Sun: Expect major changes for Jays.

[YogiStewart]

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/09/05/ex ... ays-roster

kind of an LOL article. written by Fidlin. i'll post a few gems.

Before his elbow reconstruction, Drew Hutchison put his pitching IQ on display. He may not be a No. 1 but he can be a No. 2 or 3, a strike-thrower with a great aptitude for his craft. Kyle Drabek is back with the team right now and claims to be in better control of his emotions and has a better understanding of what it takes to be a professional pitcher. If he can match that with his above-average natural talent, he may yet have a long career ahead of him.

Marcus Stroman is also an intriguing candidate. A 2012 draftee who was expected to come fast, he was derailed late last season by a PED suspension but has pitched well at double A in 2013. He was 9-5 with a 3.30 ERA, 129 strikeouts in 112 innings at New Hampshire this year. And then there is lefty Sean Nolin who has worked his way up through the farm system the last four years, excelling at each level, including three starts (1-1, 1.53 ERA) with Buffalo. He had one ill-conceived start with the Jays this past season and was crushed for six runs in 11/3 innings but that is not who Nolin is as a pitcher.

if we're talking about Drabek, Stoman, Nolin and Hutchison as being legit candidates for the rotation, we're not talking about a playoff team. Buerle, Morrow, Dickey, one of the rookies as a 5th starter, Happ as the 6th starter when Morrow gets injured for 1-2 months and a legit #2/3 starter and we're talking.

[Lateral Quicks]

if we're talking about Drabek, Stoman, Nolin and Hutchison as being legit candidates for the rotation, we're not talking about a playoff team. Buerle, Morrow, Dickey, one of the rookies as a 5th starter, Happ as the 6th starter when Morrow gets injured for 1-2 months and a legit #2/3 starter and we're talking.

Pretty much. AA will have a lot of pitching depth in the off-season to work with. Hopefully we don't see another 5 for 1 deal where the 1 is HAAAp 2.0.

[Michael Bradley]

I do not want a repeat of 2012 where AA started the season penciling in McGowan, Cecil, and Alvarez as his bottom three starters (with Drabek and Carreno behind them). Unfortunately, unless payroll is substantially increased, I'm not sure what AA can do, barring a trade of one of the more expensive players (Reyes, Bautista, etc) for a handful of cheap talent. The Jays currently sit at ~$112M in guaranteed contracts next season, assuming they pick up Janssen and DeRosa's options (which they will). Arencibia, Rasmus, Cecil, and Rogers are arbitration eligible. Lind has a $7M option. In other words, bringing back the same team, minus Johnson and Davis, will exceed $130M already. One way the Jays could get around that is finding a way to trade the bullpen depth (Janssen?) with someone like Melky or Izturis for an expendable starter on another team, which will negate any salary increase while filling a need at the same time, but that will depend on how other teams view the Jays talent.

More than anything else, the Jays need to find a way to fix Ricky Romero. If he becomes a MLB starter again, then the whole dynamic of the rotation changes, since he is one of the few pitchers on the team that can stay healthy enough to pitch. That is looking like a longshot, though. Get him on Delabar's program and find him a Rima Fakih equivalent, or something.

[satyr9]

I'd really like to see next year's AAA squad start with Drabek, Hutchison, Stroman, and Nolin on it. If you can put together a quality MLB rotation and have that kind of depth at AAA, then we might actually survive a season with a tolerable rotation. I figure Dickey and Buehrle are no brainer returns. Buehrle's not worth dealing 'cause of his contract - you'd pay to move him - and we paid a lot to have Dickey at his salary, so I doubt you'd extract that value trying to move him either. Morrow takes a slot again 'cause you can't get value and he's too good to burn. That means you have Happ and Esmil and their spots. You can keep or deal them and replace, obviously we'd all most lean towards massive upgrades I'd imagine. Rickey to me is basically toast. He can be the 5th in AAA if they want or in the 'pen or cut or deal or whatever. There's also Deck to consider I guess, but I'm pretty meh on that.

