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http://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/965664

The Toronto Blue Jays are reportedly involved in negotiations for a potential three-team trade that would net the club outfielder Jay Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

Heyman reports the proposed deal would see the Blue Jays trade Michael Saunders to the Los Angeles Angels. It's unclear what the Reds would receive in exchange for Bruce, who reportedly removed the Blue Jays from his eight-team no trade list earlier this winter.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/701919809886359553[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/701927571949273088[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/701929601078005761[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/701954308821147650[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/701959495858176000[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/701990861291307008[/tweet]'

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/701997421669314560[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/702130975304716288[/tweet]

Does this mean Jose is going bye bye?


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Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

Randle McMurphy wrote:Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

Very odd that after your star RF steals the media attention your immediate response is to be linked to another corner outfield power bat. This one might be cooked up folks. Bruce sucked in 14', had a decent 15'... could be a resurgence candidate in 16' with a team friendly team option for 17'. He isn't going to be any worse than Michael Saunders and if he is terrible next year, you cut him loose. Just hope Cincy is sending $ in part and we aren't dumping prospects.

Randle McMurphy wrote:Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

With the protection our lineup offers, and his power....he could put up MONSTER numbers.

His OBP might be .320, but....

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/701927571949273088[/tweet]

Edited

Thoughts on this, if true?

rarefind wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

Very odd that after your star RF steals the media attention your immediate response is to be linked to another corner outfield power bat. This one might be cooked up folks. Bruce sucked in 14', had a decent 15'... could be a resurgence candidate in 16' with a team friendly team option for 17'. He isn't going to be any worse than Michael Saunders and if he is terrible next year, you cut him loose. Just hope Cincy is sending $ in part and we aren't dumping prospects.

It's pretty convenient timing. But what the hell let's talk about it.

If they pay some of Bruce's $8.5 million (let's say $3 million) then that's only a $2.6 million increase from Saunders. You can argue that he's not any better than Saunders at this point but he's at least proven he can stay healthy. With Saunders you have no idea what's going to happen to him health-wise and you only have Pompey and minor league fodder as backup. This might be a $2.6 million insurance policy on LF for the year on a lefty with some power which is actually something we need.

Edit - Misread his salary info. He's making $8.5 million average but $12.5 million this year.

So yah they'd have to send a lot more for this to make sense. Basically you have to determine how much Saunders insurance is worth. It's definitely not worth $9.5 million (difference between Bruce and Saunders salary in 2016).

Do we know how much the 2017 team option is worth?

Santoki wrote:

rarefind wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

Very odd that after your star RF steals the media attention your immediate response is to be linked to another corner outfield power bat. This one might be cooked up folks. Bruce sucked in 14', had a decent 15'... could be a resurgence candidate in 16' with a team friendly team option for 17'. He isn't going to be any worse than Michael Saunders and if he is terrible next year, you cut him loose. Just hope Cincy is sending $ in part and we aren't dumping prospects.

It's pretty convenient timing. But what the hell let's talk about it.

If they pay some of Bruce's $8.5 million (let's say $3 million) then that's only a $2.6 million increase from Saunders. You can argue that he's not any better than Saunders at this point but he's at least proven he can stay healthy. With Saunders you have no idea what's going to happen to him health-wise and you only have Pompey and minor league fodder as backup. This might be a $2.6 million insurance policy on LF for the year on a lefty with some power which is actually something we need.

Edit - Misread his salary info. He's making $8.5 million average but $12.5 million this year.

So yah they'd have to send a lot more for this to make sense. Basically you have to determine how much Saunders insurance is worth. It's definitely not worth $9.5 million (difference between Bruce and Saunders salary in 2016).

I'd take Saunders straight up, but I grant that there's not a huge difference between the two as players (especially when you account for the fact that Saunders can't stay on the field). Bruce's salary, though, makes no sense for this team. The Reds would need to be paying for most of the 13.5M he's owed to make this deal even somewhat tenable for the Jays.

rarefind wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

Very odd that after your star RF steals the media attention your immediate response is to be linked to another corner outfield power bat. This one might be cooked up folks. Bruce sucked in 14', had a decent 15'... could be a resurgence candidate in 16' with a team friendly team option for 17'. He isn't going to be any worse than Michael Saunders and if he is terrible next year, you cut him loose. Just hope Cincy is sending $ in part and we aren't dumping prospects.

He put up a 78 wRC+ in 2014 and a 91 wRC+ in 2015. Oh, he very much could be worse than Michael Saunders in 2016.

Raptor_Guy wrote:Do we know how much the 2017 team option is worth?

13m

pls let this be a false false rumour ...

i'd rather take the chance with saunders ... and let pompey play

Randle McMurphy wrote:

rarefind wrote:

Randle McMurphy wrote:Hoping this is just an elaborate ploy to get the Bautista news out of the media cycle. Bruce isn't good.

Very odd that after your star RF steals the media attention your immediate response is to be linked to another corner outfield power bat. This one might be cooked up folks. Bruce sucked in 14', had a decent 15'... could be a resurgence candidate in 16' with a team friendly team option for 17'. He isn't going to be any worse than Michael Saunders and if he is terrible next year, you cut him loose. Just hope Cincy is sending $ in part and we aren't dumping prospects.

He put up a 78 wRC+ in 2014 and a 91 wRC+ in 2015. Oh, he very much could be worse than Michael Saunders in 2016.

Michael Saunders has played 87 games in the last 2 seasons. You have to think the Reds are sending money back for such a last minute deal to be consummated by the Jays. I'd rather be paying Bruce 2.5x more than Saunders to have the former on the roster.

This rumour doesn't add up. Where are the Jays getting the money to go +$10mil this season? If they had $10mil in the budget, why would they not spend it on pitching?

I don't understand this unless we're making some other big moves before the season

Why? It' s not that the Jays don't want pitching--it's that they don't want to spend the draft pick and would prefer to create it. I think they have more money than they have spent--and Shapiro has apparently been asking for more.

Given the uncertainty in contracts with Bautista and Encarnacion--I think the Jays are moving towards creating a new young vet core in the field(for the next few years following their departure, anyway)--Pillar, Bruce, Donaldson, Martin, Goins, (Tulo)/Travis

We'll see what happens, but if the Jays no longer are considering having either major slugger back for any term, their long term financial commitments are pretty open (outside of Tulo).

There's probably evidence to prove me wrong lol but sanders looked lost at the plate last few times I saw him.

Jay Bruce is basically what the Colby Rasmus haters thought Rasmus actually was.