The Toronto Blue Jays have been one of the most active teams this winter, headlining their offseason by signing Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million deal.
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The Blue Jays continued adding talent to their starting rotation by inking Cody Ponce to a three-year, $30 million contract. Cease and Ponce cement a lethal rotation that also includes Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, Eric Lauer, Kevin Gausman, Ricky Tiedemann and Shane Bieber.
Toronto’s front office has been busy this winter, and it’s likely the Blue Jays still have a few more moves to make. After falling short in the World Series, it’s evident the team is still reeling from the seven-game thriller.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider hasn’t been able to swallow the crushing loss, which transpired a little over a month ago.
“I don’t think I ever will, to be honest with you. I think I’ll think about it until the day I leave this earth, you know what I mean?” Schneider said. “Unless you get another opportunity to kind of squash that one. There’s so many things that … there’s plays that get highlighted, right?”
Naturally, Schneider was asked about the Fall Classic at this week’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, FL. World Series MVP, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, was also brought up by reporters.
The Los Angeles Dodgers ace did the impossible and tossed 17.2 innings in the World Series, starting Games 2 and 6. Yamamoto threw a complete game in Game 2 and had another solid start in Game 6 with six shutout innings. As if that wasn’t enough from the right-hander, the Dodgers star entered Game 7 as a reliever.
Yamamoto pitched 2.2 scoreless innings in relief for LA, helping the Dodgers become the first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century. The Dodgers were running out of pitching options in Game 7, and had Yamamoto not stepped up, Toronto could have very well taken home the Commissioner’s Trophy.
Schneider had a five-word message on Yamamoto: “I hope he’s still tired.”
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