Lind traded to Brewers for Marco Estrada

[dagger]

I'm less concerned about last winter, to be frank, than what lies ahead. Last winter, there was the excuse that 2013 had been full of an unbelievable number of injuries. Reyes went out early, and never played a 100%. Melky, it was later discovered, had a tumour on his spine. Lind, Bautista, etc. all had injuries. Happ got beaned. Johnson was pathetic. Santos was injured, Morrow was injured, etc. JPA had been both a horrible catcher/hitter, but also a whiney distraction, and Navarro, signed early in free agency, had to be better than JPA (and was). Rasmius progressed and might progress further, Lawrie might make progress on his realizing his potential. There might well have been a narrative in head office that this team was ripe to bounce back in 2014, and for a time, actually did - until the predictable injuries and lack of answers at a couple of positions, including a bullpen that went sharply south, knocked the Jays out of the race. So maybe Rogers and management had a "show-me" stance that explained the lack of added FA spending last winter. And maybe they took an objective look at this team in July and decided that nothing they could have done was going to salvage the season. After all, around the time of the ASG, all of the Jays' injured were supposed to be back by August. But as we know, the Jays rarely get a player back according to the original forecast date. Laurie never returned, Lind and EE took a lot longer than originally believed. Maybe management knew this, that their return would come later than they were saying publicly, and that nothing they could do would make up for the loss of value they represented.

What we saw last year, until late June, was probably the optimum for his group: competitive, but flawed, possibly a playoff contender but only as long as everyone remained healthy. That scenario didn't allow for Rasmus' regression either, or the egregious state of the bullpen, especially from June onward once Casey has his illness at the all-star break.

Okay, I've given out the maximum benefit of the doubt to ownership and management. The second half of the season showed that this team, as constituted, is physically and mentally fragile. It doesn't handle adversity well. The Orioles lost Machado and Weiters, and didn't skip a beat. Along comes Caleb Joseph and they just chug along. Okay, the Jays didn't have a Caleb Joseph - or any other position player - in the high minors that could compensate for the extended absences of EE, Lind, Lawrie, etc.

My concern is about the coming season. Moving around the deck chairs here won't do it. Closing a hole by opening up another isn't going to do it because there will always be injuries. Either the team admit they can't currently support a value equation that translates into a winner - given current talent + contracts + plus lack of good young position talent in the high minors - and rebuilds, or it spends more in the short term (beyond contracted increases) to add to the NET value of the talent on the major league roster. I'd like to think Rogers and management would do the latter, but I am very skeptical. I think they will tolerate a slightly lower overall value to keep bums in seats and eyes on screens, but not enough to move the needle towards the playoffs. And we know that both Boston and New York will make the moves necessary to improve their relative standing.

[MikeM]

The Royals almost won the WS by throwing **** at the wall in the off-season and with a brain dead manager.

All you have to do in baseball is remain competitive and you got a shot. Maybe Aaron Sanchez becomes Yordano Ventura next year. Or maybe he's Kelvin Herrera and Norris is Ventura. Who the hell knows. But I like the idea of trying to win every year and seeing what happens when we have superstars like Bautista and EE still on the roster.

[Sifu]

I like to believe that Rogers putting the amount of cash they did into there NHL deal as well as the massive expansion of both Sportsnet and CBC studios was the reason that the purse strings were not opened up this season. We shall see in the subsequent years whether or not that's the case, but I like to believe (Hope), a team that had a top 10 payroll does have ownership that is committed and willing to take on salary in the right circumstances.

The Jays have the tenth highest payroll. And a lot of people point to that to indicate Rogers commitment to the team.

However, given the viewership that is I think the highest in all of Baseball, and a market that rivals the largest in the US, this team should have the capability of being a top five payroll.

This nickle and diming is ridiculous.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Ado05]

Remember when AA was a ninja? Good times.

I assume AA wants to trade Happ. Wouldnt be opposed to deal around him and Howie Kendrick.

[Raps_Swingman]

So far I've got no clue what AA is up to this offseason. Gibbons basically said he wants Pompey starting in CF next season and with Lind gone EE will mostly DH.

So are we going the Oakland platoon route? Right now the only constant in our OF is Joey Bats in RF.

I have no idea what the winter holds. But I'm with dagger, spend now with the core talent still here or send them packing. Although I'm pretty sure they'll just got for a middling team again….