Report: Cards expected to pursue trade for Donaldson

[SharoneWright]

Was surprised to look up and realize I was walking right beside Shapiro at YYZ on Saturday.... Took me about 5 seconds, but just when I was about to tell him to dump the vets for youth, he suddenly veered off. Sadly, my hesitation may end up costing the organization for years to come!

[Raptors Realtor]

Sounds like the Cards are prioritizing Donaldson above Machado because they feel they'd have a better shot at signing him long term...

https://www.tsn.ca/report-cards-pursuing-donaldson-stronger-than-machado-1.947461

[polo007]

You can find a list of the St. Louis Cardinals' top 30 prospects at the following link:

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017/?list=stl

[Davey0]

They have some nice pitching prospects the Jays could add too the team. Of course ( I could be wrong ) the Cardinals would be insane to give up alot next year ( if so ) for a rental player.

[rarefind]

Alex Reyes would be... nice. They'd be dangling their #1 prospect for a rental unless the idea is to extend him prior to the season.

[polo007]

Read on Twitter

Donaldson, finishing off a two-year, $28.6 million contract, is arbitration eligible and could command close to $25 million for next season. It is after the season that is the question. Donaldson could be a free agent and the Cardinals have said they are loathe to give up years of control over potential prospects they might trade for perhaps just one year of Donaldson or Baltimore’s Manny Machado, who seems very likely to file for free agency after next season if he is traded or not.

Donaldson, who is 32, may not be as eager to file for free agency then and often has voiced a desire to stay in Toronto.

As the Blue Jays begin selling season tickets for next year, it might behoove management to make it clear that Donaldson either will be with the club or not so. So, the issue is what would they want if they trade him?

A Major League Baseball source familiar with the Jays said Toronto probably would want two major leaguers — such as a third baseman and a starting pitcher — and a prospect. The Cardinals have two starting third basemen in Matt Carpenter and Jedd Gyorko. They also have a spare outfielder in power hitter Randal Grichuk.

The Cardinals also have young starting pitching, but would they risk it for the possibility of only one year of Donaldson, who had 33 homers last season while missing nearly 50 games because of injury? Two or more prospects would seem to be something the Cardinals would not do with Toronto.

[Tanner]

Reyes, Gyorko, and a lottery ticket type prospect in the lower minors would make sense. Gyorko projected at 2.3 War for 2018, and Reyes has five years of control left and major upside. It also saves the Jays around $11-13m depending on what JD gets in arb. Put that towards more improvements, maybe a free agent like Cain (projected 3.2-3.3 War in 2018), and you've effectively kept the team in the same general win projection except added a huge wild card in Reyes and more controllability. Might be the type of deal Rogers would be ok with.

I don't see the Cards trading Reyes for a rental though, and I wouldn't want to center a package around Gyorko and one of their lesser pitching prospects.

[polo007]

Read on Twitter

The fact is the Blue Jays have good reason to keep pushing, especially given the seismic shifts within the American League East. Longoria’s trade to the San Francisco Giants marked the beginning of Tampa Bay’s reset while the Orioles’ limbo was exacerbated when closer Zach Britton suffered a freak Achilles injury that will cost him six months.

Yes, the Yankees and Boston Red Sox, who also still have most of their off-season business to do, are the obvious pace-setters. But with deft touches and a return to health, starting first and foremost with Aaron Sanchez, there’s no reason why the Blue Jays can’t catch the Minnesota Twins for the second wild card, if not do better.

There’s room for that to happen alongside lingering uncertainty about Donaldson’s longer-term future, too, just the way it did in 2016 when both Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista played out the season as pending free agents, the Blue Jays won a wild card and went to the ALCS.

Whether Donaldson stays or goes during or after 2018 is another matter, and the Blue Jays are sure to re-evaluate ahead of the next trade deadline.

If he finishes out the year in Toronto, one way the Blue Jays could work around their payroll constraints in 2019 – when they face $20 million hits on both Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki – is by backloading an extension, since they have minimal guarantees in 2020 and beyond. Indications are there’s been limited engagement on any sort of extension to this point.

