Atkins speaks: "I can't imagine a better fit for this team"
On Varsho's appeal, base running, offensive upside, and positional fit. Plus: Arizona's supposed insistence on Gurriel, team needs, clubhouse culture, Matt Chapman, the offseason buffet, and more!
Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins gave himself an early Christmas present on Thursday, sending top prospect Gabriel Moreno and stalwart Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Daulton Varsho.
An elite defensive outfielder with a powerful left-handed bat versus right-handed pitching, excellent skills on the base paths, and the ability to fill in behind the plate, Varsho fits the Blue Jays in a whole lot of ways. And on Friday morning, Atkins took questions about his latest acquisition from members of the media via Zoom.
Varsho would do a session of his own later on in the day, but as I’m far more interested in what the GM had to say, I’m skipping that and only digging in on Atkins’ comments. So here they are in full! Everything Ross said on the call — minus a brief digression about his doorbell ringing — in order, plus my notes and thoughts on each answer.
You know the drill! Enjoy!
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What do you like most about Varsho?
Well-rounded is what comes to mind. ... The impact that he is going to have on our team is going to be on every side of the ball, the base running impact, the speed, the versatility, elite defence, and the fact that he can also catch for us is about as good of a fit as possibly we could have found. I think it is the ideal fit for this roster and one that we are very excited about.
A pretty simple answer, but subtly I think it highlights two things that have maybe been overlooked a bit in the wake of this deal.
In my own trade reaction piece, I think I mentioned Varsho’s base running ability exactly once. Atkins listing it first, though maybe completely innocuously, absolutely made me think about it a little more. As I wrote on Thursday night, over the last two seasons combined, Varsho ranks in the top 25 among all position players in terms of providing value on the base paths. What I didn’t say was that he actually ranks 24th, despite having fewer plate appearances than all but seven players ahead of him on the list. He has just 22 steals over that span, and his sprint speed only grades out in the 69th percentile — above average, not elite — but clearly he’s got outstanding instincts on the bases and a great jump. That’s something Statcast notices when he’s in the outfield too, as his 97th percentile outfielder jump absolutely is elite.
Ahead of Varsho on that two-year BsR (base running runs) leaderboard was Whit Merrifield (12th) and not terribly far behind him is Kevin Kiermaier (59th, despite playing just 185 games). As a team the Jays ranked 25th in MLB by BsR in 2022 at -10.5 runs. Teoscar Hernández accounted for -2.5 of those, while Lourdes Gurriel Jr. accounted for -4.1. Varsho (+3.4 in 2022 alone), Kiermaier (+3.2 in 63 games), and a full season of Merrifield (+2.6) represents a pretty huge swing.
This is a very real, and very significant component of what the Jays have done this winter.
Varsho’s ability to catch is also more significant than has maybe been discussed. Not necessarily because he’s going to spend a whole lot of time behind the plate, but because he consolidates — a word Atkins would use a couple times during this session — two roster spots into one.
I wrote about roster composition in my previous Atkins Speaks! piece, listing out the 11 Jays position players I felt had jobs locked up, which left two spots to be filled. Regarding those, I wrote: "I suspect by the time opening day rolls around, as long as everyone is healthy, one will be a catcher — Gabriel Moreno if they don't trade anyone, a veteran number three if they do — and the other will be whichever lefty outfielder they find."
Now the lefty outfielder and the third catcher are the same guy, and Gurriel is gone. They have their 11 locks (Varsho, Springer, Bichette, Guerrero, Kirk, Chapman, Jansen, Merrifield, Kiermaier, Biggio, and Espinal), are required to carry at least 13 position players, and have no real positional needs left to address. It's a real opportunity to build themselves a pretty tremendous bench. A right-handed-hitting outfielder still makes a ton of sense, but now you can think about maybe some sort of slugging 1B/DH/PH type too.
Varsho's versatility makes that possible. It's a significant part of the appeal here as well.
Where is the upside with Varsho?
It'd be hard for him to be better as a defender. I think tapping into the versatility. The fact that could play all three outfield positions and catch is, as I said, a very good complement to us. We see him continuing to be a very effective offensive player, but if there's upside it's probably there.
Now this — the idea that there could still be more to come from Varsho's bat — is something I think we all did notice. Yet here is Atkins bringing up the catching thing again. And he's right to. Varsho isn't so much an outfielder who happens to be able to catch, he's a catcher who happens to be able to play elite outfield defence. Only 82 of his 283 big league games have seen him put on the gear, but in the minors he caught in 180 of 259 games, and in college it was 138 of 162.
