Help the Jays Sign Prince Fielder

[-MetA4-]

This assumption that AA does not want to sign Fielder is gold.

What is more likely ?

That a GM, who has stated numerous times his desire to place elite talent at every position, has no desire to sign a readily available elite talent

or

That Rogers is too **** cheap to support their GM in his desire to chase said player.

AA may not want to sign Fielder because a move for Fielder puts the team into an automatic win-now mode that dictates that the next year or two will be spent pushing towards building a team that is supposed to "contend". Like I've said a million times...do you ever consider that he simply does not feel ready to make a decision as drastic as that?

We aren't a team that has unlimited resources so the choice of when to put the team into "win now" mode is extremely delicate. This is what AA has said about a hundred times. Some of you will argue that we have Bautista who is in his prime so that means we should be looking to "win now"; but the unfortunate reality is that this is not basketball where having one of the best players in the league on your roster means that you are one or two big moves away from a championship. The reality is that Bautista may not even be a component of a playoff Toronto team.

Some of you are looking at this through an extremely narrow lens: Fielder is an obvious improvement that will help win us a few more games, our payroll is fairly small, so why not make the move? The reality is that signing Fielder wouldn't be about winning a "few more games"; signing Fielder would dictate a drastic shift towards the direction of the team. It would also put AA on the clock with regards to being judged for the product being put on the field.

[flatjacket1]

Its worth noting our attendance is crap to begin with, its not like we'd be using the money we are rolling in to sign Fielder.

[Strav]

This assumption that AA does not want to sign Fielder is gold.

What is more likely ?

That a GM, who has stated numerous times his desire to place elite talent at every position, has no desire to sign a readily available elite talent

or

That Rogers is too **** cheap to support their GM in his desire to chase said player.

AA may not want to sign Fielder because a move for Fielder puts the team into an automatic win-now mode that dictates that the next year or two will be spent pushing towards building a team that is supposed to "contend". Like I've said a million times...do you ever consider that he simply does not feel ready to make a decision as drastic as that?

We aren't a team that has unlimited resources so the choice of when to put the team into "win now" mode is extremely delicate. This is what AA has said about a hundred times. Some of you will argue that we have Bautista who is in his prime so that means we should be looking to "win now"; but the unfortunate reality is that this is not basketball where having one of the best players in the league on your roster means that you are one or two big moves away from a championship. The reality is that Bautista may not even be a component of a playoff Toronto team.

Some of you are looking at this through an extremely narrow lens: Fielder is an obvious improvement that will help win us a few more games, our payroll is fairly small, so why not make the move? The reality is that signing Fielder wouldn't be about winning a "few more games"; signing Fielder would dictate a drastic shift towards the direction of the team. It would also put AA on the clock with regards to being judged for the product being put on the field.

nice post, but I think you'll still have a couple of years more to really round out the roster and declare that you're going for it if you were to sign Fielder now. I think it's all about the fact that he IS available to sign, whereas in years past we wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of landing someone of his caliber in the offseason because we'd be bidding against the likes of the Yanks, BoSox, etc.

[FreeAgent]

This assumption that AA does not want to sign Fielder is gold.

What is more likely ?

That a GM, who has stated numerous times his desire to place elite talent at every position, has no desire to sign a readily available elite talent

or

That Rogers is too **** cheap to support their GM in his desire to chase said player.

AA may not want to sign Fielder because a move for Fielder puts the team into an automatic win-now mode that dictates that the next year or two will be spent pushing towards building a team that is supposed to "contend". Like I've said a million times...do you ever consider that he simply does not feel ready to make a decision as drastic as that?

We aren't a team that has unlimited resources so the choice of when to put the team into "win now" mode is extremely delicate. This is what AA has said about a hundred times. Some of you will argue that we have Bautista who is in his prime so that means we should be looking to "win now"; but the unfortunate reality is that this is not basketball where having one of the best players in the league on your roster means that you are one or two big moves away from a championship. The reality is that Bautista may not even be a component of a playoff Toronto team.

Some of you are looking at this through an extremely narrow lens: Fielder is an obvious improvement that will help win us a few more games, our payroll is fairly small, so why not make the move? The reality is that signing Fielder wouldn't be about winning a "few more games"; signing Fielder would dictate a drastic shift towards the direction of the team. It would also put AA on the clock with regards to being judged for the product being put on the field.

Along these lines, I think that AA isn't trying to build the team around Bautista, but around its starting rotation. He probably isn't ready to make that FA investment until the rotation rounds into form (Hutch, Syndergaard, McGuire). Having Bautista just makes his job a little easier.

[Rhettmatic]

Jon Heyman continues to report that we're in on Prince:

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman
#mariners are trying for #prince, as well. blue jays and rangers among teams showing interest and thinking hard about it.

Is he simply wrong? Getting the info from Boras? Or could he really have info on the Jays' thinking that none of the local guys do?

[WpgPage]

Jon Heyman continues to report that we're in on Prince:

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman
#mariners are trying for #prince, as well. blue jays and rangers among teams showing interest and thinking hard about it.

Is he simply wrong? Getting the info from Boras? Or could he really have info on the Jays' thinking that none of the local guys do?

Boras just trying to drive up the market.

[tempests_dawn]

The bizarre thing is Heyman usually reports on stuff that's already been reported on, especially when he's tweeting about it. He's like the US version of Doug Smith, but at a national scale.