The Blue Jays have been knocked out of the playoffs, but the club’s window for contention remains open, writes Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star. The entire starting lineup is under contract for 2016. Toronto scored 891 runs on the season – an astounding 127 runs better than the second-best Yankees. The offense even improved as the year went on with the acquisitions of Troy Tulowitzki and Ben Revere. The breakouts of Ryan Goins and Chris Colabello could also add up to more runs over a full season as could healthy years from Devon Travis and Michael Saunders. Alas, the front office will have it’s work cut out with the pitching staff. David Price, Marco Estrada, and Mark Buehrle will be free agents and GM Alex Anthopoulos has a soon-to-expire contract too. The bullpen is strikingly thin as well. Perhaps they’ll be forced to trade from the strong lineup.
Here’s more Jays news:
- We should soon learn more about the plans of new Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. With Anthopoulos’ contract set to expire on October 30, the club will need to quickly decide if they will offer an extension. It remains unclear how Shapiro plans to share decision making authority with his GM, and it’s possible the two have different philosophies. However, after such a successful campaign, it would be surprising to see Toronto allow Anthopoulos to leave.
- The Blue Jays refused to sign pitchers for over five-years under former CEO Paul Beeston, per Davidi. Again, it’s uncertain if Shapiro will bend those old rules to re-sign David Price or ink another top pitcher. The largest contract ever handed out by a Shapiro-led regime was the four-year, $57MM deal to Travis Hafner in 2007. Of course, Cleveland may possess additional salary constraints above and beyond those of Toronto. Personally, I would expect the Jays to acquire multiple mid-tier arms and rely upon the offense. A couple top relievers could be hugely helpful, and all could be had for a fraction of Price’s future contract.
- Price would welcome an extension with the Blue Jays, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca. His teammates have also expressed a desired to see him return. As previously noted, the Jays leadership would have to seriously change their past habits. For example, Anthopoulos has yet to pay for than $5MM for a free agent pitcher.
- Knuckle ball specialist R.A. Dickey figures to be an important piece of the 2016 rotation, writes Griffin. The soon-to-be 41-year-old has thrown over 200 innings in each of the last five seasons and may be asked to anchor a rotation of young pitchers. His style of absorbing innings while keeping his team in the game is a great fit for the Toronto offense. Personally, his role reminds me of fellow knuckleballer Tim Wakefield with the Red Sox and fellow slowballer Jamie Moyer with the Phillies.
- Tulowitzki never settled in with his new team, reports John Lott of the National Post. “It’s tough for me now to trust anybody in this game after what happened,” said Tulowitzki referring to the business side of the game. He had expected to remain with the Rockies after signing a 10-year extension in 2011. Tulowitzki doesn’t hold the trade against the Rockies or Blue Jays and looks forward to spending a full season with his new club.
Jeez Tulo — or should we say, Tuladonna — get over it already. He doesn’t seem real bright.
The guy signed a 10 year, way under market deal, to stay in Colorado his whole career. You can’t really blame him for being upset. He probably could have made $100 million more if he became a FA, but he chose to give the Rockies a sweetheart deal so he could stay there. As a Rockies fan it pains me to say this, but I think the Tulo deal will ensure the Rockies mediocrity for at least the next 10 years. You cannot convince me otherwise, at least not right now.
I can blame Tulo for having blinders on and being so sensitive to this trade. His time in Colorado was mostly on awful teams. He has more of a chance to win with Toronto. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
Why is it so hard to believe that a person getting paid millions of dollars can get emotionally attached to something like the community he lived in for almost 10 years? He was the man in Colorado.
It’s not hard to believe he can get attached to Denver. It’s a great city and hitting there is a dream. But I would assume he would understand that baseball is a business and even the franchise players can be on the move for the right price. Maybe he didn’t understand that but that’s on him.
Besides, signing a 10 year contract ensures one thing these days – you will get paid by a team for 10 years. It doesn’t ensure it will be the same team for those 10 years.
He should have asked for a no trade clause.
Exactly. He should’ve been smarter about his contract, but I do have sympathy for him. It seemed rather sudden when he got traded, though I had thought he wanted a traded.
If the owner told him that he was not going to be traded, he probably wasn’t cynical enough to distrust him. He had enough evidence that the Rockies kept a franchise player happy because they never traded Todd Helton even though he regressed far more than Tulo. Perhaps it was a bit naive, but he probably wasn’t expecting to be lied to either.
I guess that’s my point Ray Ray. Baseball now more than ever is a business and Tulo shouldn’t have such a thin skin about being traded. It happens.
And bringing up Helton holds no relevance to Tulo. They are different players and ones tenure with the team has no impact on the other.
I just think Tulo needs to focus on being a Blue Jay and staying healthy. The rest will somehow take care of itself.
It has plenty relevance, the fans just watched it happen with one guy, if the front office lets it happen again it reflects poorly on their decision making process.
Also: if he asked for a no trade clause, he gets way less than 10 years. Works both ways.
Tulo’s declining fast. The Rockies made out like bandits in that deal.
This WAS Toronto year, and they didn’t win, Next year team won’t even finish 500. Old aging Stars and Free Agents , will do them in.
That’s a pretty flimsy argument for finishing below .500 next year. Their offense is coming back next year and has some good young pieces to compliment their “old aging stars”. Pitching will be key for them, like every other club.
I know this was probably only a typo, but I love the idea of young pieces like Devon Travis and Dalton Pompey lining up to “compliment,” Bautista, Encarnacion, etc. “Yes sir, that was a beautiful swing! And truly, I’ve never seen a more authoritative bat flip!”
Good assessment using no common logic or statistics to back it up. I’d bet on them having a top 3 offense still even if everyone has a down year from 2015.
