📅 Published on: 2024-12-09 17:17:27
⏱ Duration: 00:36:26 (2186 seconds)
👀 Views: 6037 | 👍 Likes: 96
📝 Video Description:
Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith joins JD Bunkis to discuss the repercussions for the Blue Jays after Juan Soto’s $765 million, 15-year contract with the Mets, the pressure on the front office, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette’s next deals, and if the Jays missed out on free agents.
———————————————-
📺 http://sportsnetplus.ca – Stream live on Sportsnet+
💻 http://www.sportsnet.ca – More news & highlights on Sportsnet.ca
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVhibwHk4WKw4leUt6JfRLg
https://www.facebook.com/sportsnet
https://twitter.com/sportsnet
https://www.instagram.com/sportsnet/
https://www.tiktok.com/@sportsnet
———————————————-
🎙 Channel: SPORTSNET
🌍 Channel Country: Canada
📂 Tags:
Sportsnet,Sports,Canada,toronto,blue,jays,juan,soto
🕵️♂️ Transcript:
I’m sure everyone was shocked Blown Away In fact when the Toronto Blue Jays did not sign Juan stto to a contract extension or sorry extension to a contract that was 15 years $765 million 51 million a season I I love the tweets that are like shurin signed for this hockey players yeah he got more he got more than hockey players for sure he did Juan stto it’s over there’s no more uh Andis putting on the clown makeup it is purely done uh the Jays strike out yet again after star chasing which there’s some positives there’s I think some drawbacks to this a lot of people pretty concerned I think anyways that the Blue Jays were not focused on other things that they went and they chased Juan sto and they were all in and they couldn’t even talk to another free agent and maybe they were going to miss out on names and I’ll address that with Ben Nicholson Smith in a few minutes because he’s there he’s at the winter meetings guy’s as plugged in as anybody on the Toronto Blue Jays and so I’ll ask him whether or not he thinks that there’s been any real Damage Done to the Blue Jays free agency for doing this I’m a little skeptical given the names that off the board already but I will say this it’s a front office that has been presented as wreaking of desperation by some insiders a front office that’s been trying to be pretty quiet about what they’re doing and the way that they’re moving this offseason but either way when the reports are hey they’re in on everybody hey they’re they’re looking at everything hey these guys are trying to manage for their jobs Ross Atkins trying to get a free agent to save his job you’re starting to look at the landscape and it’s not overly encouraging so the remaining couple of players while they could be nice for the Toronto Blue Jays you’re still going to have to drastically overpay for and you’re going to have to outbid and out compel these guys to sign here over in those markets which again uh would say have the edge over Toronto especially at this given point where the Jays are staring down the barrel of a group that seems to be on the precipice of change so I want to start with this because I don’t think that going after Wan sto is bad I think it’s a overall in a vacuum a great sign that this front office is able to convince ownership to spend or to get in and try to spend this kind of money on free agents that’s an awesome thing you want to have that in your you want to have that in Your Arsenal you don’t want to be a team that can only win one way which is like the way that a team let’s say the Pirates does it or the Oakland Athletics do it where there’s one path which is collect a bunch of talent when they’re young and win while they are paid nothing and perhaps selectively pay one or two guys while watching everyone else walk away the Blue Jays have established themselves over this past run to be a group that will be willing to go into free agency right when people say no one will sign here well that’s not true people have signed here the Jays have been able to acquire players I saw a tweet from a friend of the show Keegan mat where he’s like hey it’s an outdated narrative about Toronto and that no one will come here I don’t I think that that’s honestly just like a little bit of a straw man it’s not that no one will sign in Toronto it’s just that it’s a little bit more dependent on how the team is doing than some other teams and it isn’t as attractive as some of the glamour markets in baseball it is in a different country there are some differences for these guys and so you do need to compensate for that but yes of course Toronto is a great City especially if you’re rich there’s no doubt about these things and that’s why they’ve been able to acquire some of these guys but here’s the lesson from the weekend here’s the lesson from yesterday here’s the lesson from last year this team is not just going to be the Mets they’ve got to do basically a hybrid model which is something that they were trying to do when the team was at its peak when it came to excitement remember a few years ago when we were talking about boy is this is this the best that the Blue Jays have ever looked where the the farm system is extremely deep and there are resources and at that time we were talking about when to sign Vladimir gero Jr and when to sign Bo bashed so I tweeted something to this effect yesterday at JD bunus you can follow me there you can reach out to the show anytime that the Jays can’t simply do this they’ve got to go back to kind of what I thought I thought this front office was supposed to do in the first place they’ve got a draft and develop they’ve got to sign International free