Roster moves R Us.
Addison Barger was added to the Jays’ 40-man in November 2022 to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. He’s 26 and, in two seasons, he’s played 204 games for the Blue Jays, with a .229/.286/.422 line and 28 home runs. In 2025, he split time between third and right field, playing 91 games at […]
This would have been big news a few years ago. Eloy Jiménez was a top prospect, #3 on the Baseball America in 2019 and #4 in 2018. He’s a 29-year-old, right-handed hitting outfielder. He plays the corner outfield spot, with no time in center field in the minors. He made it to the majors in […]
Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Alex Bregman signed a 5-year, $175 million contract with the Cubs. Apparently, $70 million of it is deferred. Bergman will be 32 this coming season. The deferral makes the value somewhat less than $175 million but he won’t be having to buy value meals at McDonald’s any time soon. I’m […]
Not much for Jays’ news today. Eric Lauer (all Erics should come together and pick one spelling for their name) and the Jays filed their numbers with the arbitrator. Lauer is asking for $5.75 million the team is at $4.4 million. I’m generally on the player’s side in these things, but I can’t see why […]
Former Blue Jays center fielder Otis Nixon turns 67 today. Nixon had a 17-year MLB career. He spent two of those years (well, just short of two years) with the Jays. With the Jays, he hit .275/.362/.317 (it is hard to imagine an outfielder with a Slugging Average that low) with 2 home runs and […]
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Blue Jays fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys. SB Nation ran a poll asking if the Jays would sign either Bo Bichette or […]
The Jays made deals with three of the four arbitration eligible players: Eric Lauer looks to be heading to arbitration, unless they make a last-minute deal, but most teams don’t negotiate after exchanging arbitration numbers. Lauer filed for $5.75 million with the team going with $4.4 million. I have no opinion on which number is […]
There isn’t all that much to talk about today. We’ve had a fair bit on the Okamoto signing, and I’m out of the house for most of today, so let’s ask a question: How did you become a Blue Jay fan? I’m always curious about how people come to baseball as their sport to watch, […]
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Blue Jays fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys. The question, this week, is whether the Jays are finished spending or not. And more […]
Edwin Encarnacion turns 43 today. When we traded Scott Rolen to the Reds for Josh Roenicke, Zach Stewart and Edwin, no one would have guessed that Edwin would be the last one standing. But, of course, Edwin did spend three weeks as an Oakland A in the winter of 2010. The fans didn’t exactly love […]
Happy Tuesday. I played badminton this morning. I’m trying out the game because I don’t think I’m going to be playing squash for many more years. It is hard on the joints. But the problem, for me, is that Badminton isn’t much of a workout. I played for an hour and a half, taking about […]
Mason Fluharty (why do I always want to spell his name with a d in the t spot?) was a fifth round draft pick, in the 2022 draft, by the Blue Jays. There are only five players picked in that round who have made it to the majors, so far. He made it onto our […]
Former Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia turns 40today. Arencibia was a first-round draft pick by the Jays in the 2004 draft, number 21 overall. He quickly became our top prospect and hit #43 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list before the 2009 season. Then, he came up to the Jays and played his first […]
Ted Lilly turns 50 today. Ted had a 15-year career, 3 of them with the Blue Jays. He came to the Jays in trade for Bobby Kielty from the A’s. Lilly went 37-34 as a Jay, with a 4.52 ERA in 89 games and a bWAR of 6.0. I think we won the trade. In […]
I don’t think there will be any more news about the Kazuma Okamoto deal today, as much as I’d like to hear from the Jays about how they intend to use him. It makes it clear we aren’t going after Alex Bergman (or if we did, I have no idea where we would play everyone. […]
I expected Okamoto to get more money. $15 million a year seems pretty team-friendly. We’ll put up a poll a little later, but figured he’d be getting $20 million per, but Ben Clemens thought he’d get 4 years at $18 million, so we got the under. Clemens said: Okamoto isn’t the same kind of shooting […]
I wasn’t expecting this, since Kazuma Okamoto seems to profile best at first base. But he will be able to play third (maybe not at Ernie Clement’s level on defense) for at least the next couple of years. In Japan he was a three true outcome hitter. Lots of homers and strikeouts and a good […]
The Jays signed Jeff Hoffman to a three-year, $33 million contract, before the 2025 season, after deciding not to sign Jordan Romano. Romano ended up with the Phillies, Hoffman’s former team, and had 8 saves and an 8.23 ERA in 49 games. It turned out the Jays were right not to sign him. Hoffman had […]
David Cone turns 63 today. Cone had two short stints with the Blue Jays. The Jays traded for him in 1992 at the end of August. We were in first place, 2.5 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. We were doing alright except for the 5th starter spot. Dave Stieb had the role, but his […]
Unsurprisingly, there is little Jays’ news today. The team signed Josh Winchowski to a two-year minor league contract. Winchowski is recovering from ‘internal brace surgery’. He’ll likely be able to pitch towards the end of this season, but then he should be good to go the second year. He’s a right-handed, 27-year-old pitcher who has […]
We’ve been doing this for the last few years, your mission is to tell us: What was the best thing that happened to you this year? What was the best part of this past baseball season for you? For me, best thing that happen? We had a fantastic holiday in Africa. We did safaris for […]
The Jays signed RHP Nic Enright to a two-year minor league contract. Generally minor league contracts are one-year but Enright will be rehabbing from Tommy John surgery most of the coming season. Enright turns 29 on January 8th. He’s thrown 31 MLB innings with a 2.03 ERA for the Guardians, all last season. He was […]
Oh, this won’t be fun. The Jays picked up Brendon Little in November 2023, in a trade for cash. Little was a first round draft pick in 2023. He pitched in 49 games in 2024 with a 3.74 ERA, 0.1 bWAR with 1 save, 7 holds and 3 blown saves. Not bad for a guy […]
Sorry, there was nothing posted yesterday. We hit the day between Christmas and New Year’s when friends and I had finished family time and had a friend’s time, which was very nice. And I tasted what I was told was Turkish whiskey, but as it was home-made (brought to Canada in a plastic Coke bottle), […]
We had our Christmas yesterday. We had Christmas dinner at a Brazilian barbecue place, eating roughly a month’s supply of meat in an evening. It was very good. And then came home and did the gifts. I now have a couple more bottles of whiskey (including a nice bottle of bourbon from the Cooperstown Distillery. […]