The Shapiro & Rogers Megathread

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Toronto Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro joined Bob McCown and Mike Zeisberger to talk about all the Jays trades at the Non-waiver trade deadline.

http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-4/Mark-Shapiro-on-Prime-Time-Sports-PTS-20160802-Interview.mp3

“I think everybody was extremely supportive of doing what it takes to maximize the window.”

“When I say supportive it wasn’t just moral support, like a slap on the butt and a clap, it was ‘Here are the financial resources, do what you need to do.’"

“That was clear in what we did over the deadline period starting at (Melvin Upton Jr.) and moving forward.”

“We still have some flexibility as we go through August should the opportunity present itself.”

“We haven’t determined yet what the right time is, what the right approach is.”

“At some point (Aaron Sanchez) is not going to start anymore this year. He will not run 230 innings and pitch through October. That’s not going to happen. That can’t happen. No one in their right mind, including him, would suggest that can happen."

“At some point you have to decide how do you allocate those innings. What’s the most respectful thing and appropriate thing to do for this young man and how do you balance that with our insatiable desire to win a world championship.”

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Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro joins Jeff Blair & Stephen Brunt to discuss this weekend’s series with the Boston Red Sox, his club’s offensive woes, the relationship between revenue & the on-field payroll, the club’s window of opportunity, the talent in the farm system, the lack of a lefty bat, if there has been any discussions lately with the representatives of Jose Bautista & Edwin Encarnacion, and prospect Rowdy Tellez choosing to play winterball in the Dominican Republic.

http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-4/Mark-Shapiro-with-Jeff-Blair-and-Stephen-Brunt-jb-20160909-Interview.mp3

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Officials around baseball will soon cast their ballots for MLB executive of the year, and in the eyes of some rival evaluators, the Toronto front office deserves some serious consideration. President Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins came into this season under pressure, after the surprising exit of Alex Anthopoulos created some fan backlash, and the Blue Jays had little room for maneuverability, given the budget and thin talent at the top of their farm system.

The Jays, faced with gaping holes in their rotation, aggressively targeted J.A. Happ (who signed a three-year, $36 million deal) and Marco Estrada (two years, $26 million), signings which have proven to be adept and extremely profitable. Happ has a 3.20 ERA, Estrada 3.53, and the duo has combined for 359 2/3 innings, for the combined salaries of $21 million this year. In the minutes before the trade deadline, the Jays also bet on a rebound for Francisco Liriano and made an imaginative deal for the left-hander, who has a 2.92 ERA in 10 appearances.

The Jays' executives also tinkered with the bullpen, adding Joaquin Benoit (who has allowed just one run in 25 outings in Toronto) in a swap for the struggling Drew Storen, as well as Jason Grilli (45 games, 3.48 ERA).

Toronto found ways to get better without compromising a farm system that is being reconstructed, and without getting locked into big, long-term deals -- and the Jays appear to be headed back to the playoffs again.

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Officials around baseball will soon cast their ballots for MLB executive of the year, and in the eyes of some rival evaluators, the Toronto front office deserves some serious consideration. President Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins came into this season under pressure, after the surprising exit of Alex Anthopoulos created some fan backlash, and the Blue Jays had little room for maneuverability, given the budget and thin talent at the top of their farm system.

The Jays, faced with gaping holes in their rotation, aggressively targeted J.A. Happ (who signed a three-year, $36 million deal) and Marco Estrada (two years, $26 million), signings which have proven to be adept and extremely profitable. Happ has a 3.20 ERA, Estrada 3.53, and the duo has combined for 359 2/3 innings, for the combined salaries of $21 million this year. In the minutes before the trade deadline, the Jays also bet on a rebound for Francisco Liriano and made an imaginative deal for the left-hander, who has a 2.92 ERA in 10 appearances.

The Jays' executives also tinkered with the bullpen, adding Joaquin Benoit (who has allowed just one run in 25 outings in Toronto) in a swap for the struggling Drew Storen, as well as Jason Grilli (45 games, 3.48 ERA).

Toronto found ways to get better without compromising a farm system that is being reconstructed, and without getting locked into big, long-term deals -- and the Jays appear to be headed back to the playoffs again.

