Roster moves R Us.
Francisco Rodriguez is next on the list. He is number six all-time in saves (Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel passed him recently) and had a terrific career. The three guys ahead of him in saves are all in the Hall. So maybe he should be there, too? Rodriguez has a 16-year MLB career. He played […]
The Jays have made their big move on the relief market, signing Tyler Rogers to a three year, $37m deal with a $11m vesting option for 2029. It’s the largest reliever contract the current front office has handed out. Rogers, who turns 35 on Wednesday, is atypical for a shutdown reliever. He’s a true submariner, […]
The Blue Jays have traded minor league left hander Johan Simon to the Detroit Tigers for righty reliever Chase Lee. The move clears a spot on Detroit’s 40 man roster for newly signed closer Kyle Finnegan. For the Jays, Lee takes the final spot on the roster. He has two options left, so his role […]
Davis Schneider was called up in early August 2023 and started amazing, going 9 for 13 with 2 home runs in his first three games. After that, he was up and down from there. 2024 did not go well, he hit .191/.282/.343. I doubted that he would make the team in 2025. But then he […]
Álex Rodríguez is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the fifth time. Last year, he was on 37.1% of the ballots (his high mark in the first four times). He’s been in the mid-30s each time. He doesn’t seem to be gaining much traction. By the numbers, he is easily a Hall of Famer. […]
Not a surprise, after the Jays came within a couple of inches of winning the World Series, but the Jays (or I guess Rogers signed) signed Mark Shapiro for five more years, which would have him in the job for 15 years. Mark has overseen improvements to Rogers Centre and the Jays’ Spring Training facilities. […]
Next up would be Rick Porcello. Porcello was a first-round draft pick in 2007 (the Jays got JP Arencibia that round). He had a nice 12-year career, going 150-125 with a 4.40 ERA in 355 games, 351 starts, with an 18.8 bWAR. He won one Cy Young and was third in Rookie of the Year […]
The Jays got through the MLB section of the Rule 5 draft without losing a prospect, and actually added a player. Yohendrick Pinango, who posted video game numbers in AA and has very strong underlying contact and exit velocity data, and Yondrei Rojas, a reliever with big stuff and strong results in A+ and AA, […]
As a Jays fan, I’ve always been cognizant of the fact that my fandom comes with a certain myopia. As a kid, what I knew of other teams outside of the American League was limited to what was pulled from baseball card and sticker packs (one year, every pack seemed to have a Ryne Sandberg […]
Hunter Pence would be next on the list, but I don’t think many people, who aren’t related to him, would vote for him to make the Hall of Fame. He played for 14 seasons, had a 30.9 bWAR. Hit .279/.334/.461 with 244 home runs and 120 steals. He got MVP votes four times, finishing as […]
After much throat clearing, it’s time for me to actually lay out my main move for the off season. Initially I’d also expected to have to debate starting pitching options, but Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce solve that problem. As it is, I can just focus on one main decision: Bo Bichette vs. Cody Bellinger. […]
There were little bits of baseball news today. I was sad to see that the Dodgers signed Edwin Diaz. He’s getting 3 years at $23 million a year. I’d imagine that the Jays would have matched that, but who knows. I’d guess that the Dodgers are a a draw for any player. So we turn […]
I’m going to skip a few, because I doubt anyone would consider them Hall of Famers. Matt Kemp had a nice 15-year career. He hit .284/.337/.484 with 287 home runs, 184 stolen bases and a 21.6 bWAR. He had one great season, an 8.0 bWAR. He hit .324/.399/.586 with 39 home runs and 126 RBI […]
There were little bits of Jays news yesterday:
This is part three of a series I started the week before last. Part 1 surveyed the current Jays roster, while Part 2 looked at the team’s financial situation and prospect capital. Since I wrote, they’ve signed Cody Ponce to add depth to the rotation and outrighted Yariel Rodriguez off the 40-man roster. I’d hoped […]
The Jays picked up Myles Straw in trade from the Guardians, along with some international bonus pool money. At the time, we thought we were getting Roki Sasaki, and the bonus money would go to him. It didn’t happen. We were to send Cleveland a ‘player to be named’. I don’t know if that player […]
We have four former Blue Jays having birthdays today. Josh Donaldson turns 40 today. We picked up Josh in trade from the A’s for what turned out to be a handful of magic beans. In his four seasons with the Jays, he hit .281/.383/.548 with 116 home runs in 462 games. He won an AL […]
The only player on the Contemporary Baseball Era Player Ballot to be elected to the Hall was Jeff Kent. He’s the second-to-last guy I would have picked. I would rank him above Clements on my list. Well, likely Mattingly too. But any of the other five would have seemed better picks to me. The Committee […]
Bluebird Banter is 20 years old today. I remember when the site was an awkward teenager. Or maybe I was an awkward teenager? It started just a few days after the Blue Jays traded for Lyle Overbay (for David Bush, Gabe Gross and Zach Jackson). The trade got a very favourable review. The first post […]
Occasionally, the Jays make a move that I don’t understand They placed Yariel Rodriguez on waivers. He wasn’t claimed, but he’s no longer on the 40-man.. They still owe him $5 million this coming year. $6 million in 2027 and has a $6 million player option for 2028, which would become a $10 million team […]
The Winter Meetings start today. Which means we should get some rumours and news to talk about. Right now? Well, we know Dylan Cease’s jersey number will be 84, the first 84 in Jays history. And we know that Kyle Tucker visited the Jays’ spring training facilities. Yes, so did Ohtani. Hopefully, the Jays didn’t […]
If you are my age, I don’t need to tell you much about Fernando Valenzuela. He was bigger than life, bigger than baseball for a few years there. They called it Fernandomania. He came up in 1980 at 19 and pitched 17.2 scoreless innings over 10 games, earning two wins and a save. In the […]
Next up on the contemporary Baseball Era ballot is Gary Sheffield. Sheffield spent 10 years on the Writers’ ballot. He got 11.7% of the vote in his first try and made it to 63.9% on his last try. Looking at his stats, Sheffield was a better player than I thought he was back in the […]
Dale Murphy is another who looked like a sure Hall of Fame choice, in the middle of his career, but his numbers fell off a cliff soon after he turned 30. He played 18 seasons, most of them with the Braves, then three with the Phillies and one with the Rockies. He came up as […]
Donny Baseball is an interesting case: his career lasted only 14 seasons. At his peak, he was great, one of the very best players in baseball for a few seasons, but back problems brought his stats down, so he doesn’t have the counting starts that get you into the Hall. I’m guessing that his time […]