The Blue Jays have at least checked in on right-hander Michael Pineda, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN (Twitter link). The precise level of interest isn’t known.
If the Blue Jays are indeed taking an aggressive stance on open-market arms, Pineda would be a good place to start. He’s not expected to secure anything like the big money destined for the very top options, so inking him shouldn’t be overly committing. At the same time, Pineda comes with a blend of recent durability, relative youth, and perhaps some remaining upside that would make good sense for the still-building Jays. That combination will also hold appeal to many other organizations.
We haven’t heard much in the way of early development in the Pineda market. Perhaps some teams will write him off due to his recent PED-related suspension. But it’s otherwise possible to imagine rather broad interest, so a dedicated early pursuit might help the Toronto organization pull off the sometimes-difficult task of luring the hurler north of the border. The Jays are surely still interested in adding multiple rotation pieces even after landing Chase Anderson, so the club is also involved in the markets of quite a few other established starters.
If Pineda had a good year for TOR it would cancel out Chase Andersons bad one.
I remember AA saying one of the biggest things he learned was the importance of getting a great player at a fair price over getting a fair player at a great price when trying to contend.
The current management seems to place priority on getting a fair player at a great price. This seems to be done in order to “buy time” for the pitching prospects. This approach seems to have worked to a certain extent for the positional player prospects. Yet, somehow, I don’t feel convinced of the approach..
Something is missing in the management style.
Did they ever even engage Stroman in extension talks? Like they had a quality SP. And traded him for nada.
I wouldn’t call Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson nada.
LOL NADA?? Anthony Kay has barely had a cup of coffee in the majors and woods-Richardson has a very high ceiling. There’s not a team in the majors that wouldn’t want this guy in their farm system. We won’t know who won this trade for at least 3-5 years, but judging by how stroman pitched post deadline, and given the fact that he only has 1 expensive Arb year of control remaining, I would say the jays are in good position to be the winners of this trade, barring a cy young 2020 performance by stroman.
Kay is a #4 in the rotation or a long reliever. Call him Pannone plus.
Wood-Richardson has a arm and he might make it to the majors someday. Likely a back end reliever.
It wasn’t a great trade. As usual the Jays got robbed. The [real] baseball community says the same thing. Look at the return for other pitching assets over the years that are similar to Stroman. You have to be able to get a near ready elite prospect and another very good one. Kay is not elite. The Jays weren’t close.
As I said , it will be 3-5 years before anyone will know who has won this trade. There wasn’t much of a market for Stroman. In order to receive a massive haul, there has to be a competitive market for the player. Nobody was willing to give up any blue chip or even top 100 prospects for stroman. Look at what the Yankees got for sonny gray , even Trevor Bauer didn’t bring back much of a haul. We will see what Kay and woods-Richardson will become, Kay kind of remind me of a young Brett Cecil and SWR reminds me of a young Marcus stroman.
Sure. Listen to Jimmertree, everything the Jays do is wrong, ever.
If only he was in charge….
I for one like the trade from the Jays perspective. Stro is going to be a 30 yr old UFA after this season, one in which the Jays are not going to compete. Kay and Richardson are the 6th and 5th best Jays prospects right now per Baseball Prospectus.
Puig, Logan Allen and Reyes is a good return for Bauer. Much better return than what the Jays received from the Mets. More important, Twins were willing to up their deal to get Stroman and weren’t happy Atkins didn’t come back to them after they made a previous offer. Atkins did not use his leverage (never has, mind you).
Puig was a rental with OPS+ of 95 prior to the deal , Allen had a 5.85 ERA in 18 starts in the minors in 2019 . Franmil Reyes had an OBP of .310 in 2019. Yea, massive haul that was. Kay made 26 starts in the minors to a 2.96 ERA in a juiced ball AAA league. SWR made 26 starts in the minors to a 3.80 ERA with 10.9 k/9.
But if it really is true that the twins wanted to offer more , then that was an idiotic move by them, to not at least inquire the twins before pulling the trigger with the Mets. I’ve been wanting the jays to target Graterol too.
vlad, we are in total agreement on that one. The twins had more to give, that has been acknowledged publically. they wanted Stroman.