agents they’ve got to be very clever with their money they’ve got to identify talent in other organizations that they feel is either blocked in the like teoscar Hernandez mold or who are being underappreciated and undervalued by their organization which again is is very very hard to do in today’s day and age and then use free agency as a weapon to put you over the top not to try to go out and solve all your problems by spending 100 plus million dollars on woto or on sh Otani and try to paper over all the other issues with your organization and frankly that’s kind of why none of this was as fun as it should have been because one people were scarred by the Otani situation and this was dragging out and I think most people could kind of put together that this wasn’t the exact same as going after a show hey Otani there were there were different reasons for it we also understood that the Mets were sitting there and we’d been through this before so there was a level of scar tissue that had come with this situation but there was also the underlying feeling of you’re not a piece away you’re not a one SoDo away you need a bullpen you need a starting pitcher you need more than one bat you need a farm system there’s just so much other work to be done than Juan stto that even fans trying to dream on him I don’t think we’re as excited as most other fan bases are and so that’s just it for the Blue Jays you can’t just be shooting for long shots and shooting for the moon and trying to sell people pull on a star you’ve got to sign your players when they’re eligible for extensions and you have some leverage you’ve got to draft you got to develop you have to have a farm system that is the only way Toronto is going to be competitive and have long competitive Windows this just is not the way anyways Ben Nicholson Smith have at the letters uh he’s down at the winter meetings I just made him sit on the line hey Benny how we doing buddy hey JD doing well you’re making some some good points right there I got to say well I I I don’t think that it’s anything novel I don’t think that it’s anything that isn’t kind of obvious to be honest which is to me is part of what is so frustrating with this like I don’t believe that Mark shapy and Ross Atkins if given the TRU serum think that this is the way to build a baseball team either I think that they’re in a position where they basically only have one option which is to go out there sign somebody splashy and just desperately hope that things kind of go their way well that was the SoDo hope and and I agree with you like I actually think going after Juan stto is a great idea and just like going after sh Otani is a great idea and that’s kind of the most obvious thing to say these guys are like historic players they’re incredible so yeah if you have any chance to sign them you you take that chance but I think you know with the Otani thing clearly there was some traction clearly there was some mutual interest and I don’t I have no I’ve had no one tell me that that actually existed with SoDo which is kind of why I was a little tepid on the whole thing this entire time and it’s just that the people I was talking to were never really describing the Blue Jays as Front Runners or favorites or you know even motivated to go above and beyond Steve Cohen like it always just seemed like the Mets were going to be that team so to your point this then puts the spotlight on the blue jay’s ability to do other things as well and ideally that would have been draft and develop and that would have been have this farm system like the Rays or the guardians or some of these teams that do it on a small budget or barring that and I think this is why some fans right now feel very uneasy but barring that it is on Ross Atkins now not to sign one player who’s a superstar but it’s on Ross Atkins to go out and thread that needle find three four five really good players hit on all of them and given the way last year unfolded I think fans understandably have question marks about whether that can happen well especially since this year there is going to be heavy competition from some of the deepest pocketed organizations in baseball right like it’s not just the Jays who are interested in Max freed it’s the Red Sox and it’s the Yankees who are interested in as well it’s not just the Jays who are interested in t Oscar and send there it’s like the Dodgers are in the mix there they’re not out on teoscar because they signed conforto according to many insiders uh the Santander is drawing interest from also the Yankees from also the Red Sox like I I I think that they’re in a pretty tough position but before we move to the other free agents because I I really do think most people were prepared for this like hey let the stto signing happen not because they wanted to tear the Band-Aid off of the hope but they wanted the real free agency period to begin for this team which is now the case right like now we’re in it now we’re in the time where we get to see what they’re actually made of and what they’re going to be able to pull off but before we do that I don’t know even people want to hear this because at this point it’s become kind of a running joke in the market of hey Toronto always the bridesmaid right always the runner up oh Toronto actually offered the most money but didn’t sign the player but then these reports started to trickle in about like hey what the Yankees were offering and then what the Red Sox final offer was do we know what Toronto’s final offer was because there was at least some kind of insinuation at a couple of points in this