The Blue Jays’ recent skid — they’re 2-8 in their past 10 games and now sit at 23-27 on the season — could force the team’s front office to make some tough decisions in the coming months, writes Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription link). While there’s certainly still time to turn things around, the Jays look to be a Wild Card contender at best and a clear seller at worst. While impending free agents like J.A. Happ, Josh Donaldson, Curtis Granderson, Marco Estrada, Tyler Clippard, John Axford and Aaron Loup all stand out as plausible trade chips in the event that the team decides to sell off pieces, Rosenthal notes that the club could also have to weigh the possibility of listening on assets with mid-range control remaining. Kevin Pillar, Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are all controlled through 2020 and would be more attractive trade pieces that’d accelerate a turnaround and provide a more immediate boost to the farm.
As is the case throughout the league, the Blue Jays have the luxury of waiting for better health and potentially better performance before plotting their deadline course, but there’s certainly no shortage of key performers whose contractual control in Toronto is nearing its end.
A bit more on the game’s lone Canadian team…
- Blue Jays fans (and fans of any club, for that matter) will want to check out this excellent look at the lengthy process of signing top prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., penned by Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. Simmons chats with former Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos (now the Braves’ GM), former Latin American scouting director Ismael Cruz (now with the Dodgers) and former president Paul Beeston about one of several trips to the Dominican Republic to meet with Guerrero in person. With MLB forbidding clubs from working players out privately at their own facilities, Anthopoulos solicited help from then-Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion to secure an independent field to host the workout, which Encarnacion attended as well. (Encarnacion provided a decisive endorsement for the then-15-year-old Guerrero.) Simmons’ story examines Guerrero’s connection with Canada dating back to his father’s tenure with the Expos (Guerrero Jr. was born in Montreal) and details the countless hours of work, millions of dollars and even trades to acquire international bonus allotments that went into signing the 19-year-old who is now arguably the game’s most anticipated minor leaguer. “I’ve never seen two guys more convinced about a player than Alex and Ismael were,” Beeston tells Simmons. “If you don’t believe in your GM and in your Latin American scouting director, you have the wrong GM and the wrong scouting director.”
- It doesn’t seem as if there’s resolution in sight on the investigation into abuse allegations against Jays closer Roberto Osuna, writes FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Major League Baseball is still awaiting Canadian law enforcement to conclude its own investigation and has not yet seen any of the reports or findings from those efforts, per Heyman. In previous U.S.-based investigations, commissioner Rob Manfred and his staff have waited for criminal investigations to wrap up before making their own assessment, and it seems that’s also the case in this instance. Heyman also rightly points out that the deal could have significant ramifications for Osuna in terms of service time and free agency; the 23-year-old entered the season with exactly three years of MLB service time, so a suspension that costs him anything more than 15 days of service time would leave him shy of four full years of service at season’s end, thus pushing his path to free agency back by a full year. At present, Osuna can become a free agent after the 2020 season, but a suspension of even modest length would push that back to the 2021-22 offseason. At present, Osuna is still earning service time and being paid while on administrative leave.
Vlad jr will be the next ultra exciting player, one that doesn’t come around very often. Hopefully the Jay’s do what is right and bring him up sooner than later
Since he won’t make a difference in the standings, and if they are rebuilding/retooling for the next couple seasons, the longer they put it off making absolute sure he is ready, the better for the club.
@ Darkstar61
100% chance VGJ is called up in Sept. And 100% chance he breaks with the team on opening day 2019.
At this point, holding VGJ in the minors to delay service time is not benefiting the club at all.
He could work on defense. If he’s called up to be dh it could help the club this year, but if he’s held down to work on his defense, he’ll be more valuable in the future. That said, he should be called up to AAA, I don’t know why that hasn’t happened yet.
Needlessly starting the clock when he is not 100% ready does nothing but ensure you get crappy play out of him early and that he’ll have little control left when the team is ready to complete again.