It reminds me of Rangers teams from the mid 2000’s. A very special offense poorly complimented by a mediocre pitching staff leading to a .500 team.
Yeah, none of that makes sense at all. My guess is in the offseason we will gain more bullpen help and secure some upper tier starting pitching. Hopefully we will have full seasons from Travis and Saunders. Even if we don’t sign Price, we should see more reliable pitching top-to-bottom than we saw this year. Couple that with our offence in a walk year for most of our key players and I think it’s a lock-in for at least the same quality of play we saw in 2015.
The jays will win the East next year actually.
Let’s be realistic here…. The jays have 3 bats that are a safe bet to hit 35 hrs each. Another 3 bats that are a good bet to hit 25 hrs each. With an offense like that, ho much pitching do you need to make the playoffs? They get a full season of stroman and can put Sanchez back into the rotation.
This team is a very attractive place for Vetrans pitchers who are looking for a ring. Toronto becomes even more attractive if Chris Davis leaves the division. Boston isn’t the high powered offense it used to be. New York is in a transition period. Tampa bay’s offense is well…. Toronto is prime spot for an “innings eater” or a guy who can give you two out of three quality starts. Those guys won’t cost a fortune, and gives you some extra time to evaluate what they will need for a deep playoff push.
It’s will be attractive to those players if they offer the most money. We’ll see if that happens.
“Boston isn’t the high powered offense it used to be” – that’s wrong.
“New York is in a transition period.” – not really.
“Tampa bay’s offense is well…” – their pitching is as good as Toronto’s offense.
This really was probably Toronto’s only shot, unless they can move Joey Bats and E5 for young pitching they are toast.
Boston isnt as good as they used to be actually. New York is definitely in a transition period because theyre trying to get younger. And Tampas pitching isnt the best in the league, and the jays offence is. That being said, tampa does have a great staff when healthy. Toronto is going to have tons of money to spend this off season. Buehrle was making over 20m which is coming off, Romeros dead 7.5m is coming off. Izturis’ dead 3m is coming off. They will be just fine.
Boston will be a good team next season.
The Yankees are in fact a transition period, well, they would like to be, but those contracts have them in handcuffs right now.
Tampa should be an ok to good team next season.
The Jays should be able to repeat as AL East champs next year, their offence is too good for them not to.
They don’t need to trade for pitching, they have the richest owners in baseball and a new president who wants to make an immediate impact.
What about the team with the most wins since 2012. That would be Baltimore. Look for them to overhaul their starting pitching, Machado, Schoop, and Adam Jones are good for 85-90 homers and 100+ doubles. Don’t count out any Showalter team.
Maybe. Father Time has a way of reducing those 35 HR years down pretty fast. I don’t think Tulowitski has a 30 HR year left in him. Bautista’s 35 now, Encarnacion 33, and Donaldson’s about to turn 30. It’s a young person’s game. They have maybe a year left to win this thing.
The window is far from closed.
It’s not about homers. It’s pitching, good D, and a solid on base average.
Uh, the Jays were far and away the best offence in all of baseball, and the entire line-up is back next season. They will be in the playoffs again next year.
Can see them resigning Estrada unless someone else breaks the bank. Sanchez could return to the rotation
My ideal offseason for Toronto would be to sign Zimmerman and Leake, and two of O’Day, Sipp, Clippard, Kelley, Soria or Albers. Leave the offense alone, unless its a Goins/Travis trade to get a good reliever
And let all the FAs depart? Price is a very big ticket maybe too big but Estrada? I’m not totally convinced given his track record but they could get him for 3 yrs at possibly less than Leake who is younger. Agree that they need to put together a bullpen (especially if Sanchez returns to the rotation) but that seems to be a fairly common thing for many teams every year. I’d keep both Goins
That “ideal” offseason is the same one for probably 10-15 other clubs
Oday in the same clubhouse of joey bats would be interesting hahaha
Blue Jays aren’t going to sign any elite pitchers. They have such a handicap being in Canada; most guys (unless they’re Canadian) don’t want to live there. Which is ridiculous as it’s a great city, but I think is the truth.
Money has a way of making that a non-issue. Plus, look at how strong the team is. Everyone said that about the Jays in the late 80’s/early 90’s until Dave Winfield signed on the dotted line. Price loves it in Toronto, I have a feeling the rest of baseball has taken note.
O’Day won’t be anywhere near Toronto. There is way too much bad blood between them.
Looking forward to seeing what the Jays do this off season. Obviously we need a few starters and at least 3 relievers possibly more if they plan on moving Ozuna to a starter (I’d like to see him in the pen for 1 more year). We don’t have to do much of anything with our position players, however I would really like to see Bautista moved from RF to 1B. We could have a very athletic outfield of Revere, Pillar and Pompey. I know there is no power there but with power bats Donaldson, Tulo, EE and Bautista in the line up and solid bats like Martin and Travis we can afford to field an outfield like that…I think our D would be spectacular with this alignment.
Would love Iwakuma and O’Day (which would be interesting) as free agent pick ups.
With the AL East as it is, I really don’t see Toronto making the playoffs next year, they went all in and moved all their young pitching, and now are losing 3/5ths of the rotation? But strangely enough, they could probably trade Bautista & Encarnacion and get anyone they wanted to replenish the pitching. Will they do that though? If they sign them long term they won’t have enough money to buy the young pitching back they just traded away. They’ll be limited to the free agent market or trading one of their most cost-controlled guys.
Very curious to see their moves this offseason and with whatever happens to J Bats & E5, it really could make or break their future.
They will be just fine. I don’t see how they can’t make the post season after what they did this year.