Heyman: Blue Jays Sign Curtis Granderson (1 YR, $5M)

[zilby]

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The Power move we’ve all been waiting for. Contention, here we come!

[dagger]

Pending a physical - hope they check for dementia.

[fouronesix22]

sigh... tis gonna be a long year

[T-d0t]

Always knew one day he'd be a blue jay

[sule]

If he plays decent, maybe we can 'Liriano' him at the deadline and get back a relatively high-floor prospect.

[Tanner]

Still hit Rhp pretty well last season, and fangraphs has rated his defence in RF nicely the past three seasons (combined +20 DRS and +8.7 UZR over that span). He's old but still a solid player, and the price is not out of line.

Grandy/Diaz/Solarte is a solid off season so far. Nothing flashy but more value in than value out, and nothing that hurts the team short or long term. Exactly the type of off season they should have had. Incremental wins plus regression (positively) for the existing talent might make them a WC contender, and if not, they have expiring vets pieces that they can move at the deadline for whatever they can get.

[Wo1verine]

Apparently incentives included in the Grandy man's contract.

Also both Heyman and Nightengale say we are looking for another outfielder time will tell.

[dagger]

Still hit Rhp pretty well last season, and fangraphs has rated his defence in RF nicely the past three seasons (combined +20 DRS and +8.7 UZR over that span). He's old but still a solid player, and the price is not out of line.

Grandy/Diaz/Solarte is a solid off season so far. Nothing flashy but more value in than value out, and nothing that hurts the team short or long term. Exactly the type of off season they should have had. Incremental wins plus regression (positively) for the existing talent might make them a WC contender, and if not, they have expiring vets pieces that they can move at the deadline for whatever they can get.

"More value in than out" - That's truly tallest-midget-in-the room stuff. Give it a rest. This is a two-month hold to see if Sanchez can pitch, Osuna has it together mentally, Travis has it together physically, Happ and Estrada aren't over the hill, Hernandez can avoid striking out every third at bat and Luke Maile can come within 100 points of the Mendoza Line. It's a well constructed Hollywood set in which a dozen major things have to break right for this team to win more than 81 games.

Don't get me wrong. I'm actually encouraged management hasn't done anything really stupid, and if things happen to break right and the team makes the playoffs, I'll savour it, but colour me skeptical of our chances.

[JaysRule15]

Not a bad deal. And we can move him at the deadline for a decent prospect if he's having a good season.

Hopefully we continue to demonstrate patience. Last thing this team need is another Morales type signing where we're hamstrung with an overpaid vet for multiple years.

[C Court]

The Jays are looking to 2019. Seems like a one year, low risk stop gap. Might win the Jays a few games and keep Rogers happy with paying customers at the ball park. Not tanking, but not playing meaningful ball in September.

[Brinbe]

Plan the parade

[Tanner]

Still hit Rhp pretty well last season, and fangraphs has rated his defence in RF nicely the past three seasons (combined +20 DRS and +8.7 UZR over that span). He's old but still a solid player, and the price is not out of line.

Grandy/Diaz/Solarte is a solid off season so far. Nothing flashy but more value in than value out, and nothing that hurts the team short or long term. Exactly the type of off season they should have had. Incremental wins plus regression (positively) for the existing talent might make them a WC contender, and if not, they have expiring vets pieces that they can move at the deadline for whatever they can get.

"More value in than out" - That's truly tallest-midget-in-the room stuff. Give it a rest. This is a two-month hold to see if Sanchez can pitch, Osuna has it together mentally, Travis has it together physically, Happ and Estrada aren't over the hill, Hernandez can avoid striking out every third at bat and Luke Maile can come within 100 points of the Mendoza Line. It's a well constructed Hollywood set in which a dozen major things have to break right for this team to win more than 81 games.

Don't get me wrong. I'm actually encouraged management hasn't done anything really stupid, and if things happen to break right and the team makes the playoffs, I'll savour it, but colour me skeptical of our chances.

You didn't want the front office to blow their load to try to win in 2018. They haven't.

You want the team to rebuild, and have about a half a dozen older vets whose contracts will expire after 2018, which means trade bait if the team is out of it.

They used two fringe prospects, one with some upside if you believe he can improve his hit tool, for two infielders with a combined eight years of control left, one of whom was bought at about his lowest value (Diaz).

The Jays added two "back-up" infielders and a platoon outfielder at age 37 and have the sixth best projected record in the AL (likely up to 84 wins with the 1 projected win Granderson adds). They are spending a combined $11-12m for those three players in 2018. They added incremental wins to a team that projects a lot better than some of you want to believe. Maybe that projection is wrong, but if it is, they can pivot. If it's right, and they are in the race at the deadline, they can make more incremental adds at the deadline and see what happens.

In other words, I have no idea what your argument is. If they can't rebuild due to ownership, and clearly they can't, then this is about the most logical way to build the team for 2018 and beyond.

[BramptonYute]

Lol...

[dagger]

In other words, I have no idea what your argument is. If they can't rebuild due to ownership, and clearly they can't, then this is about the most logical way to build the team for 2018 and beyond.

My argument has been consistent all along: get on with the rebuild. Don't risk losing value on another injury plagued season. The fact ownership has other ideas hasn't dimmed my belief that the best thing to do for long-term sustainable success is to move on now, now in July.

[spykelee]

Wooooo f'n hooo

...

Older and more unathletic! At least it'll be a quick re-tool when were complete garbage.

[Tanner]

In other words, I have no idea what your argument is. If they can't rebuild due to ownership, and clearly they can't, then this is about the most logical way to build the team for 2018 and beyond.

My argument has been consistent all along: get on with the rebuild. Don't risk losing value on another injury plagued season. The fact ownership has other ideas hasn't dimmed my belief that the best thing to do for long-term sustainable success is to move on now, now in July.

But if the front office's hands are tied as far as team direction, then shouldn't these types of moves be considered a positive?

Based on everything they have done sine the trade deadline '17, it's clear to me they are setting up for a retool/rebuild in 2019. If/when they lose Donaldson after this season, there is very little chance they can cobble together even an 80 win team with the existing talent on the roster, and Shatkins knows that. They haven't even pretended to try to build a contender for 2018. The two infielders they added likely add more value to the team in 2019 when one is likely going to replace JD at third (Solarte), and the other is likely going to get a ton of playing time up the middle depending on who they have at 2B/SS (Diaz). Granderson is just a warm body to help the 2018 as much as possible and being easily disposable if he sucks or a movable piece at the deadline if the team is out of it.

Really, we should be thrilled this front office is making moves like this, instead of looking at Cain or other long term expensive free agent signings. If any front office is going to work around the Rogers limitations, it's this one.

[Lateral Quicks]

BBRef has Granderson as a career 45 WAR player - never thought he was that good.

$5M for a 1-2 WAR guy is pretty good value. Should be an improvement on last year's version of Bautista. Personally I would rather have rolled with Hernandez et al, but management is obviously trying to keep of appearances of contending.

[Schad]

Sure, why not. We didn't have the money to go big, and that's actually quite cheap relative to Granderson's production in recent years. If he falls off a cliff, not a huge loss.

[Kinger95]

People need to realize this year ownership has told the front office they can’t blow it up yet because we need to ride out the Donaldson situation and also get 1 year closer to the kids being ready. Next offseason is where the big changes and decisions are made

[So_Fresh]

I like this deal. It's short term. Granderson can platoon with Pearce in LF. He also adds some speed that we sorely miss. He can't hit lefties, but crushes right handed pitchers. We need another OF. Go after Gonzales and sign him to a 1 year deal and get us another SP and we should be good to go.