There is no benifit to rushing him up
You’re clueless dude. Does he need to hit 500 to prove he’s ready? At the least he needs a promotion to AAA, and after he kills it there, he’ll be called up later this year, likely sometime after the super two cutoff which will be early June.
Hes 19 and has a little over a month above a+ ball in his career.
If you want to screw him up, by all means, pray he gets rushed to the majors. But when he gets up, falls flat on his face and needs to go back down…
Being able to hit a storm at AA does not guarantee he’s MLB ready. What benefit is there to bringing him up!? He won’t be the difference maker to contend and you already have JD at third who you need to play to showcase for a trade so he won’t be able to learn defense there.
Right. But fans have been hyperventilating over teens hoping they get rushed up to the majors ever since the Internet came about and prospect news become so available – unfortunately teams sometimes get caught up in the hype too, with the end results generally being stunted careers (guys like Adam Jones and Felix Pie instantly come to mind, but it’s such an endless list of such guys)
To believe they busted (and Adam Jones didn’t even bust) only because they were brought up too young would be to believe that every young player should’ve been a success. That’s an absurd view that clearly makes little sense. Of course the majority of them fail, the majority of prospects in general, even the most highly-touted ones, fail.
No one said Jones or anyone busted, so not even sure what youre arguing against.
But yes, his growth was stunted by him being called up well before he was ready, yes they needlessly burnt service time, and yes they gained absolutely nothing from the stunt.
That is just to be expected when teams do absolutely idiotic crud like obsess on calling up teens just out of High-A though – yet still Jays fans seem desperate to have JR faceplant and burn service time for zero benifit
Just saying his growth was stunted as if it’s just an obvious fact doesn’t cut it, that’s nothing but a baseless assumption. You’re attributing speculative causes (being called up too early) to something you have no way of knowing in the first place (that Adam Jones never became as good a player as he should have). Two logical fallacies in one fell swoop.
Think for a second everyone. We have a 19 year old mashing in AA. Yes? He’s almost a given to hit at the major league level unless something unfortunate happens. So why should we bring up a young player to hit like he does on a losing ball club? If the Jays are contending by the trade deadline then maybe we will see Vladdy. If we are out of contention then why would we want to waste half a year of service time for him to play on a losing club? Not to mention he would be a free agent around 25-26 years old right into his prime years. Why would we want to give away some of his prime years to possibly another team just for fans being greedy and wanting to see him too soon out of their interests over the best interests of the Jays future.
Thank you thank you thank you for your big picture intelligence Rhymo. Exactly what needs to happen and why.
Once they trade Donaldson or other pieces they will bring up Guerrero so fans will still pay attention to the team
I hope the Jays wait until his defense catches up with his bat before promoting Vlad Jr to the major Leagues. Once he gets here his bat will keep him here but it is going to take 2 years or so not to be a liability on the field.
The Jays are winning nothing in 2018 or 2019 for that matter, so keep Vlad Jr down for development. This current regime has shown the inability to do the big deals to bring in the Starting Pitching that is required to win a championship, heck they don’t even compete and two years in a row I have accurately called it as such. The remiander of this year and next as well will be similar unless this current Jays Mgmt regime bring in some elite starting pitching so let Vlad develop and hang on to his rights for that much more time.
On the other hand, if the Jays are out of it, why not bring him up in August/September regardless and let him learn from mistakes in the bigs?
It’s Memorial Day weekend Jimmer. I said on previous boards Vlad should be in Buffalo by this weekend. If he’s not, I’ll jump on your “Fire Shapiro and Atkins” train. I’m standing on the deck. He has nothing left to prove with his bat. He can work on his D in AAA and hopefully there are coaches there to work with him.
See what he does in Buffalo and reassess things after the trade deadline.
Bo can stay in AA and work on his .250 batting average.
agree. I get the team not wanting to push him to the majors right away both from a contract and defense focus but then at least bump him up to AAA. the only argument I have heard that maybe make a bit of sense is learning better fielding from the same coaches will help and that they may be tying him and Bo together. (ie they might call Bo up to AAA when they call Vlad up to the Show).
