No huge movements from Blue Jays, Atkins says ... Toronto World Series hero Joe Carter candidate for Hall of Fame ... GM says things are looking up for starter Sanchez
CARLSBAD, Calif. — Even though Pacific Ocean is a just a few miles away from where the MLB GM Meetings are being held this week, don’t expect the Toronto Blue Jays to make a big splash.
TorontoGM Ross Atkins reiterated again on Monday that there will be no huge free agent signings by the Jays (Manny Machado, Bryce
Harper, etc.) this off-season, but that’s not to say he won’t be busy at the Omni La Costa Resort.
“There might be a little bit less news than in the last couple years,” said Atkins. “But in terms of making our organization better, there’s a lot of opportunity to do that. We’ve already had a great deal of discussions with other GM’s, other baseball executives ... and the agent discussions have begun, player interaction has begun. It’s understanding the market, understanding our opportunities to build around a young, exciting core.”
Atkins said that pitching is the priority for the Jays, looking at both in the rotation and the bullpen. He suggested that a veteran outfielder and infielder could be dealt for pitching depth. The Jays would love to figure out a way to trade shortstop Troy
Tulowitzki and catcher Russ Martin, but with their cumbersome contracts, it’s almost an impossibility.
The last thing a young club needs is a couple of very expensive veterans hanging around a rebuilding clubhouse and not playing. Martin turned sour the second half of the 2018 season, even though manager John Gibbons gave him the chance to play all over the infielder and even let him manage a game, and there’s no way Tulowitzki would be happy sitting on the majority of games at short.
“We can field a team right now with seven-eight major league outfielders, seven-eight major league infielders, we have four major league catchers, so I think complementing our young pitching will be a priority,” Atkins said.
“Whether that ends up being one or two major league starters or one or two major league relievers, we’ll see,” Atkins continued. “We have the flexibility to do it in free agency. But we also want to understand what opportunities we have via trade before we’re aggressive (in free agency). It all depends on the market. But we’re not going to eliminate any opportunities That’s one of the beautiful things about being in the market that we’re in (Toronto). We have some flexibility, we have some financial might, we have a great system to trade away from. So we’ll see.
“I don’t know if things will escalate here for us,” Atkins continued, when asked what he expects from these meetings. “We don’t have anything that’s imminent that could happen tomorrow, but we have absolutely had discussions with (GMs), agents and will flush out all those opportunities that we’ve had.”
PITCHING COACHES MAY STAY
The Jays have will not be bringing back hitting coach
Brook Jacoby and first-base coach Tim Leiper (first reported by John Lott of The Athletic) under new manager
Charlie Montoyo but Atkins suggested that pitching coaches Pete Walker and
Dane Johnson will be back, and that they’d like to bring bench coach DeMarlo Hale back as well, though Hale is reportedly looking at other opportunities. Former Sun baseball writer Bob Elliott reported on Monday that Jays 3B coach Luis Rivera expected to named to Montoyo’s staff.
“There still could be changes (to the coaching staff ) but I’m not anticipating them at this point,” said Atkins.
O’S INTERVIEW CHERINGTON
New York Post columnist Joel Sherman reported that Ben Cherington, the Jays VP of baseball operations, is among those to have been interviewed for the Baltimore Orioles GM job.
TOUCH ANOTHER ONE JOE
Jays World Series hero Joe Carter is a candidate for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame after joining a list of 10 names brought forward by
the Today’s Game Era committee. Carter joins Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, Charlie Manuel, Lou Piniella, Lee Smith, and George Steinbrenner for Hall of Fame considerations. The vote will take place on December 9th at the Winter Meetings.
STAND UP IN FALL LEAGUE
Jays prospects Vladimir
Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio finished near the top of many offensive categories recently in the Arizona Fall League.
With all the young infield depth in the system, the Jays put Biggio in left field during the AFL. On top of that, righthander Nate Pearson touched 104 MPH in the AFL this past weekend, sending the baseball world into a tizzy, all the more impressive considering the 22-year-old (selected 28th overall by the Jays in the 2017 draft) missed most of the 2018 season with injuries.
“Ah man, it’s been exciting,” said Atkins
“Cavan’s been great, Vladdy’s played well, Nate’s been exciting. There’s still development left with all of those guys, but there’s a lot of good things happening (now).”
SANCHEZ ON THE MEND
Jays starter Aaron
Sanchez, who a couple of years ago was heralded as the Jays ace of the future, struggled for the second season in a row in 2018 because of finger issues and underwent surgery on his right index finger in September.
He was the AL ERA leader in 2016. In 2018 he started 20 times and recorded an 4.89 ERA. But Atkins said things are looking up for the big right-hander.
“I talked to him last week, he sounds like he’s in a great place mentally and I think just glad to have clarity,” said the GM.