Official Blue Jays 2025 Spring Training Thread

[Jerry Lucas]

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[WuTang_CMB]

Happy for Roden. Def deserved it.

Wagner makes it too

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[dagger]

I suspect Barger will be back with Varsho unless Straw can sustain his offensive revival into the regular season.

[Jerry Lucas]

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[GoRapstheoriginal]

Springer with a GREAT catch in Center field today!

[WuTang_CMB]

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[Mehar]

Jays extend Kirk, 58/5

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Boom. Great extension for one of the best catchers in the game. They chose well a few years ago.

The best catcher at what? Turning Doubles into Singles? Hitting into inning ending double plays? The best at being the slowest running catcher in MLB? Your delusions about this guy based on his very good first half of 2022 is comical. He is nowhere near one of the best Catchers in the game.

He had an atrocious 2023 and a large chunk of 2024, based on his OPS and other hitting metrics (SLG, On Base, BA, etc). This was an overpay, but I guess when your Catching depth is so thin this organization made another panic move to pay nearly 12 m a year for this slow turtle who also needs to be "load managed" because of his fat frame. Just like their panic move when they foolishly meet Vlad's demands eventually. Another joke contract handed out based on Kirk's one very good first half of 2023. He has been mediocre ever since.

[Mehar]

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Arguably the worst bullpen in the AL East, when you have guys like Barnes and Lovelady taking up roster spots. That 12 million this organization flushed down the toilet taking Straw off the books from Cleveland, could have been reinvested more into this bullpen. It needs another two decent relievers now with Swanson injured also.

[dagger]

Roden is pretty much rescuing one of the Jays biggest draft year flops. 2022 was supposed to be a kickstarter, two extra comp picks in the second round. Roden, the 98th pick of the draft (on Day 2), was available for underslot money - part of the strategy in picking him - because he was a contact/high OBP first baseman at Creighton, so not the ideal profile for drafting a 1B that high. Signing him underslot left room to bonus up the four Jays picks before him, none of whom has made the majors although Josh Kasevich ought to get there eventually for some team as a strong glove high OBP SS. The Jays immediately turned Roden into a corner outfielder, and the rest has played out rather well. I also like fifth round pitcher Ryan Jennings, who will pitch at Buffalo, a starter most of his career, the Jays shifted him to relief at New Hampshire last year. (Hope springs eternal for first rounder Brandon Barriera, who has spent most of his career to date out of shape and injured, but I suppose there is a chance he might pan out as something, eventually. A prep pick ,he at least isn't too old to surprise us.)

[Randle McMurphy]

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What a deal.

[Hottie McShotty]

Jays extend Kirk, 58/5

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Boom. Great extension for one of the best catchers in the game. They chose well a few years ago.

The best catcher at what? Turning Doubles into Singles? Hitting into inning ending double plays? The best at being the slowest running catcher in MLB? Your delusions about this guy based on his very good first half of 2022 is comical. He is nowhere near one of the best Catchers in the game.

He had an atrocious 2023 and a large chunk of 2024, based on his OPS and other hitting metrics (SLG, On Base, BA, etc). This was an overpay, but I guess when your Catching depth is so thin this organization made another panic move to pay nearly 12 m a year for this slow turtle who also needs to be "load managed" because of his fat frame. Just like their panic move when they foolishly meet Vlad's demands eventually. Another joke contract handed out based on Kirk's one very good first half of 2023. He has been mediocre ever since.

Ignore Randle. He tends to troll a lot on these boards. This is a terrible signing. Kirk would be a backup catcher on any other MLB team. He's mediocre at every level. He can't run and hits into double plays like no other player in the majors. Another ridiculous contract was handed out by this inept management team. I can't wait when they are all gone!

[WuTang_CMB]

how can u not love this guy

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[Mehar]

Boom. Great extension for one of the best catchers in the game. They chose well a few years ago.

The best catcher at what? Turning Doubles into Singles? Hitting into inning ending double plays? The best at being the slowest running catcher in MLB? Your delusions about this guy based on his very good first half of 2022 is comical. He is nowhere near one of the best Catchers in the game.

He had an atrocious 2023 and a large chunk of 2024, based on his OPS and other hitting metrics (SLG, On Base, BA, etc). This was an overpay, but I guess when your Catching depth is so thin this organization made another panic move to pay nearly 12 m a year for this slow turtle who also needs to be "load managed" because of his fat frame. Just like their panic move when they foolishly meet Vlad's demands eventually. Another joke contract handed out based on Kirk's one very good first half of 2023. He has been mediocre ever since.

Ignore Randle. He tends to troll a lot on these boards. This is a terrible signing. Kirk would be a backup catcher on any other MLB team. He's mediocre at every level. He can't run and hits into double plays like no other player in the majors. Another ridiculous contract was handed out by this inept management team. I can't wait when they are all gone!

