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Of course we already know that there's no team dumb enough to take on "the worst contract in baseball." Ugh.

Anyway Bastian cites a discussion he had with AA who says that we shouldn't expect the team to shift Wells out of CF anytime soon:

In December, during a sit-down with Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, Wells' defensive decline was brought up. Anthopoulos was asked if the team had considered shifting Wells out of center field in order to help the outfield defense. Anthopoulos said that was not something the club has discussed.

"We don't have any plans of that at all. We consider him a mainstay in center field," Anthopoulos said. "If Vernon was older, it might be more of a concern. He's still a young guy and he also made some tremendous plays as well. There's times he didn't make great plays, but he also made a lot of tremendous plays. It's just to the point that we expect it, so if he doesn't come up with a ball or comes close, those are the ones that stick out like a sore thumb, because it's rare."

I can't tell whether AA simply hasn't watched Vernon enough in CF, doesn't understand the defensive metrics which say Wells is awful, or if he's just trying to protect what little trade value Vernon still has. It's not like there's a replacement waiting in the wings like Rios was, but still his comments were worrisome. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Hoopstarr wrote:I can't tell whether AA simply hasn't watched Vernon enough in CF, doesn't understand the defensive metrics which say Wells is awful, or if he's just trying to protect what little trade value Vernon still has. It's not like there's a replacement waiting in the wings like Rios was, but still his comments were worrisome. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

AA has established that, at a baseline, he's competent; believing Wells is still a good center fielder would be such a remarkable feat of self-delusion that I can't imagine any baseball mind outside Steve Phillips that could actually believe it.

We'll never know, but I wonder if Anthopoulos would have let Rios go as Riccardi did. As inconsistent as he was with the bat he was a consistently great fielder and I think the team (particularly the pitchers) are really going to miss that.

I've got somewhat of a gut feeling that it was a Beeston move to let him go so maybe it wouldn't have mattered; something about the old guy makes me think he would have little tolerance for Rios' incident outside the ROM.

youngLion wrote:We'll never know, but I wonder if Anthopoulos would have let Rios go as Riccardi did. As inconsistent as he was with the bat he was a consistently great fielder and I think the team (particularly the pitchers) are really going to miss that.

I've got somewhat of a gut feeling that it was a Beeston move to let him go so maybe it wouldn't have mattered; something about the old guy makes me think he would have little tolerance for Rios' incident outside the ROM.

I read somewhere that the trade was ordered by Beeston. Then when JP fielded offers, there were teams that were willing to take on the whole contract AND give up players in return, but Beeston put the kibosh on that, opting for a straight salary dump.

But the "and give up players in return" wouldn't have been propects, they would've been salaries. Not necessarily overpaid guys, but guys making real money. Basically guys in Rios' salary to talent ratio with roughly a trade value of zero, so I get why Beeston, or any GM, would rather hold onto their money and use it somewhere else. I was, and no matter what he does subsequently, always will be a firm believer in that particular dump.

As for VW in CF, there's no way they haven't discussed moving him to the corner, but I think it's easy for him to say this 'cause he has zero alternatives. Lind, Snider, and Bautista? No CF in that group. If he makes a trade for a CF that moves VW later, he'll say it was the value, not the need to move VW around. AA has to pretend VW can still do things, cross his fingers, pray he has a ridiculous comeback year and he finds a desperate GM who'll take 60% of his remaining deal. I doubt he's any more optimistic about his chances than we are, but what other option is there? When you've got the worst contract in the history of professional sports on your team, there's very little to be done.

Schadenfreude wrote:

Hoopstarr wrote:I can't tell whether AA simply hasn't watched Vernon enough in CF, doesn't understand the defensive metrics which say Wells is awful, or if he's just trying to protect what little trade value Vernon still has. It's not like there's a replacement waiting in the wings like Rios was, but still his comments were worrisome. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

AA has established that, at a baseline, he's competent; believing Wells is still a good center fielder would be such a remarkable feat of self-delusion that I can't imagine any baseball mind outside Steve Phillips that could actually believe it.

Agreed. I think the reasoning is: there is no one waiting to take his place. Wouldnt surprise me, too, that he could be trying to help Vernon's busted ego in hopes that he regains some confidence in his game.