RealGM

I'd believe it. It makes sense that we don't want to sign Fielder and Votto so we could just easily be waiting. Angels management took a lot of heat last offseason for doing relatively nothing on the FA front, and this year they sign CJ Wilson and Pujols.

yeah right

This is just Rosenthal speculating about why the Jays are reluctant to move on Prince, isn't it?

Of course they want to sign Votto as a FA.

Funny thing, but 29 other teams want to as well.

The title of this thread is misleading.

It's not saying that they KNOW the Jays want to sign Votto...they just FEEL they may hold off on Fielder for Votto.

Basically they know nothing and are just feeding the rumour mill.

Kind of like that @tmfb82 (https://twitter.com/#!/tmfb82) idiot who says we are getting Felix Hernandez and Jaso for Arencibia, Alvarez, Drabek, Snider and Gose. He has the "ins" because he works for Rogers lol

@tmfb82 OhhhCanada
@Ken_Rosenthal ok here it is:On the table Drabek, Snider, Alvarez, Goose, and Arencibia for Feliz and Jaso. They've been talking for 3 weeks

@tmfb82 OhhhCanada
@Ken_Rosenthal I work at the RC and my buddy works for the Jays office... He told me the Garza was just a cover up for this

@tmfb82 OhhhCanada
@Ken_Rosenthal I feel the same way... But he just told me that AA is obsessed with getting an ace

@tmfb82 OhhhCanada
@Ken_Rosenthal Meeting has been going since 915, no news as of yet. Ill keep u informed

I'm sure the Jays would love to add Votto. But AA isn't an idiot, and he's not making personnel decisions now based on the glimmer of a chance that he could outbid other teams for Joey Votto in two years.

So I don't think the Jays' reluctance to pursue Fielder has anything to do with Votto.

If they're unwilling to sign Fielder for 180, I doubt they'd sign Votto for 200M+ in 2013.

Think AA leaked this to try and buy another season or two from the fans?

The Jays know the fan base is upset with it's lack of spending, this "rumour" gives them a few extra years to sit back and wait for a player.

AA doesn't leak anything. If anything Rosenthal is just looking for hits to his twitter account. Stupid to assume Votto will even be a free agent in 2013 and even if he does a lot more teams competing for his services than looking to get a guy like Prince right now.

I just read it and rolled my eyes.

Nothing leaked, this isn't groundbreaking news, there's no source. It's just an opinion. It certainly doesn't buy anybody time in the Jays front office by tricking the fans into thinking they're waiting to spend money.

Just remember, you heard it here first:

viewtopic.php?f=123&t=1140778

Another 2 years? We will probably cure AIDS by then.

Rhettmatic wrote:I'm sure the Jays would love to add Votto. But AA isn't an idiot, and he's not making personnel decisions now based on the glimmer of a chance that he could outbid other teams for Joey Votto in two years.

So I don't think the Jays' reluctance to pursue Fielder has anything to do with Votto.

Exactly. I don't want to speculate about free agents that could be playing for us 3 seasons from now. Fielder & Votto are 2 completely separate issues.

We are not signing Fielder because:
1 - We don't have the salary parameters
2 - He's looking for an 8 year contract and we don't want to go over 5 years.

That's it.

LittleOzzy wrote:Think AA leaked this to try and buy another season or two from the fans?

The Jays know the fan base is upset with it's lack of spending, this "rumour" gives them a few extra years to sit back and wait for a player.

I'm not buying it. And I hope that no one else is either.

2 years? seriously? by then we would have traded away all our good players for prospects and shed a ton more salary and ownership will be selling us on another 5 year rebuilding period.

i have exactly 0 hope in rogers as an owner. i had a ton of optimism going into this offseason for the next couple of years, but rogers has done an excellent job to squash it all.

At this point I don't know who/what to believe. I'll believe it when I see it. How many players have we been linked to. How many of them actually materialized? Not drinking the kool aid again...

How does anybody even know Votto will be a FA in 2 years. Thats a big risk considering he could easily sign an extension anytime from now and then.

CapeCrusader wrote:How does anybody even know Votto will be a FA in 2 years. Thats a big risk considering he could easily sign an extension anytime from now and then.

This.

No GM is planning an offseason based on some guy 2 years plus down the road being available, maybe. It's like oh well Prince wants 8-10 years, but I can get Bryce Harper in 6 if he doesn't re-sign and gets called up this year and he'd probably make a pretty good 1B by then.

If Votto's FA in 2 years plays any role for any of these GMs, at least if they were ever to say it did, they used it to talk themselves out of something they weren't going to do anyway.

Would AA and probably 20+ other teams like to have a shot at signing Votto? Of course they would, but no one's passing on a guy now because of it and Rosenthal just regurgitated something some random exec said. Meaning some guy he had a conversation with spitballed the same basic idea people on this board have had and dismissed and getting it out of someone's mouth who works in baseball gives Rosenthall coverage.

IMO, the exec didn't mean it like it was true and if Ken had asked him 30 seconds later if he thought it was a valid idea worth publishing, my guess is this exec would've laughed at him, but that's Ken's job: get stuff that'll draw attention and run with it. He has zero incentive to go back and make sure the guy meant what he said. No one ever calls these reporters to task on spreading insane gossip, they're classic rainmakers who just throw every random thing at you and when they're right, they make you believe it's 'cause they know and when they're wrong they just move on to the next one. And Ken's one of the best, in a good way, but that doesn't mean even he thinks 80-90% of the rumors he publishes are anything other than click and follower generators.

I will believe it when I see it.
even if the Jays leaked this rumor about being interested, it's 99.99% lip service, so who gives a damn.