The Blue Jays have been surprisingly quiet in free company up to now. Toronto has been tied to basically each participant of notice, however their solely signing was a two-year deal for center reliever Yimi García. The Jays have pulled off one main commerce acquisition, taking up the ultimate 5 years and practically $100MM on the Andrés Giménez contract from the Guardians.
Based mostly on the dearth of free agent exercise, the Jays appear to be one of many likeliest groups to land one of many few remaining stars on the open market. Nevertheless, a report from Shi Davidi of Sportsnet casts some doubt on that risk. Davidi writes that the Jays “are believed to be on the periphery” of the markets for Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso. Toronto has reportedly made a proposal to Anthony Santander, but Davidi signifies that the Jays don’t seem like the present favourite to land the previous Orioles slugger.
Bregman, Alonso and Santander are the remaining unsigned star-caliber hitters. Jurickson Profar and Ha-Seong Kim are viable regulars however clearly beneath the previous trio by way of offensive impression and incomes potential. Giménez stabilizes second base however isn’t an enormous risk on the plate. If the Jays come up empty on every of Bregman, Santander and Alonso, they’d be left with commerce potentialities to spark a middling offense. Davidi writes that Toronto is actively exploring the commerce market however doesn’t determine any particular targets for the staff.
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The Jays have been linked to Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried earlier than they inked vital offers earlier within the winter. They misplaced the bidding to the Mets on Soto. Burnes signed with the Diamondbacks, no less than partially due to geographic ties to Arizona. Davidi writes that the Jays have been merely not snug with the eventual eight-year, $218MM deal that Fried secured from the Yankees. He signifies that Toronto by no means made a proposal as soon as they realized that the bidding was nicely past the place they have been keen to go.
Toronto narrowly dipped beneath the luxurious tax threshold late final season. They’ve round $228MM in luxurious tax commitments for this 12 months, in keeping with RosterResource. That places them $13MM shy of the $241MM base threshold. Any form of free agent splash would push them into tax territory. Davidi signifies that whereas the Jays aren’t against going into CBT vary, they might resolve to maintain their tax quantity beneath $241MM in the event that they don’t land any marquee targets.
An unsure path for the group has hung over the offseason. Toronto has resisted a rebuild, however they’ve solely made a couple of additions to a staff that went 74-88. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are one season from free company. There has by no means been a lot of a sign that they’ll prolong Bichette. They’ve made an effort to maintain Guerrero however appear far aside with the star first baseman.
Guerrero mentioned final month that the staff had supplied him round $340MM. The four-time All-Star mentioned that wasn’t near his asking worth and indicated that he’d finish extension talks if there’s no deal in place by the start of Spring Coaching. Bob Nightengale of USA Right now reported this week that Guerrero was on the lookout for a deal of no less than $450MM. Evidently, that’s a giant hole to bridge. That’d be notably true if Guerrero holds agency to the Spring Coaching cutoff, although it’s not unusual for gamers to proceed negotiations previous self-imposed deadlines in the event that they really feel progress is being made.
Davidi writes that the $340MM supply which the Jays made is believed to have predated Soto’s eye-popping $765MM contract. That will merely be an outlier, but it surely’s pure that Guerrero — arguably the highest free agent in subsequent 12 months’s class — would goal excessive after Soto shattered all contractual precedents. Guerrero is about for what’ll be the very best wage for any arbitration-eligible participant this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz initiatives him at $29.6MM. Groups and gamers will trade submitting figures tomorrow afternoon. That would spur the Jays and Guerrero to work on a one-year settlement to keep away from going to a listening to. That will not stop them from persevering with discussions on a long-term deal at a later date.