Given the troubles Kirk and Jansen have had staying healthy, this really is pretty huge.
What would tapping into that upside look like? Will the shift ban add hits? More on-base ability to come?
The power is there, for sure, having hit 27 home runs. Getting on base potential, I think, is a real opportunity for him, with the impact of his speed.
This answer is an interesting one not just because Atkins chose to elide commenting on the upcoming shift ban, but also because it’s Varsho’s speed that he specifically cites as a reason to believe he can improve his on-base skills.
For me it's something else that stands out. For his career, Varsho has a 9.9% walk rate against right-handed pitching, but just a 4.7% rate against lefties. Despite this, his strikeout numbers are pretty close to even across both splits (23.6% vs. RHP, 25.1% vs. LHP), suggesting it’s not necessarily just a pitch-recognition issue.
This gulf between walk rates was not there in 2021, when he was a much better hitter overall against lefties, but was incredibly pronounced in 2022 (2.3 BB% vs. LHP, 9.3 BB% vs. RHP).
This appears to be a function of lefties not fearing his considerably less powerful bat against them. His average exit velocity against right-handers in 2022 was 87.9 mph. Against lefties it was just 79.6 mph. As a consequence, lefties seemed much more comfortable throwing him strikes, with 58% of the pitches he saw from them being in the zone, compared to 51% from right-handers.
In digging into this stuff I also noticed that in 2022 is that he got a lot more pull happy overall…
…and that over his three years in the majors he’s been seeing more and more sliders from left-handed pitchers.
In Varsho’s successful 2021 season against left-handers (117 wRC+) he hit the ball to the opposite field against them 30.3% of the time, pulling it just 40.9% of the time. In 2022 his rates against LHP were 17.0% to the opposite field and 53.4% to the pull side.
His wRC+ in the split dropped to 52.
The shift may help in that regard, but a switch back to more of an all-fields approach against left-handers — instead of trying to pull all those pitches breaking away from him — would seem to make a whole lot of sense here. And I think that likely will suit the Blue Jays just fine. Of the 246 hitters with at least 350 plate appearances in 2022, five of the top 60 by Oppo% were Blue Jays: Bichette, Kirk, Tapia, Merrifield, and Gurriel. They definitely don't mind these types.
Of course, Ross isn't wrong about the speed thing. Varsho has a .315 OBP against right-handers in his career, despite the 9.9% walk rate, which largely appears to be down to his .261 BAIBP in the split. That's maybe a bit surprising given his speed, and definitely seems like an area of opportunity as well. His numbers against shifts versus non-shifts actually weren’t very different in 2022, so I guess I don’t exactly have a reason for saying this, but I would like to believe that the shift ban could help him in this regard as well.
How difficult was it to move on from Gurriel and Moreno?
All trades are difficult. It's so interesting, as soon as you pick up that phone to contact those players, how real that makes it and how strong that feeling is. The commitment they've had to this organization, the impact they've had on people, fans, teammates — obviously on the game — is something that is real and difficult with any trade.
Having to acquire a player of this caliber — one of the better players in the game last year — you're going to have to be uncomfortable. Including Lourdes Gurriel in the deal was difficult for us, but necessary from their end. They're looking to consolidate talent at the major league level as well, so a prospect-driven deal wasn't as attractive to them.
I continue to have a somewhat difficult time believing this stuff about the Diamondbacks’ insistence on Gurriel being in the deal — though I will at least concede that, based on the comments he made to local reporters on Friday, including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen did make it clear that he didn’t want to be seen as though his team was taking a step backwards for 2023 by trading a more established guy for a less established one.
“We lost some home runs out of our lineup today, but I’m hoping we’re replacing it in a different way,” Hazen told reporters. “And then the speed element that is still very much on our team, I’m hoping the contact, the on-base, the ability to hit, the two-strike approach, is going to lend itself to making our lineup even tougher to face with the way some of those kids are going to be running around the bases the way they did last year. I feel like a lot of that dynamic offense has a chance to be enhanced with the way he (Moreno) — they, Lourdes as well — hit.”
The way Hazen nearly forgot to add Lourdes there is telling, as is the fact that he made certain to correct himself. He’s got tickets to sell. He’s got an extra playoff spot to at least go through the motions of trying to chase. He’s got a clubhouse that may not respond well to as full-throated a December declaration that the rebuild isn’t over yet as a one-for-one trade of a five-win player for a kid with 73 big league plate appearances would be.