They're gonna let EE go to a division rival so I don't care what they did this year. Long term we're gonna let the Redsox take over the East for years.

[Santoki]

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Officials around baseball will soon cast their ballots for MLB executive of the year, and in the eyes of some rival evaluators, the Toronto front office deserves some serious consideration. President Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins came into this season under pressure, after the surprising exit of Alex Anthopoulos created some fan backlash, and the Blue Jays had little room for maneuverability, given the budget and thin talent at the top of their farm system.

The Jays, faced with gaping holes in their rotation, aggressively targeted J.A. Happ (who signed a three-year, $36 million deal) and Marco Estrada (two years, $26 million), signings which have proven to be adept and extremely profitable. Happ has a 3.20 ERA, Estrada 3.53, and the duo has combined for 359 2/3 innings, for the combined salaries of $21 million this year. In the minutes before the trade deadline, the Jays also bet on a rebound for Francisco Liriano and made an imaginative deal for the left-hander, who has a 2.92 ERA in 10 appearances.

The Jays' executives also tinkered with the bullpen, adding Joaquin Benoit (who has allowed just one run in 25 outings in Toronto) in a swap for the struggling Drew Storen, as well as Jason Grilli (45 games, 3.48 ERA).

Toronto found ways to get better without compromising a farm system that is being reconstructed, and without getting locked into big, long-term deals -- and the Jays appear to be headed back to the playoffs again.

They're gonna let EE go to a division rival so I don't care what they did this year. Long term we're gonna let the Redsox take over the East for years.

Boston was taking over the East for years with or without EE. And the Sox have done some worst to first and back over the last few years so nothing is guaranteed.

[Schad]

Boston was taking over the East for years with or without EE. And the Sox have done some worst to first and back over the last few years so nothing is guaranteed.

It's pretty impressive, actually; they have finished first or last in the AL East in five consecutive seasons. And we'll be the first AL East team to reach the playoffs in consecutive years since the 2011 and 2012 Yankees unless something goes totally awry. The East be crazy.

[Raps in 4]

We're 0.5 games from being out of the playoffs. Won't need something to go "totally awry" for us to be out of it.

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Think of it as operating on two fronts.

As they enter another precarious off-season, Mark Shapiro’s and Ross Atkins’s to-do list is both obvious and obviously daunting.

First off, they have to approach ownership, suddenly in transition at the top, and make the case for added payroll, as have all Blue Jays’ bosses going way, way back. It’s a tricky conversation: How do you talk to those in charge of a publicly traded company with a foundation built in cable and phones, and convince them that they ought to invest more in the ephemeral asset that is baseball players? How do you come up with a cost/benefit analysis that can answer the question: “If we spend X, how many games are we going to win?”—which is exactly the kind of question you have to ask if it’s your fiduciary duty to protect shareholders’ interests.

But it seems possible, at least, given the glories of the past two seasons, given the way the fans flocked to the Rogers Centre and watched games on television in unprecedented numbers, that this year the purse strings might be loosened a bit, understanding that the ball club also provides more than straight bottom-line value to the company.

Once they have their number, Shapiro and Atkins will then try to reload a roster which was very good but also very old, very right-handed and offensively one-dimensional, which made it to the American League Championship Series but will no doubt regress in some areas next year, given its age, given the ridiculous good health of the starting rotation in 2016.

Meanwhile, on the second front...

You will be hearing the word “culture” a whole lot in the coming years. The new folks in charge point to a team with which they have more than a passing familiarity—the 2016 American League Champions—and will tell you that the way Cleveland plays, the way they are managed, the way they have overcome injuries and found creative ways to win baseball games, is a by-product of that organization’s DNA.

Years ago people talked about the Dodgers Way, and in the early years of the local heroes, leading up to those twin World Series victories, there was definitely a Blue Jays Way, though with ownership changes and management shuffles, it became less easy to discern as the years passed.