One reason also could be that there isn’t much of a difference between AA and AAA. In AA, at least they’re playing against the other teams top prospects. In AAA, you’re playing against the AAAA guys who only throw meatballs. Maybe it would help him see more of the developed players offspeed pitches, but besides that there probably isn’t much of an advantage.
Buffalo is closer to Toronto than New Hampshire.
Some Buffalo fans attend Jays games during the season.
The AAA guys, many of them have major league experience and some are major league calibre waiting for their chance. That’s good experience for a guy like Vlad.
More veteran mentors in Buffalo than New Hampshire to help Vlad.
Many differences between AA and AAA we’ve left out. The promotion will help Vlad a lot more than keeping him at a level where he’s hitting .427.
We’ve said it for a long time bud. This team can’t compete in the division and isn’t close as a wild card. Why is it so clear for us yet Atkins can’t see it? Zero pitching depth. Declining stars. Big contracts they can’t give away. The team needed to be blown up last deadline. Now even trading Donaldson won’t return anything of value.
CJ, The Jays didn’t blow it up either due to incompetence in Mgmt and their estimation that the Jays can compete or because of money.
I think Shaprio is terrified of big free agent deals big trades and his pay plan is setup to maximize money/ROI not wins, so they are presenting the “competative marketing” garbage to fill the seats knowing that there is no shot at winning anything really.
My guess is Rogers didn’t want to go back to less than 20,000 crowds again consistently. Hence a lot of low risk trades and signings rather than either blowing it up or spending over the tax to win.
I wanted them to blow it up last year, but I understood why they didn’t. Prospects weren’t ready yet, so you’re stuck fielding a team of scrubs that no one wants to see if you go that route. Donaldson’s trade value is down, which sucks, but he still has value, as do Happ, Smoak, Granderson, and Solarte and Pillar if they want to sell high on some guys.
They know what they have in Vlad Jr. now more so than they did last deadline, so I’m confident they will clean house at the deadline and build around him.
Atkins knows all this , he is not stupid, but he is not going to say it in public. He made a very bad mistake signing Morales to a 3 year contract.
The fans will be fine with Bichette and Vlad up next year. Sports channels in Canada are already including results for Vlad and Bichette after the Blue Jay result (which is usually bad). The Jays have 4 above average position players (Donaldson,Pillar,Smoak,Solarte) and 2 above average pitchers (Happ and Osuna). Sanchez and Stroman the jury is still out. Sanchez looks like he could be good,
My guess is his defense will never catch up to his bat
The team was 19-16 on the day Osuna went on “leave” and has gone 4-11 ever since
As I said that day, if MLB isn’t absolutely sure this is a rather slam dunk horrible case…
Well, just think of the backlash the league will face and the possible issues in the future it set itself up for if it turns out to be a false claim or misunderstanding.
Better than the other way around, in their opinion. Men always “lose” DV incidents.
Men always “lose” because men are always “at fault.”
We just saw it with Reuben foster. Could be the same type deal for all we know. She could be a spiteful person wanting to ruin his career, or it could actually happen. It is dangerous to assume he did it. It is better to err on the side of the accuser though
scratch always and make it most often. in some cases, there is more to the story…
Thats the issue. MLB acted so fast that it could encourage other spiteful people to make false charges themself.
Like what if Boston rolls into a big series with play off implications in NY and all of a sudden a woman is making a claim against a Yankee. They going to instantly put an integral Yank on “leave” for 2 weeks just incase he did something wrong?
No, they don’t.
But MLB reacted first, instantly, with a punishment that can be viewed as destroying the club if a person wants to see it that way.
If it was a false claim or misunderstanding, MLB is screwed
I’m sure MLB has done some work on this. a claim is not the same as being arrested. to actually charge him they had to have had at least enough proof that it was more likely than not.
