The Blue Jays Are About To Go CRAZY For Pitching This Offseason…

The Blue Jays Are About To Go CRAZY For Pitching This Offseason…

[Music] Hello everybody and welcome back to Blue Jays today where your boys always got something to say about the Toronto Blue Jays coming to you from the sports interaction studio. I’m your host Adam Pedal and I’m your host Nicholas Blllog. And in this one folks, we’re going to be talking with the latest rumblings regarding the Toronto Blue Jays free agency plans. And my goodness gracious, if you are the rest of the MLB and you’re listening in on what it sounds like the Toronto Blue Jays are thinking of doing this off season, yeah, I’d be a little worried because they are about to get mega aggressive. Folks, if you’re enjoying this content and you like keeping up with all of the Toronto Blue Jays free agency rumors and news, hit that like, smash that subscribe button, please. Let’s immediately flash over to the word that they are using to describe this Toronto Blue Jays. I guess the the the way that they’re entering this free agency, it’s hungry. They are hungry for the big names, man. I like it. Hey, look, you were this close to the World Series. Imagine you’re very hungry and someone just gave a big Thanksgiving dinner right in front of you like, “Hey, here you go.” Nope. Gone. I’m starving now. Now my hunger is amplified. And that’s how the Blue Jays are operating right now. according to Ben Nichols Smith and Shai Devidi who are hearing from some GMs at the GM meetings that are happening this past week and understandably so. Now being hungry, you also got to be smart, right? You got to know where your hunger is. What kind of food am I buying into? Well, also Ben Nicholson Smith and Shai Deviti kind of talked about this idea. Well, getting some big position players are nice and Bob Bashett is absolutely one of them. We talked about Kyle Tucker being another one. Absolutely would be awesome and if you can get those guys, you’ll get those guys. But the main priority needs to be in that pitching depth because we don’t have a hell of a lot of it. And when you are thinking about the Blue Jays rotation right now, there’s a lot of turnover that’s about to happen in that rotation. Sure. I mean, there’s no Chris Basset right now under contract. Uh there’s the potential that Jose Burios decides to to take an option and leave. I I doubt that that’s going to happen, but uh you know, no Max Shurer either, right? We were lucky enough to get Shane Bieber back on that one-year deal, which is awesome. That certainly helps fill things out a bit more, but ultimately like, let’s call a spade a spade. When you’re looking over at that starting pitcher rotation right now, I do think that there are just a couple question marks right there. Of course, we’re feeling really good about Trey Savage, but we’ve never seen him play an entire season of MLB baseball. So, yes, the small sample size was awesome. Can he do it over 162? Jose Bereos, should he decide to come back, which again I think he will, but that guy did not look to be his best this past year. Eric Lowour, I I mean I I love Eric Lowour, but at any given moment, if the falloff happened there, I could believe it. And then, hey, even Kevin Gosman’s getting up there in age. Getting another top end starter is and should be a priority for these Toronto Blue Jays. Also too, thinking about the fact that this is Kevin Gosman’s last year and you want to be able, you don’t want to be walking in the next off season, it’s like, “Oh who’s in our rotation right now?” You’d like to start dealing with that problem right now. And I think that they will this offseason. Yeah. I mean, I like the way they put it right here. Um, this is another Shy Devidi and Ben Nicholson Smith article. They talked about it how these guys, they’re leaving some of their pillars, like some of their pillars of the rotation are leaving. That is Kevin Gosman, Shane Bieber being a pillar for this year. And then yeah, Jose Bros. It all all depends on what happens with him. But let’s say and Eric Lowry also by the way leaving after the 2026 season as well. So really all you have guaranteed on the books for for 2026 is literally Trey Savage if Jose Brios of course hits that opt out, which again we don’t think he will because all depends how he plays. But that’s it. So if I’m the Blue Jays and I want to be uber aggressive, I need to be thinking logically here. I need to go get another pillar of that rotation. Another Kevin Gosman type. Another Shane Bieber type. Some guys that you could lock down for five, six, seven years even and really anchor that rotation any given year. 100%, dude. And it does feel like that’s what they’re doing right now. The names that are kind of being rumored and linked with the Toronto Blue Jays, it is the tippity top, the upper echelon of those starting pitchers. We are talking about the Dylan CES. We are talking about the Frammer Valdezes. We are talking about the Ranger Suarezes. Those are the top three guys they’re projected with the market value. All of them are going to be looking at contracts that are upwards of $25 million average annual value, which is a lot. That’s definitely an expensive pill to swallow, but you are getting an individual there that you know, especially somebody like like a Ranger Suarez who just turned 30, like that to me feels like a Toronto Blue Jay genuinely. This feels like a guy that they would go out and