Let the Heavy Lifting Begin

So now that the offseason is upon us; Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro get to sit down and see what the plan is for the Toronto Blue Jays moving forward. One thing that they have determined is that John Gibbons is the man to lead this team next year. I personally like this idea a whole lot. He’s a good coach and although some of you may not agree with that assessment; he made it to the ALCS two years in a row. As I pointed out in this column here he’s got some good company there. The man he matches just won the World Series. The big difference between the two is one is seen as guru while our guy is seen as a Texas hick. What I’ve noticed is that guru seems to feel that he needs to over manage, which often puts his team in bad situations; while our guy tends “to stay out of the way and go with whats working.” Those are Gibbons actual words. Yes people feel he could bunt more or hit and run more but Gibby knows his team. Look at his end of the year press conference. He mentioned the need for better balance in the lineup so there aren’t as many right handed hitters and he wants more team speed. He managed a team that hit the long ball and did it very well. Did he sound like he was satisfied with it? Not really. Just looking at most of his post game reactions…his hands were basically tied 90% of the time hoping that the guys would hit like they did last year; which by now we know they never did. The left handed situation was rather bleak. At the start of the year Chris Colabello was suspended for PEDs, and Justin Smoak (albeit a switch hitter) never really got going. That left us with only Michael Saunders as a left handed bat. Don’t get me wrong; he was an All Star the first half of the season. Then the calendar turned over. And he couldn’t get any type of streak going. So yes; Gibbons is right. He needs better balance and more team speed so this team isn’t a station to station offensive team that relies solely on the big hit.

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What does this mean in the big picture? It all but guarantees that Jose Bautista won’t be back. For a guy that prides himself on how well he maintains his body; it sure has broken down a lot the last couple of years hasn’t it? That means that the brain trust with the Jays won’t risk a long term contract with him that will end up being a bad deal a lot sooner than later. This also means that Edwin Encarnacion probably won’t be back. Not because they don’t want him back but a guy that hit the way he did this year and played good enough defense is going to open up the bidding to a lot of teams.

This is the part that makes baseball hard. You get two players like this that are cast offs from other organizations and they blossom with the Jays. Fans get attached. It happens; and then they leave. Sometimes it’s because the team is rebuilding like when the Jays let Roy Halladay walk. Other times it’s a mutual parting of ways or the player retires and rides off into the sunset like what Tim Duncan let the San Antonio Spurs and other times it’s like Lebron James and The Announcement where the player totally rips the heart out of the entire fan base. Edwin wants to come back. He’s stated that on numerous occasions; but is he willing to walk away from millions and millions of extra dollars that will be thrown his way when the bidding gets underway? I mean we as fans can say what’s $15-20 million extra really mean? Well, for them it’s like winning the lottery a few times over. Sure, hometown discounts are nice but when a team comes in with an offer that blows every other offer out of the water; it shouldn’t be a tough decision if the fit is right.

Jose is a different beast. I’ve written about it. He’s always seemed like a bit of mercenary or hired gun even though he’s been on this team for almost 8 years. He’s very cold and shrewd and as a business person he comes across the same way. Sure the Jays offered him the qualifying offer at $17.2 million for one season but the Joey Bats we know is looking at that and laughing and thinking: “Thanks, but no thanks.” Sure some team will offer up a bunch of money to him. The question is what position are they going to ask him to pay and just how much is he worth? I’m going to say he’s going to get somewhere in the range of $18-23 million per year for 4 years. If a team comes out and pays more either average annual value or longer length; they’re crazy. That’s the best part of free agency: there is always one or two GMs sitting on a boat load of cash and when the market opens all hell breaks loose.

There's always that one guy....

So that was my rant about the two big bats that the middle of our lineup will be losing. It’s not the end of the world. It really isn’t. IF…yes that’s a big if…we can find some speed and left handed bats there are plenty of ways to spread the extra money around to make this team better overall. We don’t need to make a huge splash in free agency. The guys that run the team know that. We need complimentary pieces to go with Donaldson, Tulo, Travis, Martin in the field and then a relief pitcher or two to help the team out.

?We can also do this by trade. I’m going to float two names out there that I think are trade bait. It might sound crazy but I wouldn’t be completely shocked if Marcus Stroman and Kevin Pillar get traded this off season. Hear me out. Stroman has shown that he can throw 200 innings in a year and pitches great in big pressure situations. He’s young and under team control for the near future. That can bring back a ton of talent whether it be a few players that are close to the majors or a top end talent that is already starring in the majors if Stroman gets packaged with other players. The reason why I say Stroman could be made available is because pitching the Blue Jays deepest strength. Almost no team in the majors can boast the talent level in their rotation that Toronto has. So if trading a guy in order to solidify another part of the lineup is what it takes to get it done, so be it.

As for Pillar; so many people love this guy because his ability to defend in centre is near the top in the American League. Unfortunately, that seems like the only thing he can do as offensively he seems to have remained in neutral since becoming a full time player. He isn’t the fastest guy on the basepaths, but he’s smart. The problem is unless he reaches base bay hitting the ball, he doesn’t get on. His batting average was .266 this year and his on base percentage was only .303. That means in almost 550 plate appearances he walked 24 times. So that means he pretty much swings at everything he sees. There is always team out there that feels that if only they had that great defensive player in centre that would push them over the top. If the Jays can find that team I say make the trade and get a couple of good prospects back. Dalton Pompey can play centre and we can find out just what we have in him. I know this will make a bunch of people angry but that’s the thing about baseball; you can’t get too attached because those players can leave in a heart beat and they will go on to talk about how much they loved playing here and how great the fans are…basically the exact same things they will say if they leave that team to play on another.

Back to Gibby. He’s said what he wants and what this team needs. I really do believe Atkins and Shapiro are going to get him as much as they can on his shopping list. Here’s the thing; if they go out and get him what this team needs to win and the team starts slow or isn’t where management feels they should be; Gibby is gone. They’re going to give him as much of a chance to coach a better overall team than what he had the last couple of years and the team doesn’t look like it’s responding it’s very easy to drop the axe on a guy who wasn’t their hire.

No matter how you look at it, the offseason is a time of rumours and rumblings where pretty much every player will be discussed and linked to God knows how many teams and at the end of the day a bunch of analysts will say Team X clearly won this offseason. Then usually about half way through the season Team X will be struggling to win games and those same analysts will be saying: “This is why you play the games. You don’t win anything in the offseason.”

Didn't you just say the exact opposite thing like 2 months ago??

Sit back and enjoy the ride. The good news is only 3 months and 6 days until pitchers and catchers report.