that Toronto might be the team that comes over the top and offers the most money and then I didn’t see anything that was what their final bid was conclusively yeah no it’s a great question I’m trying to pin that down and um I’ve I’ve been asking around about this to try to get a sense of it because I do think it’s a really important variable um of course right you know and even if even even if you miss the question of how aggressive you are I mean it’s interesting um and look I do think broadly it’s a good thing that the Blue Jays can go after these guys and Shai made this point yesterday but you know you dial the clock back 15 20 years like there is no way that JP richardi was ever going to have the chance to go after these top free agents there even Alex anthopolos his big free Asian contract the biggest free Asian contract Alex anthopolos ever signed with the Blue Jays was $82 million for Russ Mar and it worked out great and you know Alex andopolis is an awesome GM but my point is they didn’t have those resources so I’ve had a couple people suggest that it was likely over 700 million I mean that’s hardly headline news at this point um and the the question for me in this and the reason I haven’t you know reported this in any sort of concrete way is I just don’t know how much of that was was going to be deferred I don’t know what that final number was um and and I haven’t seen anyone report what that final number was so you know I I don’t think that that’s I don’t think that’s out there but the question of the furls is Big because the one thing with the Mets offer and this is where this offer is just epic and an absolute Grand Slam for Scott Boris to get this deal done but there are no deferrals here there’s an OP out here that the present value of this deal is unbelievable and I know people focus on the Blue Jays and rightfully so but man if you look at this from the standpoint of like the history of Major League Baseball contracts this deal is just massive and huge coup for Scott Bor us yeah I got to tell you though it’s I think that the reason why I need to see the number in this case more than others is to see potentially whether or not this was a bit of a Fool’s errand because you’re right about those things where it’s like hey it’s a good thing to have these resources duh like any any fan should understand that right like I’ve seen people go oh so it’s no it’s it’s fine to have that is a good thing there’s just no doubt about it it’s a great thing to have a bunch of money that can be behind you but all along the just aam’s razor approach to this was hey Steve Cohen is going to come over the top and pay the most money and the only way that the Blue Jays could have competed with these other teams that are further down the competitive track that are more familiar with him in terms of a market with New York and offering him some familiarity was that they were going to offer the most money and so if they got that really wrong right like if they were trying to do deferred money and they were trying to offer not as much as some of these other teams were it kind of speaks to a disconnect here and maybe even you could go so far as to say like that actually is you being used for leverage you know like that is your name being thrown into the mix to these other teams as a bit of a false flag that you were never actually really in it at all yeah and I think look I haven’t crossed that possibility off right yeah like in my and and I hate to go back to the Otani thing but in my mind the Otani thing wasn’t leverag for CA shotani he didn’t need the leverage he wasn’t even necessarily concerned about the money in the same way that some players are yeah he traveled to denan Florida like that Otani was interested in the Jays like L like seriously interested but with stto like I have heard no information to cross off the possibility that the Blue Jays were purely there for leverage doesn’t mean that’s the case doesn’t mean the ju stto in his heart didn’t truly consider the Blue Jays it’s just I haven’t heard that we haven’t heard from stto yet we don’t know how his mindset was throughout this process but I I think it’s possible that the Blue Jays Red Sox and Dodgers were all being used for leverage yeah um I I just never really saw there was a compelling case which is the Blue Jays might come over the top and offer the most amount of money right but it was always really difficult to think like Steve Cohen was going to sit there like I I’ve seen Financial breakdowns of how rich this guy is and what the WAN sto money still means to him and it’s chump change like $51 million to this guy is chump change so the idea that the Blue Jays were going to blow them under of the water in a way where Steve Cohen went I just can’t do it uh especially given that this to me for the Mets represents more than just getting the great player it’s the shift in the Paradigm of who the big bad team in New York is which I I really don’t think is going to be grabbed as much maybe in this market but should be around baseball right the idea that hey what a stick it to the Yankees this was to go out and steal their Stu a guy that their fans loved really really loved and just say yeah we’re going to outbid you and we’re going to make you look like a poverty franchise for offering someone $760 million that’s that’s something that’s not a nothing but then the other cases for S was like well he could play for a whole country I was like we’re doing this we’re we’re putting this out there like that’s a real report from some people come on give me a break we know that’s