they would talk. This feels like Kevin Gosman when, you know, he signed his contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, right? A couple backto-back years of really good, really strong stuff coming into his own as a starting pitcher, could be that ace of the staff, and then could take over for the role of Kevin Gosman when it’s time for him to move on. Yeah. Another complimentary piece right here is that he throws from the left-handed side, right? We we don’t have a left-handed starting pitcher at all. And I like it a lot. Right. Kevin Gosman was a free agent around this type of age as well. You lock him down and the projected contracts for now are anywhere between 5 to 6 to seven years. And if you’re doing the average annual value math, you’re looking at 150 to $200 million, which I was saying before this podcast, that’s the going rate for these guys. And for anyone thinking that’s a lot of money, that is exactly what for Valdad is going to cost. It’s exactly what Dylan C’s going to cost. Right? So you got to be willing to pay up and replace the contracts that are coming off the board. So listen, I I listen. I hear those numbers, I’m I’m not scared. I’m not nervous. I don’t shy away from that. And in fact, I actually think it’s a good thing because that takes away some of those other competitors that, you know, maybe might be in the mix for getting one of these guys. They can’t play that game anymore. Toronto can though, and I too truly believe, and everybody’s coming out and saying it right now, Toronto Blue Jays gonna be one of, if not the most aggressive team. There’s been reports coming out recently talking about how they could be in the market for Bo and Kyle Tucker like they want to spend their money and these guys being 150 to $200 million that just takes out a couple of the mid teams but that that does not you know exclude the Toronto Blue Jays and that also doesn’t mean if you go out and you get a Fran Valdez or you go out and you get a Ranger Suarez that doesn’t mean that they also can’t go get Bob Basha back or go and get Kyle Tucker or go get Edwin Diaz like they can do all of that. If you want to believe what Bob Nightingale said that they have roughly $50 million revenue extra, now I don’t know how he knows that number. We love Bob. I don’t know how he knows that number, but I would expect that after a long World Series run, the Blue Chase got some extra spending money. And right now, if you count the arbitration, they have about $25 million to play with, which really isn’t a lot, but that’s why you’re expecting probably an increase in that overall payroll for the Blue Jays because yeah, one of these guys alone, bam, there’s that 25 million right there. And you haven’t even brought back Bob Bashette. So, it feels like that they are due to increase that payroll. Now, another guy too, another lefty, and this might bring up some controversy for those who know Ball right now. Himer Valdez is a lefty. He’s almost he’s literally going to be almost 32 in in literally a week, but 32 years old going into next season. He’s been very solid anchoring down that Houston rotation. Another option, the one thing you got to worry about is obviously clubhouse presence because he did this weird thing where we don’t know if it was true or not, but he crossed up his catcher intentionally. I think it was true. And if it is, like you probably don’t want to have that guy in, but someone will pay for that dude. And you know what? Like look, we all do dumb at certain points and sometimes tempers flare and you do stuff that you regret immediately after the fact. Did he immediately regret that and you know talked with his catcher and talked with his teammates and and is a better person and a better baseball player for it? If that’s the case, all right, I can start to wrap my head around bringing this guy in and maybe that was a big strong learning experience for him and he can keep himself grounded moving forward. If it’s more of the, you know, I don’t know, Trevor Bower experience where like it’s just we are quite the hothead here, then maybe you don’t want to go in that direction. Although, there are other options here. Dylan Case, 29 years old. He’s going to be turning 30 very soon. Not his best season. Not his best season, but certainly an individual that when he is playing at a high level is one of the best some of the best strikeout stuff in all of MLB. Uh, granted, maybe we don’t even need that anymore because now we’re gonna have Tree Savage running that show, but how sexy would it be to go, you know, in a walk into a series with Dylan CE leading the way and then Tria Savage after the fact like we’re racking up, you know, 50 strikeouts against that other team in that series. It would be very sexy. One of the best non- strikeout teams in terms of the bats, then you have one of some of the best strikeout pitchers in the league. Now, yeah, he does obviously scare me a little bit. You are banking for that upside of potentially, you know, he’s 29 going to age 30 season. you are banking for the upside of maybe he goes and locks it in and figures it out. Maybe coming to Toronto if something clicks for him here. That is a little bit scary for me because he’s projected to get like six, seven, eight years because of his age. So for me like and he’s a righty as well. I would shy away but beggars can’t be choosers if those other two leave the board and you’re kind of left with Dylan S. And