I’m sure MLB has done some work on this. a claim is not the same as being arrested. to actually charge him they had to have had at least enough proof that it was more likely than not. sure he could be found innocent, sure the charges could be dropped but again from a PR standpoint both MLB and the Blue Jays are playing this right.
Not uncommon for a guy to be taken in off even an argument – police often error on side of caution for safety reasons
There are photos of the abuse she suffered.
Does the photo depict Osuna physically striking the woman?
It 100% does not matter. At all.
agreed. How about if he was defending himself though? Not saying that this was the case but it is a possibility in some of these cases.
Osuna will (most likely) cut a deal, get probation and pay some money. He and the Blue Jays don’t want a trial and prolong this ordeal. So you’re correct, it won’t matter at all.
Or she could recant
and say he didn’t do it
and say the injuries were caused by a fight with another woman ! Then get a big payday under the table from him
Remember he hasn’t been suspended. He’s on administratively leave so getting paid while an investigation is ongoing. This is simply smart from a PR perspective. If he isn’t guilty then no suspension and he’s back. If he is guilty the certainly a suspension is warranted.
it sucks for the jays to be in this position but I’m sure they aren’t arguing. the PR nightmare they would have putting an accused donestic Assault suspect on the field would be HUGE.
I think the Jays would choose to be using him if given the option, PR nightmare or not. All they can do is try to field the best possible team, what the media and fans have to say about any of it is well down their list of concerns.
really? he’s a closer. he would have maybe turned 2 losses into wins over the last 2 weeks.
I’m sure this front office knows it isn’t competing this year. why have the headache just to say you threw him out there?
19-16 before “leave”
4-11 after “leave”
Yeah, sure, the Jays aren’t affected negatively at all
And its much easier to explain “we take this very seriously but must to wait for the results of the investigation” than “opps, sorry, we jumped the gun and ruined the Jays season over a bitter woman making a false claim to hurt him and his team”
You’re right the guy that closes game is the reason why they lost 11 of last 15. seriously? trying to find a scapegoat for the jays showing what they truly are which is mediocre at best.
I’m not trying to find a scapegoat, and I could care less about the club to be honest. But that is what changed that day, and ever since their record has been flipped
in their last month they are 9-19. So before osuna was placed on leave they were 5-8. this didn’t start with this situation. it started when they ran into the yanks and redsox and were shown the difference between contenders and pretenders.
They were 5-5 in their 10 prior to the leave. Went 4-11 after
Correlation does not equal causation.
The Jays recent skid is something many fans have seen coming for a long long time, dating back to last years deadline. That’s when the assets like Donaldson should have been traded. The management team was pretty blind and everything had to go the Jays way in order for them to compete even for a wild card spot this year. Injuries to the starting rotation has shown a lack of depth there. So the Yankees traded for Stanton and the Red Sox signed Martinez? Let’s keep up by signing Granderson! That’ll keep us competitive. Wake up Atkins. The time to sell was last deadline, now all those valuable assets are losing value every day. Donaldson last deadline was healthy and playing well. Last deadline Osuna wasn’t in legal trouble.
Well said CJ.
Wait so you don’t think if Stroman and Sanchez were throwing like they have in the past and Osuna wasn’t suspended they wouldn’t be a lot closer in the wild card chase? Because they would.
JD I wrote on these blogs last year and again in spring training that the Jays needed to acquire a true #1 ace pitcher and another #3 and this rotation would not function like it did in the past.
There were never going to be a lot closer to the wild card chase. I wrote that they would start well but age and injury would cause them to be out of the hunt by trade deadline. Let’s not RaRa this. There is no hopeful spin for this year and next year too unless Atkins is fired and the replacement redoes the rotation.
jimmer it’s easy to say aquire a #1 but with what prospect capital? unless you don’t mind them giving up bichette and or vlad?