not a thing yeah sure it’s exciting when guys get here and they get to travel the country and they get to see that that’s not going to Bean Juan sto’s priorities is being there it’s like he wants to win baseball games and make the most amount of money and the Jays out of all those teams represented the biggest long shot for all of that and now you get into kind of the stability stuff and you want to talk about you know you mentioned hey shining a light on the issues that the Jays have as they as they leave this process without Juan stto yeah the biggest one is that they’re pending free agents B bashet and Vladimir gero Jr there’s just no way that any reasonable person could think that didn’t look at this and go wow that’s a lot of money um yeah we’re not going to get as much as him but why wouldn’t we want to walk to free agency and experience the exact same thing where we’re being cted by a bunch of different organizations hear their pitches get to see their Farm systems and then hope some billionaire owner comes way over the top on an offer for us yeah yeah exactly and I think like flad Jr actually is one of the better comps to stto who’s out there and Soto he is a better hitter like you look at the Ops plot you look at the on base percentage just the waste I mean he’s he’s a better hitter he’s a more accomplished hitter he’s more skilled and um so stto was has set the bar so high I mean this is he set it incredibly High Vlad Jor is not going to clear that bar um by any measure but you know we spent a lot of this year wondering about an extension in the 300 Millions for Vlad Jr and stto is now pushing eight and Vlad Jr he’s 25 so do 26 Vlad Jr will have free agency at 26 years old so you could talk about the same kind of term is it a 15-year deal is it a 12E deal I mean even if flat junor is not at $51 million which you know clearly that’s predent setting that’s probably not going to be surpassed for a few years I mean that’s that’s the kind of deal that this is I don’t think that anyone’s going to come along next year and just you know go to 52 but and it won’t be Vlad Jr but could he be 40 you know is it 13 time 40 CU that’s over 500 million and I’ve heard people here at the winter meetings speculate hey what is what does this mean for Vlad JR could he be over 500 million and I I you know I’m not inside Vlad Junior’s head but I guarantee he seen the deal for Juan stto and I I doubt it made him very sad you know I I I doubt that he was too upset to see that deal come across 100% man and if if you’re those guys too what you really learned in this free agency process as well is is Juan sto’s age mattered an incredible amount when when looking at this deal and looking at the money and saying okay well he’s this and if you’re vlat and it shouldn’t be and I want to include Bo in this because what’s BO now he’s 27 so he’ll be 28 free agency so bashet being 28 years old and vlat being even younger that those two guys could enter free agency is going to cause teams to go even higher on their numbers and so yeah I I just can’t imagine what the Jays would have to sit down and offer Vladimir grow Jr at this point uh to actually get a deal done because yeah like you just said the idea that he could get 500 million seems so so so crazy given where we’ve been with this contract for the last couple of years but after seeing what Soto got and the level of desperation that some of these teams had like if if you’re the New York Yankees and you want to establish some level of credibility don’t you want to get into that ballpark for vlat next offseason with Aaron judge like aren’t you willing to at least consider that seeing as you were willing to go 750 for Juan stto I I can’t say that that’s a 0% like he puts together another awesome year like the one he just had and and you’re telling me the Yankees wouldn’t do that like I I I don’t I don’t know I don’t believe that that would be the case I can’t imagine that they would simply just completely close the door to an idea like that so yeah I I think that this is about this is about as potentially ugly as things could possibly have gone for this team and it’s crazy to think back from a couple years ago what it felt like Toronto was building to where they’re at now okay so it’s pivot time um Tyler O’Neal signs with Baltimore Gary Sanchez signs with Baltimore will adamus goes to San Francisco met SE clay Holmes uh Danny Jansen goes to the Rays Blake Tran 222 to the Dodgers couple of those names I think were like Loosely linked to the Jays but do you feel like during this process because this to me is like a very very very important question with all the sto stuff that they missed out on anybody that they would have wanted I I think they would so trying to think how to answer this because they they would like a lot of those players like who wouldn’t want Willie Adamas but I don’t think that they missed an opportunity there because the Jays I I never saw them going to you know 185 190 for Willie adamus I think that if they could have gotten Willie adamus for you know maybe more like 150 over six then maybe that’s a discussion that they would have had um but they’re more focused on fielders to begin with Tyler O’Neal you know that’s a good player but I don’t think that he’s like such a transformative player that you have to put everything on hold for him Kay holes is a good pitcher I to answer your question I don’t think that they’ve cut themselves off I think that going after stto it probably did you know for instance with O’Neal it probably pushed them out of that market but I think that’s