Nothing doing for Jays at winter meetings
The Toronto Blue Jays caught the San Francisco Giants sl eeping t wo years ago and returned to the well again on Thursday.
In the 2015 MLB Rule 5 draft, the Jays plucked pitcher Joe Biagini from the Giants and the big righthander turned into an outstanding reliever, though he struggled in a starting role last season.
In this year’s Rule 5 draft, held on Thursday at the Walt Disney Swan & Dolphin Resort, the Jays selected another pitcher from the Giants organization, right- hander Drew Muren. Muren was picked in the Triple A phase of the draft, not the Major League phase, meaning that they don’t have to keep the 6- foot- 6 fireballer on their major league roster for the entire season.
At 29, Muren is not exactly a prospect, but has put up interesting numbers. Last season in the minors he struck out 45 batters in 38 1/ 3 innings. But also walked 25. The season before, dividing his time between A ball and Triple A, Muren made 38 relief appearances and struck out 61 batters in 41 innings while issuing 20 walks. He’ll likely spend most of his time in Triple A Buffalo next season.
Toronto GM Ross Atkins was pleased that the no MLB teams took anyone from the Jays’ organization in the major league phase of the draft — specifically catcher Max Pentecost and RHP Jordan Romano.
They did lose third baseman Mitch Nay to the Reds in the minor league phase. But other than selecting Muren and a couple of later minor league picks — catcher Alberto Mineo from the Cubs and shortstop Ivan Castillo from the Indians — the Jays did not make a single deal at this year’s MLB Winter Meetings, though Atkins insisted that’s not necessarily disappointing. The GM said a lot of constructive conversations were held with GMs, agents and players during the week that could turn into trades or free agent signings over the next few weeks.
But for Jays fans, no splash here at the Disney resort other than in the pool.
“There are things that became a little bit more concrete for us and I would imagine that is the case across the industry,” said Atkins, following the Rule 5 draft. “Whether or not people end up signing contracts and moving toward physicals, it feels like that’s going to happen a little more and more this week and before we break for the holidays for a bit.”
He said some definite momentum has been put in place for possible moves in the not- so- distant future.
“Slowly, alternatives and options are coming off the board and that will continue to occur ( so) absolutely there’s more than one opportunity for the Blue Jays,” he said. “This is not a deadline. This is an opportunity to learn and sometimes deals happen here and sometimes they don’t.”
HERE AND THERE
Though the Jays didn’t pull the trigger on any deals at the Winter Meetings, though there were rumours galore. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network tweeted that the Jays checked in on Carlos Gonzalez and fellow free agent outfielder Carlos Gomez. Heyman also reported that five teams have shown interest in Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson, though the Jays have no interest in trading the Bringer of Rain at this time, though that could change as he is entering the final year of his contract and is scheduled to become a free agent at the end of the 2018 season ... Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Giants and Jays have talked to the White Sox about acquiring outfielder Avisail Garcia ...The Jays have reportedly shown interest in Cincinnati outfielders Billy Hamilton and Adam Duvall (via Sportnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith)... There have also been reports that Toronto is looking at versatile infielder Eduardo Nunez, though that seems unlikely given that the Jays recently acquired infielder Aledmys Diaz from St. Louis.