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[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread


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22 minutes ago, Gurn said:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/mlb/the-blue-jays-have-a-full-40-man-roster-so-something-s-gotta-budge-before-the-chris-bassitt-addition-is-made-official/ar-AA15k1iz?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=ab25de696d3e432eae2443c7b0010ae0

The Toronto Blue Jays made the signing of Kevin Kiermaier to a one-year, $8 million contract official on Thursday morning…

 

With the addition of Kiermaier, the Blue Jays now have a full 40-man roster. So that means that they’ll need to remove somebody before officially signing starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, who agreed to a three-year, $63 million deal earlier in the week.

The most simple path forward would simply be designating a fringe roster player for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man. Some of the names who stand out here are Thomas Hatch and Anthony Kay, a pair of pitchers in their mid-20s acquired through trades during the team’s rebuilding years who haven’t been able to establish themselves as effective big-league arms.

But we could also see the Blue Jays make a roster-clearing trade, such as they did back in January of 2021. Shortly after adding George Springer, Marcus Semien, Kirby Yates, and Tyler Chatwood in free agency, the Blue Jays dealt two fringe roster arms, Sean Reid-Foley and Yennsy Diaz, along with prospect Josh Winckowski to the New York Mets for Steven Matz.

 

The Mets might actually wind up being the trade partner again for the Blue Jays in a roster-clearing move. They’re at 39 players right now and there’s talk that they’re looking to move starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco.

Maybe we’ll see another version of the Matz deal, with two 40-man names and a prospect going to New York and Carrasco, a name that Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins know from their Cleveland days, coming back to Toronto.

Carrasco can't be worse than Kikuchi and White.

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1 hour ago, StanleyCupOneDay said:

Oh also has there been anything new on Kikuchi since the end of the season? Is he still a starter and on the team? He kind of just imploded after he got his first big league contract.

Not that I know of. The way I look at it, if the Jays had signed Kikuchi this offseason to a deal equal to what remains on his (which I think is 2 years and $20 million) we'd probably call it a reasonable deal after seeing all the money spent on pitching so far this offseason. Syndergaard just got like $10 or 11 million for one year with the Dodgers and he's just a shadow of his former self.

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Anthony Kay gets designated, to make room for Bassitt:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/mlb/blue-jays-designate-former-first-round-pick-for-assignment/ar-AA15n9IZ?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=33bfadf198994925b2a9a2f6e140259f

The Blue Jays officially announced their signing of right-hander Chris Bassitt. To make room on the 40-man roster, left-hander Anthony Kay has been designated for assignment.

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Article on how the new Jays will fit, how and where they hit to and where they allow hits to.:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/mlb/how-blue-jays-newcomers-will-impact-rest-of-23-roster/ar-AA15zsXX?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=93dbc99612784e23bc1db42f345db968

"

In the context of team sports, there’s no doubt baseball is on the individualistic side.

But just because the game plays out as a series of one-on-one battles it doesn’t mean that team building ignores how players on the same team affect each other’s contributions.

If you acquire an extreme groundball pitcher you need to give consideration to the state of your infield. If you have a surplus of left-handed bats, adding a few well-placed right-handers could help them produce more by scaring opposing managers off of certain pitching moves...................

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Moreno and Gurriel may have been traded:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/mlb/blue-jays-reportedly-trade-gabriel-moreno-lourdes-gurriel-jr-to-diamondbacks-for-daulton-varsho/ar-AA15CaKT?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=c3a22723c850461c89da806b59d00151

 

"The Toronto Blue Jays made a major splash before Christmas, reportedly acquiring outfielder Daulton Varsho from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for top catching prospect Gabriel Moreno and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

 

 

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This checks off a lot of boxes for the Jays - left handed bat, elite defensive center fielder with four more years of team control. Sucks to lose Moreno but the Jays should be pretty secure at catcher with Kirk and Jansen. As much as I like Lourdes Gurriel Jr. the person, he's honestly a very replaceable baseball player.

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12 hours ago, shiznak said:

He strikeout a lot and walks very little…..….fits the team’s M.O.

Absolutely elite outfielder in one of the toughest parks to play defence. The shift being gone should help his offensive numbers a bit. His BABIP is good and he plays a very, very good outfield. A 5 WAR while slashing roughly .230/.300/.400 or something like that just tells you how dam good he is defensively. 

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On 12/24/2022 at 2:33 AM, Sean Monahan said:

Absolutely elite outfielder in one of the toughest parks to play defence. The shift being gone should help his offensive numbers a bit. His BABIP is good and he plays a very, very good outfield. A 5 WAR while slashing roughly .230/.300/.400 or something like that just tells you how dam good he is defensively. 

For reference, I believe LGJ was about a 2 WAR

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Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Seiya Suzuki on Japan's WBC roster
 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35390710/shohei-ohtani-yu-darvish-seiya-suzuki-japan-wbc-roster

 

The World Baseball Classic will be played in Japan, Taiwan and the United States from March 8-21. It features 20 national teams, and the powers from Asia will be Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia.

Latin America will feature the largest contingent with Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama and Nicaragua.

 

The United States and Canada are also entered.

"I remember watching the games with my heart pounding," Ohtani said at a news conference in Tokyo. "Now I get to play. And so I really want to play well. I'm focused on winning."

Japan's manager will be Hideki Kuriyama, who said the complete team list would be announced later.

"We will build a game centered around pitching," Kuriyama said.

This is the fifth time the event has been held. Japan has won it twice, with single championships for the Dominican Republic and the Untied States.


 

 

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I remember in 2008 we almost beat the powerhouse States in the first game, in Toronto. We probably would’ve made it out of the round robin that year if we had any sort of pitching.
 

Harden, Dempster, Bedard, and Gagne all opted not to play in the tournament.

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Jays sign Brandon Belt to a 1 yr deal....

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-sign-1b-brandon-belt-to-one-year-9-3m-deal/

 

TBH, I'm having a bit of a tough time wrapping my head around this one...The Jays are pretty much set at 1B....I suppose BB could be insurance against injury and can be the guy when Vladdy is at DH, or needs a day off....and he adds another lefty to the batting order....but...

 

9 million per seems like a lot of money for a 34 year-old who hit .213 last season and was limited to 78 games because of injuries...

 

Belt walks a lot, which is something that the lineup doesn't have in abundance, but again, that seems like a lot of money...

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