Gibbons on the Jays’ off-season and his own handsomeness.
Yankees’ workhorse is available, and loss would weaken rival
John Gibbons’ official MLB Winter Meetings news conference didn’t start off well for the Blue Jays manager.
The conference opened with Gibbons being asked about finishing 30th ( dead last) in an annual Most Handsome Manager ranking put out by NBC Sports.
“That’s shocking, especially since Gardy’s ( Ron Gardenhire back),” said Gibbons, with a laugh. “But that kind of brought me down to my knees a little bit. But, you know, hey, beauty’s only skin deep but ugly’s to the bone.”
Gibbons couldn’t resist a little zing.
“Definitely ahead of Buff,” he said, pointing out a certain, short, chubby, balding sports writer.
But his ( fake) anguish evaporated quickly when he was asked about the Jays reportedly going after free agent starter CC Sabathia. As of Wednesday morning, Jays GM Ross Atkins had yet to confirm or deny a Tuesday meeting with Sabathia but Gibbons seemed very pleased about the possibility of the big left-hander coming to Toronto. Despite dealing with a knee injury during the 2017 season, the 37-yearold Sabathia finished the season 14-5 with a 3.69 ERA, 120 strikeouts and a 1.27 WHIP in 148.2 innings (27 starts).
“Oh, yeah, I love him. I’ve always liked him. He’s coming off a big year, yeah. And he’s available,” said Gibbons. “( And) he’s a workhorse, man. He’s always pitched well against us. One of the great competitors in the game for a number of years. I thought he looked strong last year. He had that knee issue and some things that kind of hampered him, the hammy I think it was.
“But, yeah, I thought he looked really, really good last year. He’s got that good breaking ball and he’s a big, strong guy,” the manager added.
The Yanks made a huge offseason splash by trading for MLB home run and RBI leader Giancarlo Stanton and are now widely favoured to win the 2018 World Series, with the Boston Red Sox not too far behind. The Jays have still yet to make any major off- season moves, save for signing middle infielder Aledmys Diaz. Given that, it might be a tall order for Atkins to convince top-of-the-line free agents to sign in Toronto if they want to go for a championship in 2018. Gibbons, however, is confident the Jays can compete for a playoff spot.
“We’re coming off a tough year, no doubt, but you got guys like Russell Martin, (Josh) Donaldson coming behind you, got a lot of good things,” he said. “It’s a good veteran team, it’s got the potential and chance to win some. It’s a pretty good group and really it’s one team, one country; that’s a selling point. Great fan support, all that stuff.”
Signing Sabathia would not only be a plus for the Jays’ rotation, it would knock the Yanks down a notch, if ever so slightly. New York has also talked to Sabathia about coming back. Gibbons fully expects the other AL East juggernaut, the Red Sox, to make a splash this offseason — all of which makes it that much more difficult for the Jays to compete for a post-season spot. But that’s always been the case with playing in the AL East and Gibbons isn’t going to sweat it.
“One thing in my big league ( managing) career, I’ ve always been in this division. And that’s kind of the way it works,” he said. “They make big moves, they try to make big moves. You got to try to keep pace with it. Especially with the Yankees coming off a big year and now they’ve just added to it. But I think there are limitations sometimes to what you can do. But I don’t think you can be distracted by that. It’s a reality. If you want to beat these guys, you’ve got to try to keep pace. But you still have your plan and target your guys and hopefully you land them. Because it’s not just a grab bag you can have anybody you want. It doesn’t work that way.”