably slightly less of a defender than Smoak but a much better offensive player. And he would make the league minimum. Also, if the Jays decided to sign one of either Encarnacion or Bautista, then that person could share 1B/DH duties with Tellez. Smoak is a league average player with little to no upside.
I don’t understand this signing either, but if Tellez really is ready next year, which doesn’t seem certain at 22 years old, how big a hurdle will it be that they’re paying Smoak $4mm?
Lol wat
Wow, if he can get over 8 mil to suck then I could make league min to suck worse
Like he did with Seattle show just enough to make him interesting and make your want to keep him because he could be good. Then he tears your heart out because he goes back to sucking at the plate. He always seems to have that month or so that he looks like he gets it but nope they old Smoaky comes out.
This guy is a “Scouts Dream”; Switch Hitter with Raw power. The power you see is in batting practice and doesn’t play consistently during the game. Maybe the Coaching staff is starting to see results of shortening his swing because he has always had a long, slow swing. He is great in the clubhouse is a good team player. Hope the deal works out for Smoak and The Jays.
I’ve watched him hit some long home runs in games.
Out of curiosity, what do people suspect Smoak would have gotten on the FA market? Obviously if it was more his agent would not have had him sign, so I’m guessing this is about equal to his value; however, he’s never had a season with a War above 1, he’s a ~.220 hitter, ~.300/.320OBP who hits maybe 20HR and 50/60RBI at one of the historically more powerful position. He seems like a weak 1B offensively, and he doesn’t make up for it with defense. Could the jays swap him to another position since they allegedly have some stud in the minors who is a 1B? I just don’t get the point of Smoak when they have bigger fish to reel in with EE, and JB(in that order imo) but 4e^6$ won’t kill the budget or disallow major signings I suppose. Decent fall back I guess. Idk just doesn’t seem like the best option … What do Jay’s fan that watch him enough think?
4 million isn’t much for anyone. He does have power, good defence and by all accounts is a good teammate. The Jays are not going to overpay for JB or EE, and that’s what free agency is, the highest bidder usually wins. They are covering their bases lol no pun intended, only other free agent first baseman next year are Mark Texiera, Brandon Moss, or EE. Justin could still break out, he needs to recognize the breaking ball a bit earlier, and cut down his swing with two strikes, he’s shown a lot of coachability by taking the ball the other way this year so, still a chance he could break out a la JB and EE did late in careers
I watched Smoak every year he was in Seattle and said next year he was going to break out and hit the ball like he shows for a month or so. He usually does it at the end of the season or close to it. When he came back after his dad passed away he went on aslbtear and we all thought here he goes he will be an all star now, but for some reason it doesn’t last. He will change his swing for a little while but it goes back sometimes after the off season sometimes in the middle of the season. It got real frustrating so most people were not upset to see him leave.
He is one of the examples I like to use for how the D SABR does not work well. I have not looked at his since he went North but in Seattle it showed he was an avg to sometimes below avg defender. The eye test does not show that to be true, he is pretty good. I am not saying he is the best but he is above avg in fielding. At least he was in Seattle. Hopefully he can do good for you guys except when you play us always seemed like a good guy and always hoped henwould become an all star. Also nice to see Saunders get there another guy that always seemed to be right there but could never get over the cusp be it injury or what, he just seemed to not be able to keep the starting job here. He was well liked and given every chance another guy many here still pull for.
JB overplayed his hand and the jays would be dumb to give him 1.5E^8, that’s insane money for an aging guy, on the DL for a toe issue, with one awesome postseason performance. I’m biased and not anJb fan however. EE is the real deal, but the jays disrespected him by prioritizing JB, and now he’s testing the market. If I were a Jay’s fan I would be upset with management for botching it. My guess is JB will stay, slightly reduced price but still something insane that is not necessary (imo think Chris Davis money where nobody else bids anything close). JB will get the years, and the money, prolly 125 or something heinous like that. But EE should be the priority.
I would resign EE and Jesse Chavez. Maybe go after an outfielder like YCespedes or even Reddick as I suspect they would be the same price or at least cheaper than JB… (The As allegedly could have gotten Reddick for 4 years 52 mill which seems way way below what he would get on the market (I looked at him as a 100 mill guy) so I’m shocked they won’t give him 4 years even with his Injuries
He is hitting like a middle infielder