a price that you can live with I think that’s fine there’s still so many guys out there and I actually still think the Jays are going to beti like we’ll see what happens here right the Corbin Burns Max fre I think that’s the most logical place for the Blue Jays to go now um but the price is starting pitching is super high like it’s higher than anyone expected and the JS are trying to thread this needle now where they’re trying to add hitting and starting pitching and Bullpen help potentially for you know 38 39 $40 million something in that range like that’s going to be really tough because freed alone might cost 25 Corbin Burns might cost 30 like you’re talking about really really expensive deals um and and granted in those cases they could push past the luxury tax they could they could push you know closer to 250 260 if they land one of those guys but you know the competition is also going to be really intense there and this is the this is the SoDo thing so he leaves the American League East which in one sense is good but it also leaves motivated teams with a lot of money in the Yankees and Red Sox who are competing for the same players as the Blue Jays yeah and who are trying to satiate Fan bases who are pissed off right who are super annoyed that they either lost one sto or didn’t get one sto so yeah I I gotta say too on that what this is actually a real point of frustration for me and and I get that a lot of people get the projections wrong like you know you read articles and most people tried to Peg I think the highest projected that I saw for like Max fre was like $20 million right so let’s say he gets 25 to me that’s just like such a bad look for the front offices in general where they go oh it’s so much more than we expected and it took took us out of the running it’s like yeah it’s it’s free agency expect that it’s going to be higher than what your original projection is and so for the Blue Jays like when they had the Brandon nmo thing right where they’re like oh well he signed for way more than we thought he was going to get you go yeah okay well he was one of the Premier outfielders in free agency and you were going to be competing against the New York Mets so maybe go higher maybe think that it’s going to be higher like how often do we hear the premier free agents where they go he went for so much less than we expected like I I just I I’m I’m so done with that idea for the Blue Jays like that they can look at it and go well everyone was confused like no no no no no it’s free agency it’s going to cost you a lot you’re going to have to spend uh a ton a ton more than you ever hoped to um okay so is there a First domino in all of this for you I I mean I just think it was SoDo and I think now we’re going to see a lot of deals so you know on the Outfield Market teoscar Hernandez could go back to the Dodgers soon um and then you could have Anthony Santander’s Market start to move pretty quick um the trade market I me there are a lot of guys out there in the trade market right Nolan ronado is is out there and and seemingly ready to move on from St Louis someone said that he’d like to play with the Dodgers um doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen but there are other teams out there in the third baseed Market that could take a look there including the Blue Jays could take a look but arnado controls his future um with a no trade clause so you know we’ll see what that means but there are a lot of players you know out there Alec bow is out there Nick Asos is out there and trade I expect the Blue Jays to survey the market on all of this but I think the position player market and it’s not just just me but I’ve heard from people here in Dallas who expect that the position player Market will start to move pretty quick now that Soto’s gone yeah okay but so that’s that’s more what I mean is do you think that the Jays now have pivoted to a clear Target no I just I my read on the Jays is that it freed and burns are probably the next names to watch and I think that to the extent that the Jays could you know surprise us and make a splash I I do think those are the names to watch um bregman sender you know you want to keep an eye on those guys too but I I think that the way money’s flying around and the way the Jays have talked about being patient like I’m not going to be surprised at all if the Blue Jays leave here without having made a major move yeah uh I don’t think anybody should be surprised at this point but that’s so deflating that actually I wish I had better news I know but that even just the way you said it just almost like threw me off the interview for a second here because I was like oh god oh don’t let that be the case because then that begs this question which is all right what do the secondary market for this team look like then well and that’s where that’s where trades might come in and and this is where um you know of course like if you really go down the list you get to your max keplers of the world and your Nick petas and your sha Manas and and look some of those guys are probably going to have Good Seasons next year you know it’s not it’s not always the big names and and I had someone here say you know what watch out for Anthony santand there like you have 40 homers this past season and good for him but yeah this person said it’s not happening again so you know look that’s that’s one opinion we’ll we’ll see um what happens there but th this is where this is where the spotlight and the pressure returns to Ross Atkins because he has to piece it together and it is going to have to be not