Blue Jays closer Ken Giles appears to be making progress in his effort to work back from a forearm strain. He’s “recovering well” and “could be throwing soon,” GM Ross Atkins informed reporters including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter).
This sounds quite promising, though there are still some hurdles left to clear. Giles is due for an MRI and a checkup tomorrow. And he’ll still need to ramp back up without incident once he gets the green light.
The Toronto organization will surely hope for a fairly rapid return. If the team is to make a surprise run, which seems unlikely but can hardly be ruled out, it’d surely help to have the 2019 version of Giles at the back of the pen. Perhaps it’s still possible he could throw well enough to warrant a qualifying offer at season’s end, though that would represent a fairly spendy bet on a player who has had a few injury questions of late.
The more intriguing possibility, of course, is that Giles could get back in the saddle in time to be traded. It’d be a rather tight timeline, and would surely require some faith on behalf of a potential trade partner, but a swap is still possible.
Seems a stretch to think a Qualifying Offer would be made. Could we see comparisons to the “Donaldson Deadline” mess as a result?
I’m doubtful he’ll be offered an ~$18MM qualifying offer. This whole qualifying offer thing is really skewered against relievers. There are only 2 relievers (Mark Melacon & Kenley Jansen) in the entire MLB making that much (before being prorated due to shortened season) this year. As much as I like Giles, I don’t think he’s worth more than #3 on the list Aroldis Chapman at $17.2MM (before being prorated).
Your logic is sound but relievers have been given qualifying offers regardless, and they usually sign contracts with AAV much lower than the QO. The most recent example is Will Smith, who passed up one year at $17.8 million to sign for three years at $13 million each.
Six relievers have been given QO and none accepted. So the actual calculus for this is not straight forward.
If he’s not healthy he’s probably not receiving a QO. You said it yourself that Giles isn’t getting an extension if he’s hurt. Your second comment contradicts your first comment. Again, I ask, do you think before you type?
Agreed
If Giles had a clean health record and this wasn’t 2020, I’d give him the QO. The prorated values aren’t a fair comparison because there’s drastically more risk on multi-year contracts.
But this offseason, teams have to make a QO before they’ll know if fans will be allowed in stadiums in 2021 — or if the season will start on time at all. One year contracts are bound to be lower for a season with potentially reduced revenue.
All figures I had quotes are not prorated. QO is approximately $18MM non-prorated. Only Mark Melacon & Kenley Jansen would have been paid that much even with a normal full season. Both are actually getting paid much less this year due to shortened season and prorated salary.
Trade him for as much as you can at the end of the month, and then re-sign him in the offseason if he’s healthy.
Odds are a sub-.500 team will make the playoffs this year. Ken Giles is worth more for a postseason run than what anyone will trade for a month of him. (Which will surely be less than what the Indians gave for a month of Donaldson, which was an old injured former semi-prospect who’d have ended up on waivers anyway.)
Just as long as that forearm strain wasn’t from punching himself in the face when he wasn’t able to get anybody out? Why not punch yourself in the face instead of punching others? At least he had class. He might be worth taking a flier on, especially before free agency.
Giles is elite when healthy. I would love to see him signed by the Jays to an extension. But alas, that doesn’t seem to be Shapiro’s MO. So he’ll be traded if healthy.
More Anthony bass closing. Groan. There is a reason Bass was let go by many clubs.
Giles keeps having elbow issues. Not a great candidate for an extension.
Unless your #psychiceyes see something mere mortals cannot?
I think we get more of the same with Giles. A two year low priced extension would work for me.
Why extend him when you could trade him and just try to bring him back Aroldis style?
Giles for 2years and $20-24 million range would be worth keeping in the mix in my books.
Some team would likely give 3 years.
I’d guess he’d at least want to find out for himself.
It is rare for a guy to be traded and then return to the team that traded him. Very rare. Given the injury status they might be better off holding him and QO’ing him. Deadline is 3 weeks away and he’d have to really heal up and ramp up to hold any value in a deal.
So you’re sayin’ there’s a chance?
There’s a chance Giles doesn’t return to the mound until after the trade deadline.
Because history teaches us that no matter how much a player professes to love a team and city, it’s the very rare exception that would resign with the pre-trade old team, and as much highly unlikely to happen.
Three weeks until trade deadline.
Bass just needs to not turn into a pumpkin before that time.
Worked with the unwanted but redeemed himself Daniel Hudson. Why not Bass?
Would be nice if the Jays could reel off a winning stretch, but if Giles returns, the excess depth seems to be in the bullpen. Would be great to add some stronger bats to the mix.
Relief gets moved every deadline.
Relief is also very volatile.