What happens to the Jays’ major league roster right now is understandably front of mind for fans. But Shapiro et al are at least equally occupied with the long view—drafting and development, high-performance science, the minor league system, coaching and managerial philosophies that will eventually be consistent from rookie ball right through to the big club. The Jays will soon have a refreshed spring training home, and in the not too distant future, they’ll have a remade Rogers Centre. By the time that happens, the goal is to populate Dunedin and the dome with players produced largely in-house (plus the assets in-house prospects might fetch in trade) who have come of age within that system. Combine a consistent talent pipeline with what is right now the best baseball market in North America, and with an owner that might be convinced to increasingly bank on that and make major investments when the opportunity arises, and you’d have something special.

[Skin Blues]

Shapiro and Atkins will then try to reload a roster which was very good but also very old, very right-handed and offensively one-dimensional

Old, hmm, sure. Although three of our oldest and highest paid players from 2016 are off the books. One dimensional offense. Uhhh, what is that one dimension?? People keep saying this and it keeps not making sense.

the way Cleveland plays, the way they are managed, the way they have overcome injuries and found creative ways to win baseball games, is a by-product of that organization’s DNA

haha... OK. They put together a two weeks in the playoffs and we're gonna go crazy about their organizational DNA.
A lot of fluff here. Seems like Brunt fancies himself Canada's modern day Shakespeare with the way he tries to weave the most mundane information into a story. *cue dramatic piano music-driven video montage of the 2016 season narrated by Mr. Brunt himself*

I think I'm just grumpy because we're not playing anymore...

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Steve Sanders’ dream of pitching in the big leagues ended abruptly during his senior year of high school, when he tore the labrum in his right shoulder. Though he still attended Northwestern University, majoring in economics with a minor in business, and appeared in seven games his final year, the Los Angeles native understood that if he wanted to make a living in baseball, it wasn’t going to be on a mound.

Instead, he turned his focus to the front office and made it to the majors a different way. In 2009, Artie Harris, a family friend and longtime scout, helped him land an internship in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball operations department and, after a holding a number of positions with the Boston Red Sox, Sanders worked his way up to director, amateur scouting for the Toronto Blue Jays, a position he was named to on Sept. 29.

Given that the Blue Jays may have three first-round picks in the June draft (their own plus compensatory picks for Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista), Sanders will have an opportunity to make a potentially lasting impact right out of the gate.

Sanders emerged from an initial group of 50 potential candidates, and when general manager Ross Atkins called Mike Hazen, at the time his counterpart with the Red Sox before he left for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he was told, "this is the guy you’ve got to hire."

"I know I’m biased, but this is the guy for me," says Hazen. "He’s smart, he’s innovative, he works as hard as any person I’ve ever worked with. He’s passionate about the game, about scouting, about finding every little detail on every player. He embraces every stream and piece of technology, he blends in and connects with veteran scouts and has a great feel for the balance of all that.

"Valuing people’s opinions, building relationships – he’s fantastic."

"One thing that was pivotal for me was being exposed to different areas of the operation," says Sanders. "Seeing the international market. Working closely with our scouts, both international and domestic. Being around the draft on a yearly basis, being around for the trade deadline, seeing different areas of the organization and how they worked. But also, most importantly, really getting to work with a wide range of people on a daily basis, both in the office and out in the field, our scouts, our player development staff. All of those were equally important in terms of preparing me for this job and allowed me to see things from a lot of different angles, which was pretty important."

[Mediocrity]

Instead, he turned his focus to the front office and made it to the majors a different way. In 2009, Artie Harris, a family friend and longtime scout, helped him land an internship in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball operations department and, after a holding a number of positions with the Boston Red Sox, Sanders worked his way up to director, amateur scouting for the Toronto Blue Jays, a position he was named to on Sept. 29.

Must be nice!

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Last week I wrote a speculative piece on how a potential 26th roster spot would affect the Blue Jays going forward. It was supposed to be the only lock in the new collective bargaining agreement. Well, the union and MLB finally agreed on the framework for a new CBA…and roster sizes are staying exactly the same. That being said, There are many other changes and it would be good to see just how much those will adjust how the Jays do business.

