What would you do?

[Wo1verine]

Keep JoeyBats, Edwin (plus top prospects) re-sign Cabrera and retool with trading vets for salary relief and whatever value we can get for them - Spend the savings on this upcoming FA market.

That's the best plan, IMO.

[Raps_Swingman]

Casey - he gone
Santos - take him out to pasture
Colby - smell ya later

Re-sign Melky -
Pick up Lind's option

Trade either old balls Dickey or Buerhle(preferably)
Trade JA Happ or keep him for ST in case Norris or Sanchez don't make the big club.

Run out a rotation of:
Stroman
Dickey
Hutch
Sanchez
Norris

From there, an upgrade or 2 needs to be made to the bench. Fat Juan or Valencia may stay. We will get Izturis back I'm assuming? Or was he just a 2 year deal?

To me Kawasaki stays as a bench guy, he's been great this year. Can field all infield positions fairly well.

Go at it again, hope we stay healthy and try to mix in the young guys as much as possible so that if we falter early then we go in full rebuild mode and dump our big bashers.

[wazabifuzz]

sign and trade for Stanton

[MikeM]

If you could guarantee me Lind would be healthy all year I'd pick up his option. But otherwise I'm not sure I would when a Francisco/Valencia platoon could probably get over .800 OPS cumulatively for like a million bucks.

I like the idea of trading Dickey for a CF platoon guy and a reliever then giving his money to Hardy. I wonder when the Royals lose Shields if they might want DIckey for Jarrod Dyson and Herrera or something like that.

C Navarro
1B Encarnacion
2B Reyes
SS Hardy
3B Lawrie
LF Cabrera
CF Dyson/Pillar
RF Bautista
DH Francisco/Valencia

Then use all our available money on pitching. Could have about 30M left?

[Regulator]

Blow it up. This team is rotten to its core.

[dballislife]

We don't gotta blow anything up...we 1 great starter and touch ups away from contending

Sent from my SGH-M919V using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Sifu]

This team is only three players away from contending! Unfortunately, those players are Kershaw, Tulowitzki and Trout

Sent from my Nexus 4 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Marmoset]

When you fail at something by a significant margin twice in a row, whatever it is, usually you change your approach before you try again.

If you come back with the same group again, why should you expect a different result? Injuries? Every team has injuries. The Orioles are a fluke? Are they a fluke in consecutive seasons? And so on.

It's time to move out the core of a team that has been mediocre at best while their key players have good value in trades. If they get some good young position players back, that can be combined with their existing and upcoming young pitching to have a good team on the field again sooner rather than later. I believe if this is done now it could only be 2-3 years before this team is potentially a contender. If they try and force another year out of the current group I think it will be a 5-year rebuild as the older guys lose value and start to decline.

[dagger]

I have a feeling that re-signing or losing Melky will be crucial. He leaves, the rest of the core goes in trades.

[UN-Owen]

I have a feeling that re-signing or losing Melky will be crucial. He leaves, the rest of the core goes in trades.

Cabrera is a journeyman outfielder

Sure, he's a decent enough player having a decent enough season, but in no way should he be the hinge that swings a team's direction

[Schad]

I have a feeling that re-signing or losing Melky will be crucial. He leaves, the rest of the core goes in trades.

Cabrera is a journeyman outfielder

Sure, he's a decent enough player having a decent enough season, but in no way should he be the hinge that sways a team's direction

Even with last year's disaster included, Melky's averaging more than 3 WAR/150 over the past four years...that's a bit more than a journeyman.

That said, I'd be uncomfortable re-signing him for any length; if his batspeed drops at all, he becomes a massive liability in a hurry.

[C Court]

Someone (not the Jays) will throw stupid money at Melky and he'll be gone.

[whysoserious]

As someone that's a fan from a distance, support all Toronto teams, occasional poster here and not in to the stats as much as you guys I have no clue what to do with this team.

There seems to be fundamental issues with this organization in their style of play and belief. They talk a good game about what's necessary but don't execute on that.

We've all seen the ups and downs of the offense this year and was listening to PTS yesterday discussing the Jays and what needs to be done. Zaun said Joey Bats, EE and Edwin are the guys that gave you exactly what you want this year on the whole. But then they started getting deeper in to it saying well Melky had a good year, Jose was okay overall, Lawrie was hurt but okay, Navarro gave you what you want from a C.

Basically by the end of their debate they were saying to only change the bottom 3 in the batting order but does that really solve the issues with the offense? Was the offense that much of an issue when it ranks as a top offense despite the swings? How do you address the basics and fundamentals that this team lacks in without wholesale changes?

I'm just asking these questions. Additionally we got nothing from the bullpen overall this year and if the goal of this team is to contend next year then you need to upgrade starting pitching and not selling us on Stroman and other young guys filling the spot. Despite their potential, Hutch and Stroman aren't at the point of being fully relied upon. There are still questions with both of them, Buerhle another year older, Dickey another year older, who knows what Morrow is, Happ is a fifth starter so how do you actually contend next year?

[satyr9]

I have a couple dreams that won't happen, but would fix everything. First, Sanchez and Lind for Gregory Polanco. PIT finally gets a 1B, even cheap, although only two years, and the guy to take Liriano's spot and they've got Tabata/Snider for one more year 'til Josh Bell arrives instead of Polanco now. Iffy sure, but they've already paid Marte and McCutchen and they need pitching. Preferably they throw in a AAAA type starter with an option left to be our 7th starter.

I do that pipedream for two reasons; We avoid the Melky sweepstakes, although if he loses and takes the qualifier we're still fine 'cause I'm running Juan/Danny out there in DH now, and potentially find Jose's lineup replacement (obviously that's best case) in the long-term, while simultaneously playing for now and hordeing cash to blow in one fell swoop.

Second, Hutchison for the best Cub infielder you can get. I'm sure Baez and Bryant are off the table. Russell almost assuredly too, although he's my inception dream within a dream (3 levels down it's totally one of the B's). Alcantara or Castro is what you're left with. I'll call it Alcantara (hoping he becomes a long-term play anywhere super-sub guy) and if that, then they have to take Maicer back too.

So I've plugged the lineup and gashed the rotation, right? Well, we've still got Stroman, Dickey, Buehrle, Happ. Norris is my 6th, he starts the year in AAA and is structurally there to replace Buehrle 'cause we're going to be spending his salary a year early on the other SP slot.

Not knowing the arby numbers puts this at 115-120m committed and assuming the same mild payroll bump, now 150m to spend overall. Obviously, that's just a guess.

Next, I'm cutting bait on all our expensive relievers. No more Janssen or McGowan and certainly not Morrow coming back. Looking at what we've got controlled, we'll need one more RH arm for the top with Cecil, then it's Loup/Rasmussen with Redmond/Jenkins/Delabar and hope that Stilson/Ybarra and Nolin/Graveman/Boyd/Drabek can keep it together if/when we have injuries and struggles in the 'pen. It's ugly, but it's certainly not worth investing real money, although they will need 1 arm from outside, but no way I pay for the premium closer sticker and I want more for my money than Dustin gives. 5ishm for one Rh reliever leaving 25-30 for the starter.

That should give me room to get one of Lester, Scherzer, or Shields. This is a huge problem and I may end up crippling this franchise with a debt they can't pay if I'm forced into some 7 or more year monstrosity, but I don't care anymore, three real difference making arms are all going to become UFA and I'm getting one of them. This team will compete next year and for the last week of the season, we're all going to be excited as hell, either 'cause every game will matter or because we're counting down 'til playoff time.