Trade-Blue Jays get Steve Matz from Mets

[bluerap23]

Roark's contract wouldn't be bad if he was still an okay pitcher. He just sucks. That's the thing with Matz. Does he suck? If he does, it's not the cost. He just sucks. He might suck. I kinda think he will.

But getting caught up in the cost? Nah. Adding up costs for the year isn't how it always works. Having one-year salaries invariably limits things a lot. You just wanted different risks on different players you like better. That's all this is no mattee how much you try and twist it.

It's not unlike all that talk about how Stanley Johnson was a problem contract for the Raptors. Or Norm. It's not a problem. It's all about if the player is good or not and you're convinces Matz isn't. No need to hide it. It's a fine opinion.

The contract does play into it. Absolutely, Roark and Matz are totally defensible if they don't suck, but even with something of a rebound, there's a good chance that the opportunity cost of having them exceeds the difference between what they provide versus other options. We aren't operating in a vacuum here: we have a bunch of better-than-replacement-but-worse-than-average backend/swingmen types, and innings going to Roark/Matz are innings that those other players could provide at a teensy fraction of the cost.

If Matz and Roark rebound and are better than those guys by, I dunno, 1 fWAR combined (which is about what the favourable Steamer projections have them at), you could on one hand look at that as a found win, I guess. But it's also a win for which we paid an additional $16m, and that's bad resource allocation. $16m should be expected to buy you more than one win.

Matz's contract is excellent value when compared to Roark. The only way I would appreciate the Matz deal is if we are able to offload Roark and this was just a replacement move.

[rarefind]

That's the thing, though. There were times in the past that inning-eating was important to us, because our depth was utter trash, but we have so many warm bodies that it really isn't a need. Those innings will be gobbled up by many ravenous mouths with or without him. Neither are we starved for LHP: beyond the two lefties in Ryu/Ray who are already in the rotation, we have Kay and Borucki as left-handed swingmen/'pen options.

There are teams, including Jays teams in the past, where the things Matz might do adequately would be a boon. I just don't think he adds much to the 2021 Jays unless he's a much better pitcher than he has demonstrated in the past.

Simply put... We have enough chihuahuas, we need another big dog.

This assumes that their are some surefire, big dogs left on the market. Other than overpaying Bauer, or trading a lot of top prospects for someone like Hendricks, its a FA market full of question marks.

Quite often having 10 lap dogs to choose from will produce a couple of big dogs. We see this often enough. The team has done an excellent job accumulating SP depth.

Completely agreed. Our depth is something to behold but at a certain point it is a quality/quantity thing, too. We have a lot of depth guys which will pay dividends but if we intend to win a playoff series or two we will certainly need to have another guy that can give you a solid chance of winning that ballgame. Ryu is not an inning eater and Pearson will be on an innings limit.

The playoffs are 9 months away and we have plenty of time to make a deal. But between the money tied up in Matz, Chatwood and (going back to last year) Roark... that is a lot of money that could have been allocated to a consistent middle of the rotation guy who could out perform or bounce back. i.e. Odorizzi, Paxton et al. Gambling on a guy to out perform the value you sign him for is a good bet for a team in our position especially if you tie incentives to the deal. Quite honestly, even a chance on Kluber would have been cool.

[polo007]

Steven Matz looking forward to ‘fresh start’ with Blue Jays

“I think my initial reaction is I’m really excited about a fresh start.”

“Especially with last year, with the way it went. When a team wants you, it always kind of gives you that energy."

“So I was really excited about that.”

“That’s my main focus is just trying to be that guy who’s really reliable and can go deep into games.”

“I think last year I just got away from some of the things that gave me success.”

“Surprisingly some of my stuff, from a stuff standpoint, was the best it’s ever been in my career."

“I got away from some of the basics that helped me get guys out.”

“Just to see them go out and get guys like Springer and stuff, that’s awesome.”

“They’re committed to winning a World Series and that’s exciting.”