That’s in the wider view.

For now, it’s hard to see the Blue Jays suddenly abandoning course and turning away from all their public statements about competing in 2018, although it’s probably going to take concrete moves for some rival executives and impatient fans to actually believe them.

[Schad]

If he finishes out the year in Toronto, one way the Blue Jays could work around their payroll constraints in 2019 – when they face $20 million hits on both Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki – is by backloading an extension, since they have minimal guarantees in 2020 and beyond. Indications are there’s been limited engagement on any sort of extension to this point.

Dear god. Yeah, paying Donaldson $40m+ when he's 34 and 35 would definitely help us achieve that goal of a long-term contender.

[Tanner]

I know Davidi needs some content to write about when nothing is going on, but I don't think there's any "doubts about the Blue Jays’ direction for next year", as he states in that article.

The Marco Estrada extension only being for one year is a dead giveaway of this team's intentions. Unless they get knocked over with a trade offer for JD, they will keep the same team in 2018 and then pivot in 2019. A Donaldson extension will likely only happen if there is some type of hometown discount (there won't be) or if Rogers really pushes for it (that's possible). We are likely staring at a season where the Jays either contend + lose Donaldson for a comp pick, or fizzle out again and trade JD/Happ/Estrada for anything they can get at the deadline. The Diaz trade doesn't really signify anything as far as team direction; he makes sense for a rebuilding team buying low on a former all star with five years of control left, or for the Jays who need a cheap back up infielder with some upside who could fill in for their toilet tissue soft middle infield. Chances are any subsequent move from here on out will be the same as the last two off seasons (a cheap reliever, a moderately priced SP on a 1 or 2 year deal, a mid tier position player on a 1-3 year deal).

Shapiro knows he can't "go for it" because the team isn't good enough to justify it, and he can't rebuild because of ownership, so this is the compromise. This JD talk, while certainly possible if the Cards want to knock the Jays socks off, is fruitless time filler.

[I_Like_Dirt]

The Marco Estrada extension only being for one year is a dead giveaway of this team's intentions.

Their intentions to sign a pitcher for the coming season because they need somebody to chuck the round white thing in the general vicinity of the plate and Ryan Goins is all but gone? It isn't like they have young pitchers they could bring up instead. I don't think that Estrada extension was a giveaway of anything besides that the Jays don't have a lot of pitching depth and weren't interested in a long-term commitment to Estrada at this stage of his career, which they shouldn't have been.

[Tanner]

The Marco Estrada extension only being for one year is a dead giveaway of this team's intentions.

Their intentions to sign a pitcher for the coming season because they need somebody to chuck the round white thing in the general vicinity of the plate and Ryan Goins is all but gone? It isn't like they have young pitchers they could bring up instead. I don't think that Estrada extension was a giveaway of anything besides that the Jays don't have a lot of pitching depth and weren't interested in a long-term commitment to Estrada at this stage of his career, which they shouldn't have been.

Estrada was a 3 WAR starter in a down season. If he tested the open market, he would have gotten a lot more than 1/13, by the Jays or someone else. The Jays could have easily tacked on a year or more given their lack of SP options beyond 2018. Settling for one year when the player himself has said previously that he would take less money for more years is pretty telling.

If you thought the Jays had no SP options in 2018 sans Estrada, then look at 2019. It's worse. A second year for Estrada probably would have made sense.

[bluerap23]

Not going to read TOO much into it but I have noticed a few promotional items for 2018 featuring Pillar, Smoak and Martin. Nothing with Donaldson on it. Wishful thinking, but maybe, just maybe they don't want to print anything with Donaldson yet because there is a chance he doesn't start the season with us.

[Mehar]

Hoping this organization does the right thing and trade Donaldson for a solid return. No way i am comfortable paying Donaldson a 5-6 year contract at 25-30 M, which will be the number to have him stay. Forget about this one year fantasy about contending in 2018, but focus on the bigger picture. Hoping ownership and management does the right thing and deal Donaldson now, since he will leave at the end of the year, with nothing to show for a MVP player.