And I have liked Graterol for years. I can’t understand why teams just keep passing this guy on.
It was a rookie move by Atkins.
Look, poo-poo the Bauer deal but for a rental in Puig, which was a much-needed move for Cleveland at that point, he performed at an OPS of 109+ with the Indians. Reyes is young. Allen is young. Plus the Indians were trading for both now and tomorrow. It was a really good deal and a calculated one.
Indians deal was a haul. How about Archer for Glasnow, Meadows and another? Those deals are out there. People wonder why I hammer Shapiro and Atkins.
I’m not criticizing the Indians Bauer deal at all. I’m just using it as an example. Stroman and Bauer had very similar values, and career numbers and club control remaining. Although Bauer obviously has a higher ceiling,
Lmao the pirates got absolutely fleeced on that one. You’re right about that. All I’m saying is, that everyone needs to give the stroman deal a bit more time before we can really call it a bad deal or not.
I hear you. I just don’t consider the Stroman deal to be very good. They will have lucked out if Woods-Richardson turns out to be fantastic.
Trust me, I haven’t been thrilled with the FO deadline deals or some of the signings. I will say however I think they are doing a good job drafting and developing, which is arguably the most important job hey have.. AA Made some amazing deals but couldn’t draft particularly well and also made a horrendous deal, of dishing Syndergaard and D’Arnaud for a 40year old knuckle ball pitcher. That deal still hurts and very well might have cost us a World Series IMO. The blue jays desperately needed an ace to anchor the staff in 2015 and 2016 playoff runs and Thor definitely could have played the part. Although would they even had made the playoffs without pulling the trigger on the Donaldson deal? Who knows
Yep. The development is still a work in-progress. People forget the hype some in the local (Rogers) media had for Ricciardi’s development when the best players he had in the system were Ash guys. AA had the JP leftovers and had an uphill climb. I agree completely with the AA assessment. He had a habit of drafting mostly pitchers and the odd catcher. His scouting director is still there (Tinnish). It’s too bad the Braves let him walk back to Toronto days after accepting Atlanta’s offer.
This is actually pretty smart. They don’t really have any decent veterans besides Chase Anderson and it’s very questionable if you can even call him an acceptable pitcher. The Blue Jays don’t really have much to lose, so might as well.
I’d prefer Pineda and Shoemaker over Wheeler considering the price it would cost the bring in the two arms rather than the one in Wheeler. And with Wheeler’s injury history. Better to be safe than sorry, and Pearson will be making his debut at some point next season. With guys like Kay and Borucki to me who definitely could be quality arms in a rotation moving forward. Blue Jays have options, spend the money wisely, and don’t over spend. And if they do, get it right.
I disagree. I understand the concerns about Wheeler, but getting Shoemaker makes little sense to me (although I read somewhere that based on the rules, the Jays can release him or something like that later in the process and pay a minimal amount),
Considering the lack of quality FA starters in the next couple of years, it looks like the Jays should get some good arms this off season, and accept the fact that they may “lose” 2020 because they won’t contend until 2021. That said, in the last few years we’ve seen a few teams stepping up ahead of their projections of rebuild due to adding the right pieces.
Hopefully the Jays FO will be aggressive as promised.
Kay is a #4 and Borucki if healthy and on can be a #2. Give Borucki at least another year to show it.
Yeah well I was hoping for more this year’s off season is extremely important. This will probably be the last full season before the strike. So as usual the cowards dumpster dive knowing they will very possibly lose a year of control on their young core
He should join the Astros. Hes gotten caught cheating multiple times with pine tar on his person…. then caught cheating with peds. Just seems like a natural fit.
Nah, the pine tar would make make it hard to bang on the trash can a second time.
Every team uses pine tar. I wouldn’t really consider it cheating.
You mean on bats? It’s definitely cheating for a pitcher to use it
No I’m pretty the guys on MLB network always talk about how it’s generally accepted that pitchers use it. They know that if you start making a fuss about opposing teams using it, they’ll just make a fuss right back since mostly every team has a couple guys on their staff who do. They just don’t want you to be obvious about it, like Pineda was.
Pineda was caught and ejected from that game, and I believe suspended. If it’s generally accepted he wouldn’t have been in-trouble for using said substance.