Sanchez was the AL ERA champ two years ago. Stroman was a true ace last year. Estrada pitched in the past like a number 2-3 guy. And Happ is consistent enough to be as high as a number 2 in the rotation. Is the consistency and health of the starters. We don’t need to get a “true ace” we have two young arms that will still break through to be aces. The rotation this year is upsetting but they don’t need a major league ace. They need good depth arms like they have with Gaviglio. There are prospects pitching really good in the minors that may get callups in the near future. If we sign an ace it’d be just like what is happening in the field. A logjam of outfielders and infielders when everyone gets healthy. Once stro is healthy and prospects are ready we have an ace getting paid lots of money and have young pitchers waiting in the minors for a shot to become an ace. No needs for signing two pitchers or trading for them. When the rotation gets back on track we won’t even think about trading for a pitcher
And jimmer man I just do t agree with a lot of what you’re saying. You are rash and want changes to happen too quickly. Let the players show everyone what they got before they get replaced
I am goig to have to disagree with you on this one. Statistically the Jays have the worst starting rotation in basbeall. I called it as such at the end of last year. None of it is a surprise to me.
What a player has done in the past has no relation of what they are going to do next week. We see that clearly in this rotation,.
I called accurately that Sanchez finger issues are still an issue and he doesn’t throw the curve as much so he is no longer a dominant pitcher. I called Estrada’s slide into uselessness. I projected Garcia for 8-10 wins. Stroman will never be a true #1 because he has blowup innings every 2nd game, never mind the obvious emotional issues.
I called Happ for only 140 innings due to age, let’s see if I am correct.
There are no potential aces ready or going to be ready in the minors within the next 3 years. And no club is a championship calibre without a true #1.
I accurately called a minor league starter that would do well this year at the MLB level. I have been waiting for this Gaviglo performance.
I am not rash, just precisionly accurate far in advance for what the Jays real needs are. Time to replace the Jays leadership team. #Scoutseyes
If the Jays wanted to win they needed to go for the jugular. Much like Boston signing JD Martinez and the Yankees trading for Stanton.
Logjam of Jays OFs and zero studs out there.
If the Jays were looking to go for it all they needed a true #1 to make Boston and New York shake (Arrieta, not Garcia). Jays needed a bigger bat than Granderson and/or Grichuk. Solarte has been a slight surprise.
Team needs to rebuild. Needed to a year ago. We have to face the reality that they cannot compete with Boston or New York.
Signing a big free agent didn’t make much sense with the team on the cusp of a rebuild, and realistically it would’ve made little difference this year. The Red Sox and Yankees are too good right now and the Jays not nearly good enough. Easy decision to sell at the deadline now and focus on the future.
According to management they were looking to contend this year. Going by their word they’d have to consider signing big free agents. They also have the capital and choose not to use it.
If they were on the cusp of rebuilding (which is what they should have done last June/July), it was time to unload and come up with a much different offseason strategy.
Agreed. The Jay’s Mgmt behavior shows us all along that the primary goal is not to win but to present a facade of trying to win in order to maximize money.
This team is being run for money as the number one goal, not to win.
I suspect that the earlier stories we heard about the Rogers new CEO wanting to sell the team are true and the Rogers Board of Directors has mandated to keep the budget as is.
What that means on the baseball side is that Shapiro and Atkins are forced to take flyers on players on the cheap or make trades for players that are cheap [Diaz, Solarte, Grichuk] and hope it works out. It also forces them to present the “”we are competing” narrative to the fans even though I suspect they know themselves.that there is no shot of winning.
Either that or they are very incompetent in their projections. What they thought this rotation was going to be this year was a joke. Now it is the worst in baseball. Except we could see that this rotation wasn’t going to compete. ON the plus side, I think Gaviglio is goijng to be a decent #4 or #5 starter.
Smart fans don’t buy it. I hear the season ticket base cratered this year.
It is rebuild time for sure.