It’s PR, but that’s part of the GM’s job, too. And there are ways that Gurriel does make sense for the Diamondbacks. Like, this was maybe a little harsh…
Truthfully, I’ve been down on Gurriel for a little while now — this isn’t just a kicking him on the way out the door thing — and maybe a bit unduly. Even in down years he's been a pretty good hitter. Always above league average. He's impressively cut his strikeout rate over the last few years. Power has been there in the past, and it's plausible that the wrist injury was the reason behind its absence in 2022.
It's just, he's a liability in every other phase of the game, and, for me, not quite good enough, or consistent enough, or healthy enough, and too BABIP-dependent to be able to get away with being that guy as a non-DH regular on a team with championship aspirations.
On a team like Arizona? Where they’re lacking right-handed hitters who can play the outfield? Where they’re up-and-coming, but coming off a 74-88 season, and have more DH at-bats to potentially offer him? The profile certainly works a lot better.
Better enough to insist on paying $5.4 million for the privilege though? Just to be able to say they’re trying, and that they spun one “asset” into two? Better than using that money to pay for someone else instead?
Better than whoever else from their roster the Jays may have been able to offer? Or been able to acquire with other pieces?
Better than Whit Merrifield, who makes similar money ($6.75 million plus a $500K buyout on next year’s pricey option), who can also play the outfield, also hits from the right side, is much more likely to stay healthy, and has continually been more productive by WAR than Gurriel despite less prolific numbers at the plate?
Like, you’re telling me that if the Jays had offered Moreno, Merrifield, and some cash to offset the salary difference, that Arizona would have been like, “No, it must be Gurriel”? That Hazen couldn’t have replenished his offence by taking Alejandro Kirk, and added a prospect of some kind for his troubles instead?
I mean, it’s possible. I don’t know the Diamondbacks well enough to be able to provide much insight into the way they think. But those are just two examples of any number of ways the Jays might have been able to make it work without Gurriel, if that’s what they really wanted.
The idea that the Diamondbacks insisted on him, and its implication that the Jays agonized over the decision, strikes me as PR, too. And PR that, to me, doesn’t exactly pass the smell test. Not after a Blue Jays summer of “malaise” and managerial change, with its talk about accountability and hasty press tours to reassure fans that the players care.
It’s something that we’ll probably never know and, as I said in Thursday’s piece, there are definitely baseball reasons and economic reasons for moving on from Gurriel and Teoscar Hernández this winter anyway. But it remains rather conspicuous that the team’s two most glaringly casual defenders and base runners have ended up elsewhere so soon after a year like that.
Where will Varsho mostly play?
As it stands right now, he'll predominantly be playing left field for us, with the ability to go to centre. Obviously can be in right. As we talked about with the acquisition of Kiermaier, there's going to be playing time for all of our outfielders, and the benefit of the versatility of them, and the ability to play multiple positions is obviously something that we value. But his ability to catch, with Kirk and Jano being such offensive players as well, is huge benefit as well.
This, I think, will maybe surprise some people, particularly with George Springer coming off of elbow surgery. But Varsho actually has the weakest arm of the Jays' new outfield trio. Kevin Kiermaier's arm strength was in the 94th percentile in 2022 according to Statcast. Springer's was in the 55th percentile, and when healthier in 2021 it was in the 83rd. Varsho was only in the 45th percentile — odd given his background as a catcher.
And even if arm strength isn't the deciding factor here, it's possible there's something political to it as well. The Jays told Kiermaier when he signed that the centre field job is basically his to lose. Taking it away just a couple weeks later is just not something that teams do if they want to maintain good relations with free agent acquisitions — or with their agents.
Of course, it's probably even more likely that the answer here is simply that, if there's a better outfield defender out there than Varsho, it's probably Kiermaier. Varsho will get plenty of run in centre anyway, but as for it being his job, he’ll just have to wait until next year.
What are you looking to do from here?
This acquisition, as I stated from the beginning, is a very significant one for us, that we are extremely excited about. The fit, the person, the teammate. I can't imagine a better fit for this team. So, I think our heavy lifting is done, but certainly not ruling anything out. And would expect some incremental improvements. But very excited about this impact, and feel good about the previous acquisitions that we've made as well.