Luxury Tax/Revenue Sharing

While many expected the luxury tax threshold to rise to $210-215M to represent the growth of the game since the last agreement, the MLBPA was actually only able to gain an increase from $189M to $195M for the coming season. That number will rise to $197M in 2018, $206M in 2019, $209M in 2020 and $210M in 2021.

There are also stiffer penalties for teams that exceed the tax, with higher tax rates for both new and repeat offenders, and even the potential of draft pick changes if a team is too far above the stated level.

While this change has no direct effect on the Blue Jays (they won’t come close to $195M), it will certainly change how their division rivals do business. Both the Yankees and Red Sox are already up against the tax number, and in Boston’s case specifically it will reportedly stop them from going after top level FAs like Edwin Encarnacion.

On the flip side, the revenue-sharing system seems to help the richest clubs , as there is no longer a multiplier for the top earners (meaning they consistently pay more). This helps New York (who also receives a reduction for paying for their new park), LA and Boston, but not enough to offset the damages of luxury tax penalties.

Result: Positive for Toronto

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I'd rather them spend more money on the team over fancy new designs personally.

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I'd rather them spend more money on the team over fancy new designs personally.

The dome is getting up there as one of the worst parks in the league. Renovations are much needed, especially if they're planning to stay there for another 30+ years

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According to the Toronto Star, the Toronto Blue Jays head into the MLB winter meetings looking for outfield help.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2016/12/03/jays-head-into-winter-meetings-looking-for-outfield-help-griffin.html

How much room do the Jays have with their payroll to add significant players? With 10 multi-year contracts already in place, plus educated estimates provided by the great website MLBTradeRumors for four arbitration contracts, Atkins and company have committed about $127.8 million for 14 players in 2017. Shapiro indicated last month that they payroll would be higher than the $140 million spent in 2016, but did not offer an exact figure.

Given that promise, a reasonable bump might be $10 million, or a 7.1-percent increase. That would leave the Jays about $22 million to spend on the final 11 roster spots, with the minimum salary being $535,000. Clearly, there is room to add some talent, if not quite enough room to re-up Encarnacion.

And the Jays need spend that available money, even if, and perhaps especially if, they lose both Bautista and Encarnacion. Since the 2015 trade deadline in 2015, the Jays have proven you can spend money to make money. Success on the field over the last season-and-a-half has translated into full houses at Rogers Centre, huge TV ratings, hand-over-fist profits on sales of merchandise. Even Shapiro understands there’s no turning back.

“There could have been someone (at Rogers) who strategically said you should take a step back in this moment and we chose not to do it,” the president said, rather cryptically, at a meeting with baseball writers on Thursday. “We think that the core of talent in place is still good enough to field a championship-calibre team and, yes, it’s important to continue to work hard and deliver on the promise that has been fulfilled over the last couple of seasons."

“If you don’t walk away from that environment both motivated and feeling responsible to continue to field a contending team, then you’re walking in with blinders and earplugs, because it’s incredibly special to be in that setting.”

Those are promising words for fans, but now the Jays must get it done, whether it is via trades or free agency. Which method do the Jays prefer?

“It’s always dependent on the opportunities you have,” Atkins said. “If it’s one that you like, then we don’t necessarily have to wait . . . To say that we can’t move on one or the other before we consider free agency, or vice versa, no. If it’s a deal that makes us better and we like the cost, then we’re prepared to do it either way.”

Paul Kinzer, Encarnacion’s agent, has suggested his client’s contract should be settled before the meetings are over. At that point, with money to spend, the Jays will start rebuilding the outfield.

Outfield names that have been mentioned in trade rumours connected with the Jays include: the Mets’ Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson, Adam Eaton pf the White Sox, the Tigers’ J.D. Martinez, and the Yankees’ Brett Gardner Free agents mentioned as possibilities include Dexter Fowler, Bautista and Saunders.

Another interesting name appeared for the first time Friday, when former Jays leadoff man Ben Revere, non-tendered by the Nationals, became a free agent. The 28-year-old, traded to Washington for reliever Drew Storen before the 2016 season, was hampered by an oblique problem that limited his slash line to .217/.260/.300. Revere loved his time in Toronto, could bat leadoff and play left field. He is represented by the same group as Saunders.