If they don;t sell off all the sellable parts at the trade deadline, I;ll be screaming even louder for the Jays Mgmt to be replaced.
Unlikely Osuna would’ve been moved last deadline, he’s still young. They should’ve locked him up long-term and then put him in the rotation, I never understood keeping him in the bullpen after his first year or two, he has the pitches to be a starter.
Yes, the ideal window to sell has passed, but the Jays still have a ton of players that can be moved at the deadline that have value and will bring back assets for the Vlad era.
Sorry Jays fans, Indians fans saw this for way too long with Atkins and Shapiro. Keep average guys around way too long, only sign some middle of the road 0 WAR free agents, and get stuck in a rut forever.
They are really nice guys and great in the community, but will assure you of basically a 3rd place team forever.
There is no excuse for the Blue Jays payroll. Have you seen the audience numbers for Blue Jays games? They can afford to pay taxes on the payroll.
There is if the big bosses at Rogers say no. It’s not really up to Shapiro and Atkins how much money they’re allowed to spend; that authority lies with ownership.
Jays ownership also need to be held accountable for the hire, the payroll starting well below the threshold and for previous hires since 2000.
They have done a good job in their transactions. The only two bad moves they’ve made were the Morales deal and Grichuk swap. True, they haven’t made any huge deals, but they haven’t been in any position to. Like it or not, AA really hindered their ability to make moves, both financially and prospect wise.
JD, Huh? Seriously? The list of Atkins/Shapiro terrible transactions is a very long one. Morales, and Grichuk are just two, Let’s add Diaz, Pearce, Bautista at 18M, Laurence, Campos, Storen, Sparkman, Bolsinger, House, Girado, Feldman, Doubront, Venditte, Aoki, Barney, Beliveau, Cole, Coghlan, Harrell, Howell,.Olhman, Parmley, Tepesch, Valdez, Salty, Refsnyder, Rowley, Montero, Lopez, Latos etc etc
And what about the the things they didn’t do? I called for a #1 ace acqusition the last 2 years in a row becuase a true championship calibre club must have one and the Jays didn’t have one despite bloggers calling stroman and sanchez potential aces. Pffft.. I called for a #3 acquistion, and a better backup catcher than Maile. He’ll be back to .200 hitting before too long.
A club can only go so far on retreads like Axford, OH, Petrecka, Clippard and Macguire. They started off well but they are starting to slide quickly because of overuse.
Please no false hope RaRa. This team is built by many poor Atkins/Shaprio transactions. There are not enough Solarte calibre transactions to justify these two guys making ongoing player personnel decisions.
Lmao you’re seriously going to list every minor league signing plus deals where they traded bad players like Revere, Woodman and Mcbroom? Stop with the faux outrage, you could literally do this with any team. Stop pretending to be a fan
Jays fans should be outraged. They packed the house for a few years and this was the best they could do? No buildup after the 2016 run? Jays fans should be ticked off. Jimmer has a legitimate gripe.
jimmer that response was embarrassing. If you are focusing on minor league contracts, rule 5 picks and only the failed moves every team has a laundry list. I guess though trading for teoscar was stupid, getting solarte for peanuts was ridiculous.
And stop with your #1 stuff. many teams need a true #1, but 90 percent of the time you either have to develop those guys or develop prospects to trade eade for those guys.
they aren’t low hanging fruit you can just easily pluck off teams.
really so kluber, carrasco, Brantley, lindor, Ramirez? guess they left cleveland bare.
IKR they left the current Cleveland regime with a championship team. The only guys they didn’t leave them was Miller who they had to give up a ton for and encarnacion who they lucked into
What a load of baloney. The current Clevleand regime had to clean up Shapiro’s mess, like bourne and Swisher etc and expertly replace them.
SHapiro didn’t leave Clevleand with a champiionship team. Period. He left them with depth which the current regime turned into a potential championship calibre team.
