Bench player options are Aplenty

North_of_Border · Post #1 » by **North_of_Border** » Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:51 pm

Jays don’t need to sit their young guys on the bench and waste, but there are a lot of good cheap veterans available this offseason.

Adam Lind, Brett Lawrie, Jayson Werth, Curtis Granderson, Melky Cabrera, Adam Eithier, Auston Jackson, Mark Reynolds.... and more

All these guys would likely accept a bench role and costs pennies.

My choice would be Melky and Lawrie.

Lateral Quicks · Post #2 » by **Lateral Quicks** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:18 am

You want good defense, defensive versatility, and preferably some speed as well from your bench players (aside from backup catcher). Melky is a liability in the field, and Lawrie can't play short. Not to mention Lawrie is a bit of a head case.

Post #3 » by **Schad** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 2:17 am

Lateral Quicks wrote:You want good defense, defensive versatility, and preferably some speed as well from your bench players (aside from backup catcher). Melky is a liability in the field, and Lawrie can't play short. Not to mention Lawrie is a bit of a head case.

Also, Lawrie didn't play organized baseball at all last year.

Further, yeah...most of those guys are defensive liabilities who no longer hit enough to be worthwhile on that basis alone. Curtis Granderson is the lone exception, but I'd be pretty surprised if he can't find $6-8m somewhere.

We should absolutely be targeting cheap vets where possible (or lower-ceilinged guys from our system) to fill the bench, but that list is mostly guys who are washed up.