Elite arms like Diaz aren’t helping the Mets too much.
Hand and Yates haven’t been very elite and at risk of moving back to setup roles.
I’d try to trade Giles and Bass for upgrades on offense.
Try to bring them both back as free agents but likely fail.
Excess of young arms to call from, much like the Rays, A’s and Indians seem to keep doing.
What if Romano is a legitimate back end guy? What if Borucki is a cheaper version of a Pomeranz? The arms that don’t make it in the rotation could be the bullpen answers of the future.
I think Romano is the real deal but not a closer. He’s a setup guy.
Borucki can be a great reliever but I think everyone in BlueJays baseball world wants him in the rotation and so do I. Unfortuantely in this past offseason he lost 15 lbs of muscle and he says it makes him better but for a rotation guy it will make him and two turns starter instead of a 3 turns starter.
Borucki needs to bulk up to get back in the rotation.
Bass is worth nothing on the open market. A healthy Giles can fetch a very good prospect if shopped properly and there is no guarantee of that by Atkins.
Bass has been putting up 0’s and could fetch slightly more than nothing at the deadline if he can maintain a couple more weeks of current production.
Phelps fetched Hatch last year.
Hudson for a wild card Johnston. Most likely to become nothing, but hope still exists.
Sogard for 2 wild cards Taylor and Gonzalez. Same story.
As hope likely burns out on Merryweather, and reality tells us that all these wild cards will become nothings.
But sometimes an Espinal develops or some other fringe guy develops and the hope returns.
Borucki being shut down in S.T.1.0 makes me wonder about his future path as a starter.
Looking at the game develop over recent years where names like Miller, Hader, Pomeranz are absolute game changers makes me very excited and intrigued to see what becomes of Borucki as a late inning reliever.
He definitely seems to have the poise.
Joy to watch.
Bass sucks. Let tonight’s BlueJay blown save be a good illustration.
That was frustrating to watch.
Bet you are excited for when the dictionary people add your picture beside the definition for overreaction.
WHIP still under 1, so I can only hope the Jays get some more sucks relievers.
Feels like Bass still gets the next save chance, unless it’s tomorrow, cause he threw too many pitches tonight.
If he can remain in the mix with Romano and Dolis for late innings for another 2 weeks, I still feel like he’ll be one or two pegs above nothing in the trade value Beckett book.
Relievers around the league suck.
Rangers were using Jesse Chavez at closer briefly.
Nationals bullpen is sorta crumbling so far this year.
Volatility is the name of the bullpen game.
Whichever arms are heating up by late August will be the ones used in these playoff races, previous season results meaning nothing by that point in time.
Bass has walked the tightrope all season. Tonight it caught up to him. I don’t think any sane Blue Jays fan could overlook that. Parksy and Jimmertree are correct, although I wouldn’t completely write off Bass. He’s just not closer material.
Montoyo tried to lose the game. Again. Expanded rosters with a ton of arms. He stuck with Bass. Too much confidence in firestarter Bass.
Montoyo has got to go eventually.
Again, I ask, and again, expect that you will wiggle around answering…. what makes you think that Montoyo is making decisions? He is so obviously a puppet for upper management.
He is a babysitter. He will certainly go at some point.
Until then, I will also ask again, where are the better manager options coming from?
Yankees got career minor league bat hitting above Gary Sanchez. Oh dear. They should fire their manager.
Rays let Ji-Man bat leadoff sometimes and cleanup sometimes. Don’t they know anything. They should fire their manager.
Makes me wonder if the BlueJays are tanking??
The sad part of that comment is that another top 5 pick is probably the best way to build the talent level within the organization.
And the sad part of reality is that the Orioles and Tigers might not be tanking after all.
Pirates look bad as expected.
Mariners and Giants pretty close to expectations.
But Jays are closer to competing for another top 5 pick than they are to a playoff spot.
Will Red Sox, Angels, Phillies wake up?
Can Orioles or Tigers continue to compete?
Still way early but the sprint schedule makes this rather worrisome to think about.
Remember how good the Mariners started in 2019?
More thoughts on tanking.
The bats woke up on Wednesday. Stayed awake tonight.
If the young stars can have consistent strong at bats, it becomes very impossible to tank.
Same with some of the pitching results.
Wednesday could’ve been a win with stronger pitching.
Bringing in Font in a close game still scaring me, but it worked the last couple times.
Romano closing over Bass tonight if it came to it. True committee forming perhaps.
If Bichette starts getting rested regularly, or Borucki and Romano stop getting used in close games, then I might believe a tank mandate is secretly in order, but until then I will enjoy the ups and downs of a mostly sophomore team.