I agree. Kirk would be a good backup catcher on most MLB teams. However, ignoring his very good first half of 2022, Kirk has been a major disappointment and underwhelming on all the offensive hitting metrics ever since like OPS, SLG, BA, On Base (including his terrible 2023 season, and most of 2024). It is laughable to call him the one of the best Catchers in MLB.

Maybe Randle has a fetish for liking short, slow, fat, out of shape 270 pound catchers who need to be "load managed", and who turns Doubles into Singles and regularly hits into Double Plays because he runs as fast a turtle. To pay Kirk nearly 12 million a year over 5 years is a joke based on his overall 2023 and 2024 year.

Dumb and Dumber Shapiro and Atkins throw money around like it is Christmas Candy, and then talk about how they are in Luxury Tax territory on this terribly constructed team. Hopefully Rogers ownership wakes up after this year and ends this decade of incompetence of this pathetic leadership; with one of the worst farm systems in MLB after this team misses the playoffs, and is below .500 for the year on this bloated over 200 million dollar payroll like I expect they will be.

[bartron_44]

I think the comment comes from him being a former all-star, and a GG finalist in the AL last year. I gotta give the kid credit. His only issue on defense was his arm, and he put the time and work in to SIGNIFICANTLY improve that part of his game.

Also, he may have been severely out of shape when he arrived a few years ago, but not anymore. He just isnt blessed with fast twitch muscle in his legs. He will never be able to run. He is one of the better catchers at hitting for average and getting in base, If he stays healthy, he should get like another 200 PAs compared to the last 2 seasons to improve those counting stats like RBIs, HRs and doubles too.

I dont think he will ever hit 30 HRs, but if Schneider hits him in the middle of the order all season he could drive in 90+ runs with his ability to hit the ball all over the field, and hit against the kind of velocity teams are running out of their bullpens these days.

His inability to run though is why I think they really screwed up not keeping Bethancourt over TH. Not sure why they were afraid to lose TH for a 4th time….makes zero sense.


58M for 5 years is a steal imo. That buys basically his entire prime. I wouldnt call him one of the best catchers though. Not unless he has a breakout season as the starter.

[dagger]

I like the Kirk contract. The team's total salary pie keeps getting bigger, so a deal averaging $11 million looks pretty good. A lot of starting catchers get paid less. I expect him to have a good offensive year, he's in decent shape for his body type. He's a good framer, throws out a respectable percentage of runners. I certainly not down on him, I'd just prefer a better backup and I'd rather not depend on Kirk to be our fifth batter in the order, but that's not his fault. If he was never batting higher than 6-9 with his current production, this contract would seem even better.

[Michael Bradley]

Not sure how anyone can complain about the Kirk contract. He just turned 26 and is one of the best defensive catchers in the league with some upside with the bat. He's coming off a 2.8 WAR while underperforming his xwOBA (so there's definitely room for improvement there). ZiPS is projecting his WAR over the next 3 seasons to be 3.5, 3.2, and 3.2, which isn't unreasonable at all. If that were to happen then he would have already exceeded the value of the contract with another 3 years left on the deal. Obviously there is some risk involved (mostly due to his weight/conditioning), but when Shapiro talked about "shared risk" before, this is what it looks like. The Jays could "lose" on this deal, but it's far more likely that they end up ahead, if not significantly ahead in surplus value.

[bartron_44]

This is exactly what they needed to do with Bo and Vlad… 2 years ago. Everyone got mad they didn’t get it done then at the time. Now they complain when they actually get it done with Kirk?

Another thing to consider…. Who is coming up to replace him? Not a lot of catching talent in the minors now. He was another “must sign” type of player, just like Bo and Vlad are.

Has anyone asked Atkins/Shapiro about their current talks with Bo’s agent? I know he likely had to wait behind Vlad, but what about Bo? Is he simply sitting back and waiting to see how much they are willing to pay not to lose Vladdy, and then asking for something in the same ballpark?

[Parataxis]

Another thing to consider…. Who is coming up to replace him? Not a lot of catching talent in the minors now. He was another “must sign” type of player, just like Bo and Vlad are.

I really like this in terms of timelines. Five years is enough time that we can pick up a catching prospect in the draft, give them a few years to develop, and then bring them up as Kirk's backup before transitioning them to the starting spot as Kirk starts to decline after this contract.

[JaysRule25]

Yea no issues at all with the Kirk extension. Look around the league, catching isn't exactly a position of strength for teams. Despite his shortcomings, Kirk's floor is still a top 15 catcher in the league and his ceiling could be top 5-7. You take that all day long at that price point. I do wish we had a better backup option though. Kirk's body type might mean he's more at risk of fatigue/injury if he's overplayed, having a decent backup to keep Kirk fresh would've been really helpful.

[rarefind]

The Kirk deal is fine.

Even if he doesn't hit if he just continues to be a good/great defender the deal is worth it. He's a top 5-10 catcher and he is only 26. What did you guys expect here?