This sounds just about right, though I’d certainly be happy with another big-ish piece for the bullpen or rotation. The other day you said yourself how important every extra win is once you reach the 90+ threshold, Ross! Let’s gooo!
Are you still looking for a right-handed-hitting outfielder, or will Merrifield and Espinal be enough?
I think that it certainly could be, and also could be left-handed. So, we feel very good about Whit Merrifield and his versatility — obviously the multiple positions that he can play. Obviously with Espy as well, him being versatile and a right-handed complement to this acquisition. We're in a good spot, and we'll look to improve our team from the subtraction of Gurriel, but in our view it doesn't need to be right-handed or left-handed, it's more about the impact and the fit beyond that.
I’d guess that this is maybe a courtesy to Merrifield, who would be the first-choice internal option to face left-handers in a platoon situation with either Kiermaier or Varsho. Because otherwise it seems odd. Like, the Diamondbacks just “insisted” on taking a right-handed outfielder off your roster, at least one of your primary outfielders is going to sit fairly frequently against lefties, and you now have two open spots on your bench. Of course you’re going to be adding a right-handed bat.
How much of a priority was outfield defence coming into the season, and how big a factor do you think it was last year?
We've been entirely focussed on preventing more runs, and we feel like we've made huge strides in that area. All too often I think the industry, everyone in the game, focusses so much on pitching, and certainly never loses sight of the impact of defence, but it's a harder thing to quantify. It's a harder thing to measure the impact of. The industry is better at it than they were. We feel like we've improved at it a great deal. And just made significant strides that way.
They certainly have made significant strides. There’s no denying that.
What makes Varsho a good clubhouse fit?
From a personality and teammate standpoint, he is a hard-nosed gamer that loves the process, loves the work. We happen to know his dad pretty well — I worked with his dad a while back. But we know the character well, we feel very good about the teammate and the impact that he will have on this roster.
Oh great, another nepo baby!
Was altering the character of the clubhouse one of your goals this winter?
It certainly wasn't a priority. We feel very good about the personality of our clubhouse, feel very good about the professionalism. But always looking to improve, and always looking to make progress. The influences and personalities, albeit different — feel very good about the players who were here, and the impact in their personalities as well. Having said that, we're exceptionally excited about how these guys that we've acquired this year in Swanson, Kiermaier, Bassitt, and now Varsho, in how they go about their business, their competitiveness, their focus on process, and their focus on being good teammates.
This seems entirely reasonable, and yet I still am a little hung up on this aspect of the Jays’ winter. Like, I understand that there are a whole lot of guys who fit the “hard-nosed gamer” mould out there. But just as I talked above about how conspicuous it is that Gurriel and Hernández are gone, especially given the context of this season, I do think it’s also conspicuous who has come in — Kiermaier, who is too pretty to be gritty, but is a gamer nonetheless, plus a bulldog like Bassitt, and now a guy with “football player intensity” like Varsho. Also, in the case of Danny Jansen — and, as suggested in my hypothetical above, Whit Merrifield — who has stayed.
Clearly there were a ton of different ways this offseason could have broken, and a ton of different roster compositions they could have ended up with. I don’t doubt that there are scenarios in which Lourdes and Teoscar could have still been here. But the roster also didn’t end up here by accident. The front office made choices — and not necessarily bad choices either. I have no idea. It’s just interesting, especially because organizational culture is clearly something that these guys think about a lot. They’ve been very open about that.
So, what do we think about all this? Is it even worth trying to form an opinion?
It’s hard to say. We don’t know what the executives are really thinking, and we don’t know what any of these players is really like beyond what we see on our TVs and what we read. We do know that it’s a shame that a couple of fun-loving players who always seemed very important to the club’s meticulously thought-about culture are now gone — though there are surely a lot of home-run-jacket-hating weirdos out there who will be pleased by such a turn of events. And the thing is, players are humans too, and there are undoubtedly ones in that clubhouse who were less into the jacket and the seeds and all that, and probably privately seething about the gaffes and the lapses and things like that stupid sunglasses game.
In fact, we know from some of the fallout from Charlie Montoyo’s firing that there were segments of players on different pages regarding these sorts of things — specifically the former manager’s less forceful, even-keeled style of leadership. “According to sources,” wrote Kaitlyn McGrath of the Athletic back in July, “there was a belief within some corners of the clubhouse that the firing was necessary because of a lack of leadership from the former manager.”
Some corners, not all corners.
