Outfield might have to wait
Upgrade options slim, but pitching shouldn’t be the Jays’ only priority
Most of the talk this off-season has centred on the Blue Jays’ search for starting pitching, and while that remains the club’s top priority, there are some other areas of this ball club that need some attention too.
Toronto appears to be in the market for a middle-of-theorder bat who can play first base and occasionally start at designated hitter. Bonus points if it’s someone in the mould of Mike Moustakas who offers more positional versatility by playing third or even second.
The Jays also have a clear need in centre field, which became a revolving door following the departure of Kevin Pillar earlier this year. Toronto has as many as six players who could be in the mix to start in centre next year, but it’s the quality of those candidates that remains a point of contention.
The additions to Toronto’s pitching staff — in the rotation and the bullpen — are expected to be plentiful. The position player side will be addressed too, but it seems as though the organization intends to make a couple of tweaks instead of wide-scale changes.
“We’ll do it based on the opportunity to add, the cost to add that player and determine what that means in terms of sacrifice for playing time,” Jays general manager Ross Atkins said recently, when asked about upgrading his position players. “It’s too hard to say exactly how we’ll weigh that. It depends on the position we’re acquiring, which player is coming off or losing playing time. I don’t expect us to add three of four position players, but we will likely add one or two.”
The options at first base seem clear. The Jays could opt to re-sign veteran slugger Justin Smoak, bring in another free agent like Edwin Encarnacion, or hand the job to Rowdy Tellez. The final option seems more probable as a backup plan, or an area the Jays could turn to if they added at another position and made use of the DH slot with a big bat.
The outfield situation is murkier. There are seven outfielders on the 40-man roster, and with a 26th man being added to next year’s MLB rosters, Toronto can carry as many as five on opening day. If the regular season began today, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Randal Grichuk would start in the corners. Teoscar Hernandez likely would start in centre and the Jays maintain Derek Fisher, Jonathan Davis, Anthony Alford and Billy McKinney would be considered as well.
That might be passable while the club continues to grow, but it doesn’t seem sustainable over the long haul. At some point the Jays will have to find a competent everyday centre fielder whose glove is an asset, not a liability. The issue, admittedly, is that it might not be realistic this off-season.
Through multiple conversations over the past few weeks with people inside and outside the organization, it’s become clear that free-agent Japanese outfielder Shogo Akiyama is not viewed as a potential solution. Neither is Pirates centre fielder Starling Marte, who has just two years of control and $24 million (U.S.) remaining on his deal with the Pirates. Most of the free agents available include retreads such as Jarrod Dyson, Billy Hamilton and Carlos Gomez. The options leave a lot to be desired.
“Is there a scenario where we don’t acquire an outfielder?” Atkins posed to an inquiry about his in-house candidates. “I could see that happening. But your off-season is never done. You could get into spring training and you could get halfway through the season and another opportunity presents itself. There could be a scenario where we are also considering flexibility from the infield, to get more outfield reps. Or someone that we acquire has the versatility to do both.”
As mentioned in this space recently, the theme of the Jays’ off-season is flexibility and what Toronto does with that flexibility ultimately will determine how long this rebuild drags or how quickly the club gets back into contention.
Most of the available resources will be devoted to pitching. Atkins stated that the Jays will add “significantly” to the starting rotation, which means Toronto should be in the market for someone in the mid-tier pitching category such as Zack Wheeler, HyunJin Ryu, Madison Bumgarner, Michael Pineda and Kyle Gibson.
Upgrading the staff is the goal, but it can’t be the only priority. In 2019, Toronto ranked 23rd in runs (726), 27th in on-base percentage (.305) and 23rd in OPS (.733). Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Danny Jansen are likely candidates to improve with the bat next year, and yet there needs to be more balance and depth.
Atkins will be the first to admit he has room to manoeuvre this winter. He’s also preaching patience, because while others are screaming for more wide-scale changes, he believes the Blue Jays have yet to see the full potential of their in-house guys. The thing that may come to define Toronto’s off-season, outside of pitching, is which ones he decides to bet on again in 2020 and how they fare.
“We feel so strongly about our future and we’ve been through some very, very tough times the last couple of years, and we don’t want to shortchange all of the hard work that has been done,” Atkins said. “We understand and respect how difficult it is for fans and how difficult it is to be patient.
“But we feel like in the end the prize is so great when you are, it’s worth considering and factoring in with every decision that you make. Having said that, we’re so excited with this young core that we could add to it enough that we could have a very exciting team and a very exciting year.”