WHAT A BAG OF POPCORN GETS YOU
David Price had a greet-and-treat arrival in Toronto: a warm ovation and, as requested, a bag of popcorn. More,
Baseball players will often tell you they’re just big kids. Highly paid, exceptionally talented kids.
So perhaps David Price’s request — made via Twitter — that the Blue Jays stock his new locker with the “BIGGEST trashbag of popcorn” shouldn’t have been that surprising.
“A lot of times players ask for things,” GM Alex Anthopoulos said when asked about his new ace’s demands. “With what we could pull off, popcorn was very do-able.”
Hopefully the snack helped soothe some of Price’s frustration from his ill-fated road trip to Toronto on Friday. The 29-year-old lefty, acquired Thursday in a blockbuster trade with the Tigers, blew a tire while driving his Jaguar from Detroit. He was supposed to be introduced to the media by 3:30 p.m., but was delayed “due to travel issues.”
Jays manager John Gibbons wondered if the team’s owners couldn’t pony up a little more than popcorn. “Does Rogers have a helicopter?”
Price did arrive Friday in time to watch his new club make as good a first impression as any, walking off the reigning American Leaguechampion Kansas City Royals in extra innings with a dramatic, comefrom-behind victory.
“It’s been a pretty long day for me, but it was definitely well worth it,” a smiling Price said when he was eventually introduced to the media around 11 p.m.
It wasn’t clear whether he was talking about the win or the welcome popcorn.
“I think some guys might have taken some before I got here, but I was completely okay with that. This is the best popcorn I’ve ever had.”
The five-time all-star will make his Toronto debut Monday against the Minnesota Twins, whom the Jays trail by two games in the wild-card race. The start puts him in line to face the first-place Yankees — whom the Jays trail by six games for the division lead — twice in the next two weeks.
He is the Jays’ best pitcher since Roy Halladay and perhaps among the top five the franchise has ever had. He’s also likely to be gone after this season — a hired gun on an expiring contract, picked up in an attempt to end a 21-year playoff drought.
“You can feel the excitement when you’re in the dugout, you can feel it in the locker room. This is a group of guys that want to win,” he said. The former Tampa Bay Ray, who has a perfect 7-0 record in nine starts at the Rogers Centre, is earning $19.725 million (U.S.) this season — $7.4 million of which the Jays are picking up in these final two months.
But next year is when he will really cash in. Somewhere between Felix Hernandez’s $175 million and Max Scherzer’s $210 million — both on seven-year deals — is probably the ballpark. The Jays don’t give out freeagent deals longer than five years, as per team policy. But that policy was spearheaded by outgoing team president Paul Beeston.
Either way, the Jays aren’t thinking that far ahead yet. They got Price — the best pitcher on the market — to make a run now.
On Friday, the Jays had a little less than 50 per cent chance of making
“He’s amazing . . . I’m just glad he’s with us and we don’t have to face him.” DIONER NAVARRO ON FORMER AND NEW TEAMMATE DAVID PRICE
the playoffs, according to projections by Baseball Prospectus.
He said Friday it was too early to talk about what he might do when the season is over.
“I definitely wouldn’t rule this place out . . . like I said, I love the popcorn here, it’s definitely a plus.
“This is a place that wants to win. That’s what you want to be a part of. I want to win championships. I want to do great things for whatever organization that I play for, whoever that is in 2016. This organization definitely put their best foot forward at the trade deadline and you gotta love seeing that.”