A HIT UP NORTH?
Toronto SS says LeMahieu is his dream teammate
DJ LeMahieu would make a great Blue Jay, says Toronto star Bo Bichette
The Blue Jays started out as the darkhorse in this winter’s free agent market, with rumblings about their interest in big name free agents like George Springer and DJ LeMahieu. Monday, however, one of their young stars threw their names into the spotlight.
Shortstop Bo Bichette was openly lobbying for the Blue Jays to add DJ LeMahieu to the young, talented and rising Blue Jays team. “I think DJ LeMahieu is the best hitter in baseball, and I don’t even really think it’s close, from what I’ve seen,” Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette said on Ross Stripling’s “Big Swing” podcast. “He’s probably the No. 1 player I’d want to play with in the league. If that would happen, that would be awesome for us, but either way, man, our team’s pretty good already.” Re-signing LeMahieu, of course, is the Yankees top priority this winter. GM Brian Cashman said that is “driving the bus,” in terms of the Bombers winter rebuilding plans. Their moves seem contingent on whether they can bring the two-time batting champ back to the Bronx.
Sources close to the Blue Jays, however, said LeMahieu was one of their top targets from the start. They see the veteran leader their team full of young talent, like Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., needs to take the next step.
The Blue Jays started putting veteran pieces around young talent like Bichette, Guerrero, Jr. and Cavan Biggio last winter when they signed Hyun-Jin Ryu. They added pieces at the trade deadline like Robbie Ray, who they just re-signed, and Stripling.
That team got them to the playoffs this season and was a group that certainly gave the Yankees fits at times in 2020.
Monday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the Blue Jays could be the biggest threat to re-signing LeMahieu.
Last month, the GM had already made it clear that they were going big this winter.
“So now we have another opportunity to make the team better coming into this offseason with free agency and the potential of trade,” Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said on MLB Network Radio last month. “What we’d like to do is add another really good player, or two, or three. It’s really hard to acquire elite players, and this will be another opportunity for us to do it. We’ll see what happens.
“Whether that’s in the form of an elite starting pitcher, or just an elite offensive player, hopefully that we’re making the team better in several ways,” Atkins continued. “We are hopeful we can improve our team on the run-prevention side, which starts with pitching and then defense. But really it’s more about just making the team better and we’ll see at the end of our offseason what the pieces to that puzzle ends up being.”
While most teams in baseball are talking about their big financial losses in 2020 and being careful this winter, the Blue Jays are talking about opportunity. Rogers Communications is in one of the few industries that did very well during the coronavirus pandemic.
While many have cited the Blue Jays uncertainty about where they will be able to play in 2021 because of the Canadian government’s strict travel restrictions in the pandemic, team president Mark Shapiro said that has been less of a concern because they are talking to free agents about potential long-term deals.
“The reality is that the nature of the guys we’re talking to are not looking at one year deals that the person will probably be multiple years,” Shapiro said on MLB Network Monday afternoon.
And Shapiro made it clear that now is the time for the Blue Jays to make their moves.
“We have the capability with the market we’re in to add and supplement around that core,” he said. “We’re young, we’re hungry, we’re getting better and these guys want to be great, That is a key thing, so I think it is set up, not just for a one year opportunity but a multi year opportunity to be a championship caliber team.”