listen ultimately I would not be upset. I’d still be eccentric to get this guy onto our baseball team. Uh yeah, he’s not I guess as much of a lock, let’s say, as a as a Ranger Suarez. I think for me right now is probably the number one guy that I’m interested in. Like if you’re going to get anyone that feels like the guy and we’re not talking about trades right here, like if you want to go trade for Terra Goo and I know that they don’t want to do that anymore, but if you did, that’d be awesome. Just from a free agency standpoint, probably Ranger Suarez for me, but I still would be very happy about Dylan CE. Another individual who honestly I’m just starting to learn about, but I would be over the moon if they wanted to go out and get this guy is Tatsuya Eime. Please let us know in the comments down below if I am pronouncing that correctly. I would like to uh cuz I assume this isn’t going to be the last time that we’re talking about Mr. Tatsuya Eime. Ross Atkins came out and said, this is from Ben Nicholson Smith, a good player with a really interesting Arsenal that had an incredible year. So, we’ve done the background work and we have some more work to do on that front, but I’m glad that he’s going to be an option for the industry. We know that Toronto certainly is trying to put their hooks into that Japanese market. We know that they’ve sent individuals over there and, you know, doing their best to kind of I don’t scout scout and, you know, almost like, you know, is a wrong term to use, but like groom players over the idea of coming to Can over to Toronto, right? And they’re doing their best to do that. This is kind of like the new hot pitcher from Japan coming. And we know that the last two went to the LA Dodgers. Hey, you want to beat them at their own game, maybe you go out and get the guy that had a 1.92 erra last year over 163 innings. Honestly, like for the Blue Jays, if you can get one of these like big time Japanese stars and like have him become a star here, not only they’re great for the team, but it also helps you like down the line in the future. like I want to start building that whole like Japanese culture as well here in Toronto in the Blue Jays clubhouse. Get that back and circle that back in as well. And this guy would be a perfect fit. I mean, obviously he’s got a great arsenal stuff, but the whip is low. The erra is extremely low. 209. I mean, hell, I’ll take any one of these four guys in the rotation to be the anchor to move forward. That almost feels like, yeah, we know we talked about like Boba step one, but this from a roster construction standpoint feels like the most step one because yeah, Boba’s more of like a fandom, like we want to bring him back, bring up the core, the energy, like all that. We want a great hitter in the lineup. But yeah, if you’re looking at the rotation, we just broke it down. Literally, Trey Savage is only guaranteed for 2027. So, we need to get one of these guys. Almost a must this off season. And also folks, I I mean, look, I I know that the hitting is our is our strength and then that’s ultimately what is going to probably going to determine whether we’re successful in 2026 or not is how good is the hitting. Well, listen, we had the 18th ranked ERA in MLB last year. That’s not very good, right? And and to be a successful team, it required our offense to be playing at historical levels in this in the second half of the season, right? To to be that number one squad. So if you’re projecting just a little bit of regression in the offense, which I think is fair because like we saw a lot of elite performances. So if there’s a little bit of regression right there, well, where are we going to make that up? You got to make that up in the pitching right now. And ultimately, they are extremely aggressive. Everyone’s talking about how Ross Atkins is going to go balls to the wall on these starters. And that also doesn’t rule us out of the Bobaed or the Kyle Tucker or the, you know, you name it. You name the hitter, that doesn’t rule us out of their conversation. And and I get it, guys. We sound like a broken record. It feels like every November, every December, we’re having different. Oh, we’re going to be aggressive. And I know there’s going to be comments talking about that, but it actually is cuz we were right there looking at that Thanksgiving turkey dinner in game seven of the World Series. If the boys and the players are hungry, Ross Atkins certainly hungry and I think that they’re going to get across food. Oh man, they’re they’re not going to stall now after going that far. I expect the top end starter. I expect the top end uh hitter and I also expect some top end bullpen pieces. Correct. So, strap in, folks. If you haven’t already done so, hit that like, smash that subscribe button. We’re going to be covering all of it right here on Blue Jays today through the entirety of the free agency. $4 a month become a YouTube membership. And thinking of all of our current YouTube members, you guys are amazing, guys. Thank you so much for watching and as always, go Jay Gold.

The word on the street is the Toronto Blue Jays are being extremely aggressive this winter. And this year is different. Why? Well… Did you see how the World Series ended? Reports are coming out of the winter meetings saying the Blue Jays plan to spend big, but in which market? Let’s discuss right here on Blue Jays Today!

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