The only meaningful players they brought in were Encarnacion and Miller. Encarnacion wasn’t apart of their World Series team. They left them a World Series contender. You’re an idiot if you disagree
jimmer named two players. they arguably drafted or traded for 3 of the best 4 players on that team.
two players. Well look at this ridiculous Yankees team with lind and headley and T. Frazier. Cashman should be shown the door.
They did some good, some bad, and were very lucky Justin Masterson said no to an extension (that’s more Shapiro and Antonetti).
Cleveland did fleece the Jays on a trade; Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles for Esmil Rogers. The messiah Alex Anthopoulos didn’t think Gomes could catch or be better than JP Arenicibia.
The same AA who signed vlad Jr?
The same AA who signed Hechavarria.
Sell, Sell, Sell!!!! Please!!! At best we are 3rd best team in division, so if all goes perfect, we get wild card game at Boston with no true #1.. Future looks bright so let’s dump everything now, get back couple young players / prospects and look toward 2020 when Vlad, Bichette and the others are ready for big leagues
Good lord people, and even Jays fans for that matter…There is more to deciding which level to keep a player at, rather than just it being A, AA, or AAA!!
Maybe the Jays want him to work with a specific coach, maybe they see the pitching he’s facing better at the AA level than the teams they face in AAA, maybe they prefer him to work more at their home complex in AA, maybe they want him and Bo to help each other and grow with one another…
There are countless reasons why he still may be at AA…It isn’t always so simple as, “he’s better than the competition he’s facing, so move him up.”
Relax people…Vlad Jr. will get his call up eventually..
Vlad needs to be in AAA within the next 30 days that’s clear but what would really benefit him is playing playoff ball again this year. Last year he won the A ball championship (although the final 25 teams were declared co-champs due to a hurricane i believe) the AA team is leading the division by more then just a couple games and the AAA team is playing really well and playing play off ball with AA or AAA is much better then being part of this losing team. As much as I wanna see Vlad what’s best for him and the team is not to call him up unless the jays r in the playoffs or within striking distance by July and only after playing 30+ games in AAA. If he is still killing it and the jays r within 4 or 5 games call him up if not a cup of coffee in September is just fine then send him back to AAA or AA which ever level is in the playoffs. Coming up thru the system playing for and winning championships is far and away better then playing 30+ games with a losing jays team with the players that matter being traded away and being part of a losing somber locker room
Vlad needs to be in AAA within the next 30 days that’s clear but what would really benefit him is playing playoff ball again this year. Last year he won the A ball championship (although the final 25 teams were declared co-champs due to a hurricane i believe) the AA team is leading the division by more then just a couple games and the AAA team is playing really well and playing play off ball with AA or AAA is much better then being part of this losing team. As much as I wanna see Vlad what’s best for him and the team is not to call him up unless the jays r in the playoffs or within striking distance by July and only after playing 30+ games in AAA. If he is still killing it and the jays r within 4 or 5 games call him up if not a cup of coffee in September is just fine then send him back to AAA or AA which ever level is in the playoffs. Coming up thru the system playing for and winning championships is far and away better then playing 30+ games with a losing jays team with the players that matter being traded away.
I wonder what JA Happ would cost to rent…
That will depend on what he does the next 6 weeks and who get’s injured on contending teams.
With regards to Roberto Osuna;, regardless of the final outcome of this assault charge, he will never plitch in another game for the Blue Jays.
For his sake, he should pray that another franchise will take on his baggage, for the obvious closing skills.
You seriously think teams would have to wrestle with his “baggage” to even give 2 seconds of thought to whether or not to sign an elite closer? That’s crazy. Should we just kick him out of baseball then?
Osuna will have another closer job somewhere in MLB the second he is able to pitch again. That kind of talent is coveted regardless of the character. As soon as hs pays the price for his mistakes, he will be back somewhere, likely not Toronto.
Call up Vladdy Jr; my fantasy team needs it.
If your fantasy success this year is based on vlad coming up, you need to look ahead to football season