The front office could not wait to get rid of a domestic abuser. Multiple time cheater? Perfectly fine.
If the idea is to sign Pineda for a low rate to deal him in July, good luck. The deadline dealing by the front office has been unspectacular and questionable. May as well settle on Shoemaker and roll him, Anderson, Thornton, Borucki, Kay, Zeuch, Waguespack or anyone who’s healthy rather than dump a few million on a Pineda or when they contemplated Gibson.
So you don’t think assaulting a woman is that big of a deal compared to cheating in a game?
Not what I said. Domestic violence IS a big deal. Do not get it twisted. The rhetoric from the Jays organization (and ownership) would suggest a known cheater would not fit the “morality” Rogers attempts to portray. In fact having Pineda as an employee would be hypocritical.
I don’t think they’ve ever really displayed that. They brought in Cabrera, they brought up Pannone, I think they brought back Colabello for a cup of coffee.
I don’t think drawing a line somewhere between cheating and abusers would bend anyone’s morality, or at least not mine. But I also don’t think the team showed that simply by shipping Osuna out either.
Pineda got caught (with a diuretic that he said was for weight loss), was punished, and is entitled to start playing once he is done his sentence. Pretty standard stuff.
You and JD have missed the point and aren’t thinking beyond baseball here.
Rogers has a track record of showing social justice by showing people the door in many facets of their media division whether it was warranted or not. They also showed Osuna the door without his second chance and after his sentence (since you mentioned the PED sentence).
It would be hypocritical for Rogers to say yes to Pineda and no to Osuna and the other employees they kicked out – and those employees were booted without any substancial evidence of wrongdoing.
We don’t see the Jays going after Addison Russell, right? If you don’t think the Jays can use him, I think they could. Hard no on Pineda. Go get Ryu or Roark or stand pat.
I just think it’s alright to draw a line. Picking where that line is isn’t really hypocritical. I don’t think all punishments should have the same consequences when it comes to morality issues.
Is this aggressive stance of the Blue Jays mgmt just smoke for the Rogers Board or is it real? It’s real if they get elite and spend the money. Shapiro needs to back up what he said about playing at all levels of FA.
So far, the BlueJays could have had any of the free agents that they checked in on but they weren’t willing to spend the money. Period.
All the Jays have done so far is a trade for Chase Anderson, an okay starter that will likely get lit up in the dome. [If y0u don’t count the media blurbs saying how much they like to talk on the phone, in that case the Jays have done a lot.]
And free agents continue to drop off the board.
To the BlueJays credit, I am glad they backed off Wheeler, a club is going to get burned with that signing.
There are 2 parties in a signing. If a FA just doesn’t want to go to Toronto, the front office can’t be blamed – money may have absolutely nothing to do with the decision. The FA isn’t obligated to accept the highest offer. Some posts seem to confuse signings with auctions.
I disagree with an earlier post. There are FA pitchers coming in the next couple of years.
Finally, regarding the PED suspension. The substance discovered was a diet pill. Yes, these are used as masking agents. But there must have been compelling evidence the pill wasn’t actually being used in that way, as the suspension time was reduced after review. I think the Jays could do a lot worse than seriously consider him for a #3-4.
******Breaking News*******
Pineda signs with #Twins
#RossAtkins: I left a message on his voicemail.
******Breaking News******
Pineda to resign with the Twins. Guaranteed the minute a tweet from Heyman, Morosi, BNS, Davidi, Mitchell or Rosenthal comes out, the player isn’t signing with the Blue Jays.
Seems to be a pattern? Set it up like the Jays are “in” on a player so the Shappy & Ross show can say they made their “best efforts”?!?!
How is this offseason proving they are indeed taking an aggressive stance on open-market arms?
Yep. At this point I’d rather the Jays just get rid of an OF for Archer, and dangle Grichuk and Giles to the Mets for Familia and Smith in some package from both sides. Archer sucks, but he can suck for 1 year and not pick up the 2021 option. Familia finds it again and deal him in July.
Since the Jays and their owners do not care about winning they may as well make this offseason productive and prove to the fanbase they spent more money – albeit not on free agents or quality.