one player who has an amazing season but he’s going to have to hit on a few players who do really good things for the JS in 2025 and that’s not an easy thing to do he’s done it before but he’s also whiffed before so this is this is a tough ask and um it’s a it’s a market that’s very competitive it’s a healthy industry right now much healthier than it was a year or two ago some of that TV uncertainty has resolved some of the co um you know you know Revenue flow issues have been resolved for various teams and teams are spending so it’s a really competitive market and you’ve got to be prepared to spend um if if you want those top top names yeah uh I just it’s it’s certainly feeling right now very Justin Turner iky yeah yeah I mean that’s that is a possibility for the Blue Jays right I think that they will look at free look at Burns um they they will put a you know offers forward I expect for those guys but are they gonna outbid the Yankees for Max freed are they gonna outbid the Red Sox and the Giants for Corbin burns like I don’t know I mean it’s it would be to do that they would have to sign the biggest deal in franchise history right Co because right now that that’s George Springer that’s the biggest deal they’ve signed and I agree with you they can sign free agents and they will sign big free agents again there’s no doubt in my mind but is it going to be Corbin Burns this winter is it going to be Max freed I don’t know so that could lead to a situation where the off season’s more like sha manah Max Kepler and a couple relievers and that hey I don’t know I mean maybe that team will win 89 games and make the playoffs I don’t know but and I’m I’m intrigued to find out I’m I’m curious to see where it all goes but it is a tough position that they’re in it’s not an this is not a layup an offseason no it never was though and so it’s like yeah I think that when you were offered the types of resources that these guys have been and this is part of it that uh I I I don’t think it’s lost in the discussion but isn’t mentioned enough is that it’s like you’re graded on a harsher curve here right you should be graded more critically when you’ve had all these things at your disposal like you mentioned the Alex anopolis thing that it’s like okay an $80 million free agent was the biggest ticket that he could could end up going out and sign and yeah there were a lot of lean years with him and I think that the rewrite on his story has been a little overly glamorous from a lot of Jays fans who were pretty frustrated with him before 2015 sure sure sure but like yeah uh he won some trades did make it to uh ALCS couple and so far with this team like to have the the system that they had to have the depth in the cupboards to have some of the players that they inherited and then to also have the money at your disposal to have it turn into this is just like it’s cataclysmic and I and that’s why I just I mean sure could they get lucky uh could they hit on some of these free agents yeah um should they get a I guess chance to a certain degree to be evaluated based on what happens this year but it’s like the misread on the vlat and bow contracts and just where they’re at with them the state of the farm system as it is today the fact that they’re in a position where they have to be competing with all these teams for these free agents like it’s just it’s just so telling that it’s it’s beyond time to move off of this front office and that they’d already failed at their jobs like that the test was already over and that they were trying to put pen to paper it’s like no no no like pens down man pens down you already blew it anyways um so it sounds like what you’re saying is that they are prioritizing starting pitching over the top end bats in free agency when it comes to if they were to make a splash uh that yeah we’re trying to drill down sort of what the second mov is but you also mentioned trades and a couple of those names in there I I don’t think are like too interesting to people I think like Nolan arado specifically is a little strange if you weren’t willing to sign uh Chapman a season ago and then you’re going to go out and trade to get uh to get iron a you’re like all right uh I I think my thing there is so do you think that they’re going to go deep into what is already a pretty shallow Prospect pool or that any trade that they were to try to uh consummate would be something that is uh like the Ron AO deal where you’re taking on a lot of like pretty risky money that there isn’t really a trade out there where they would be going You’ be going like oh wow I can’t believe that they like let’s put it this way it’s there’s not going to be aulton bar show trade right yeah I think the the thing with the JS is and this can be a good thing I think like philosophically it’s good to be open-minded but they’re like so open-minded and they’re so in on everything that you know sometimes it’s it’s a little bit hard to see where their their priority list starts and and look I mean you can this can work at times like um I’m not saying otherwise but I but I do think that they’re just in on everything they’re they’re checking on the veteran bats who you know have money attached to them they’re checking on the price of cheap pitching like someone told me that their own guys they’ve leted me knowing that you know your will Wagner your your um Spencer Horwitz is those guys are available in trade and they’ve let other teams know that they would trade those guys for the right impact addition so you know they’re kind of they’re they’re talking to the top top top free