That being said, if you filled one spot in the rotation with like Kershaw or something, then find use one of the 4 to fill the back end, but I'm not expecting that so I'd like to have as many legit options on the farm as possible.

edit: sorry, I couldn't be bothered to RTFA so I repeated a bit of what was in there. I was mostly responding to where I think the youngins fit for next year.

[MikeM]

Johnson, Morrow and Romero combine to make about $30M and they give us absolutely zero. Wow.

At this point we can't even afford to trade Buehrle even if we wanted to.

Can I just say how much my appreciation for Buehrle has grown this year? Watching all these young guys with this amount of stuff and this amount of blah blah blah just completely flame out while this old dude keeps plugging along is just silly.

[YogiStewart]

Johnson, Morrow and Romero combine to make about $30M and they give us absolutely zero. Wow.

At this point we can't even afford to trade Buehrle even if we wanted to.
.

JJ's gone. Romero's a bad investment (every team has one). Morrow's the Golden Fleece.
Some dummy team will pay JJ to throw meatballs. good for them.

Buehrle went from a meh start to a great 2/3 of a season. if the Jays were in tanking mode, they would get a decent return for him. he's a very good 3rd starter.

all signs point to Bautista being traded for something. probably a pitcher with 1-2 years left on their contract.

[Avenger]

You still gotta dump Buerhle if you get the chance, and given how easily we traded Vernon Wells who was ten times the albatross i am fairly optimistic we can do it without eating too much on his salary. More than the stats that look decent, Buerhle has this incredible reputation around the league for intangibles and staying healthy, i am certain there are suitors for him.

Unless Rogers is willing to fork over another 25-35 million in payroll the Jays simply cannot afford to have a steady starter making 18 million a year. There's no guarantee we can do better with that money but its a gamble the Jays have to take.

[Michael Bradley]

I agree Buehrle is probably more tradeable than we think, even with his bloated contract, but I'm not sure how the Jays benefit by doing it. Sure they would get to use that freed up money to upgrade other parts of the team, but they would also need to replace him in that scenario. It is one thing if the Jays had loads of ready MLB pitching that made Buehrle expendable, but as is, he is the team's best starter and is putting up a season identical to the rest of his career (IOW, he is not overachieving). The Jays are better off just keeping Buehrle and his bloated contract until they can move on without him, and I don't see that happening over the next two years. Certainly not when the rest of the rotation is old (Dickey), injured (Morrow), possibly done (Romero), and bottom of the rotation calibre (Happ, Rogers).

Now, if the Jays can trade Buehrle for an equally effective starter (or one with that type of upside that is MLB ready), then it makes more sense, but that's probably not realistic.

[satyr9]

If Buehrle can be moved for free, then I'm for it 'cause that 18m can be better spent. I wouldn't count on the genorosity of spirit that Arte gave out happening regularly. If FA pitchers better than Buehrle can be had for less he won't go away for free, the only thing you hope for is it comes down to a question of term and AA can pick the right guy.

[The_Hater]

If Buehrle can be moved for free, then I'm for it 'cause that 18m can be better spent.

This.

Plus no matter how well Buerhle pitched this season there's always that overhanging thought that he's going to show up one season and suddenly look like he's throwing batting practice out here. Let another team get caught with him when that finally happens.

[flatjacket1]

If Buehrle can be moved for free, then I'm for it 'cause that 18m can be better spent.

This.

Plus no matter how well Buerhle pitched this season there's always that overhanging thought that he's going to show up one season and suddenly look like he's throwing batting practice out here. Let another team get caught with him when that finally happens.

I agree. 18M is a waste for him, we can get much better talent for that money.

[The_Hater]

If Buehrle can be moved for free, then I'm for it 'cause that 18m can be better spent.

This.

Plus no matter how well Buerhle pitched this season there's always that overhanging thought that he's going to show up one season and suddenly look like he's throwing batting practice out here. Let another team get caught with him when that finally happens.

I agree. 18M is a waste for him, we can get much better talent for that money.

Perfect time to trade him to the Dodgers. They seem to be collecting overpaid, big name vets out there.