agents they’re talking to the mid- tier free agents they’re talking to Pitchers they’re talking to hitters they’re doing everything so it’s all on the table I could certainly imagine another Dalton bar show type trade um but anything’s on the table for these guys and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but end of the day it’s results and this is this connction back to the sto right it’s like you know you’re interviewing for a job and and and you know you just you’re a finalist but you don’t get it so end of the day you don’t have the job you know end of the day you didn’t you didn’t Advance things and that’s just kind of where they are their roster as we speak right now it’s worse than where they ended the season last year so the season doesn’t start tomorrow they have time these things change they will add players they will add pitching but it has to happen they they have a lot of work to do to get to that point okay so this is the last one then for me if I was Atkins like if I was in his shoes at this point and the Market’s starting to dry up and it becomes clear that you do get out bid for a couple of the names that we’re mentioning and then your pivot is basically hey we can remove more pieces from again an already depleted farm system one that doesn’t compare to anyone else in our division uh to try and go out and acquire some very likely bad money um we can sign some lower tier free agents to again contracts that are too high for what these players are going to provide you and we’re staring down the barrel of losing Vladimir Gro Jr and Bo bashet to free agency obviously priority number one to me would be like hey we need to do the god offer or The Godfather offer to vlat right now like sign vlat enbo that would actually give you some measure of confidence I think in the front office but also just the direction of the team knowing that you actually have those two guys under contract so that’s the ideal situation number one but as we’ve already kind of outlined it it really does seem implausible that that’s going to be the case that they’re going to be able to settle in on a number with both of those guys that would get them to walk away from free agency and I had a conversation with Jim Bowen last week where he basically said that he doesn’t even see that there’s a number right now for the Jays to to get that done with vlat and you’d have to think too like just looking out competitively that vat’s got a brain he’s able to see what they’ve done here and accomplished here and maybe he’s thinking about that as well um that if you were being rational you would go hey we missed it’s definitely my fault but I got to give you my honest and professional assessment and that is that we should not be throwing more good money after bad and in fact we should actually be pivoting out of this idea that we have to be competitive next year like look at the landscape look where we are in the division look where we finished last season look at the assets that we have look at the contracts that we’ve got the responsible thing to do here is to actually take a step back before we can take a step forward do you think that there is any possibility that that could happen this offseason I essentially don’t think so I mean I would say like a 1% chance and someone asked me last night like hey would the Jays any chance they would trade Vlad Jr and I said the same thing like I think it’s like a minuscule chance I don’t think it’s going to happen I think that the Blue Jays from the very very very top of the organization on down have decided that hey they want to try to compete next year they want to try to you know get into one of those six playoff spots that exist in a in a league of 15 teams and can you be top six in a 15 Team league they think that they can do that and it’s not that high of a bar which is kind of what makes last season like so perplexing is like how in a league where like almost half the teams make it you didn’t even compete like it wasn’t even close but anyway we’ve talked about last year enough for for 2025 my sense is from the entire organization has resolved to and they’ve communicated this internally they’ve communicated this to other players and they have made the decision and this ship is you know this this ship is is out sailing along out there and they’re trying to win Benny I hope the next time I talk to you it’s not as Bak I really hope that I hope so too man that’ be awesome let’s let’s hope that happen yeah the next conversation ideally is like wow they made some really smart Savvy moves and they were actually able to pin down with these free agents and there’s a growing sense of optimism about the direction of this organization I just yeah uh forgive me if I’m uh not looking at that as again the most realistic outcome thanks for doing this buddy and enjoy the rest of the winter meetings yeah anytime hey the the Hail Mary for the blue JS would be like they win the draft lottery they somehow get the one-1 pick next year sure and then you know Max freed wakes up and he decides he loves the city of fronto and who knows who knows maybe that’ll happen but but glad to talk some baseball with you JD and we’ll talk soon yep see you buddy uh Ben Nicholson Smith at the letters and uh MLB reporter for Sports Net
🚀 Related Hashtags: #Soto #Jays #Bunkis #Podcast
Disclaimer: This video is embedded directly from YouTube. All rights to the video and content belong to the original creator, SPORTSNET. For more details, please visit the original source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x4YKvp14hI.