I can obviously only theorize about any of this, but since we’re here: in my mind firing Montoyo, and promoting John Schneider, could have only empowered that one segment of the room. I kind of wonder if it allowed the personality of the club to maybe reorient itself a bit around a different group. And the name that springs immediately to mind when I think about who might be at the centre of that shift is the very strong leader the Jays imported last winter from Oakland, Matt Chapman.
On this point I'm reminded of Ethan Diamandas's outstanding June piece for Yahoo Sports about Chapman's leadership.
“Chapman is plugged into every pitch,” Ethan wrote, “and if he sees the momentum shifting the wrong way, he’ll be decisive and speak up. And those leadership duties extend beyond the occasional in-game mound visit. Chapman is a guy who keeps the morale high, even if the team is struggling.”
“I'd rather go out there and the pitcher gets pissed off at me or something for coming out there after six pitches, than he walks another guy and give up big hit or something,” Chapman told him. “I'd rather stop it before it starts.”
“He's constantly talking,” Kevin Gausman added. “The third baseman is essentially like another shortstop. And the shortstop, to me, is like the quarterback of the defence.”
Here’s more from Ethan:
Gausman compared Chapman to Evan Longoria, the 15-year veteran whom he shared the diamond with in San Francisco for two years. Gausman called Longoria “one of the best vocal third basemen” he’d ever been around. According to Gausman, Longoria was so locked in that he’d watch the catcher’s signs closely from third base, often returning to the dugout after an inning and praising a starting pitcher for shaking to a pitch in a specific situation.
“Some guys are just on a whole ‘nother level,” said the Blue Jays starting pitcher. “And Chappy’s like that, too. He's always thinking one or two steps ahead.”
Gausman said there’s one key element that has allowed Chapman to quickly rise to the rank of leader in Toronto.
“I think the biggest thing is respect,” Gausman said. “Everybody respects his level of play, his level of defence, his level of athleticism, everything. So I think we all just really respected him when he got here. And then now getting to know him, we're like, ‘Man, this guy's awesome. He's great.’"
I'm just spitballin' here, but if you're the Jays, and you think obsessively about culture and leadership, and now here's Matt Chapman joining your clubhouse and organically becoming the kind of leader you maybe think you need, I don't think it's crazy to think that you might start to target similar guys, guys who respond to that type of leadership, guys who value it. Guys who'd maybe find it easy to pull in the same direction as someone like that, and harder to find themselves on the other side of the schism that did Charlie in. And you might even find yourself consciously looking to trade more entrenched drivers of culture that you very much still value as people and as leaders in the right circumstances, but represent an identity you may now find yourself moving away from more suddenly than you expected.
If any of this was true, you'd probably expect to see very much the kind of offseason we've seen the Jays have.
If any of it is true, you have to believe that the next big move the Blue Jays will make is getting Chapman signed to a contract extension. So I guess maybe we'll see by the spring just how much I'm talking out my ass here.
A relentless, defence-first leader now has a much more relentless and defence-first team. Give him the ‘C’!
On a long ago podcast, Atkins spoke to Drew Fairservice and I about leadership, culture, and an "incredible book" by the Wall Street Journal's Sam Walker called The Captain Class: The Hidden Force the Creates the World's Greatest Teams. In it Walker posits that “the most crucial ingredient in a team that achieves and sustains historic greatness is the character of the player who leads it.” The book gives seven traits of elite captains: “1. Extreme doggedness and focus in competition. 2. Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules. 3. A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows. 4. A low-key, practical, and democratic communication style. 5. Motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays. 6. Strong convictions and the courage to stand apart. 7. Ironclad emotional control.”
Had he not been signed to just a one-year deal, I think Marcus Semien could have very much been in the same position here. At the risk of pulling a "This is J.P. Arencibia's team," the more I think about it, the more I think Chapman is that guy for these Jays.
Was it difficult to decide which catcher to move, or was it all about finding the right trade?
It was interesting, I've never been in a situation like this where we had so much interest in all of the catchers. Every single catcher had significant interest from every team. So, that put us in a strong position to look for a more ideal fit and not just a good value deal, and we were able to do it. In terms of sleepless nights, I mean, it is interesting, when momentum does take shape around a deal, around potential deals, it is very hard not to continue to think about them and to find time to sleep, because you're just motivated and driven, and anxious to do the best possible work we can do for this organization.
I’m sure he doesn’t mean every team as much as he means every team with interest in the catching market, but still. Clearly the Jays were in a strong position. It’s wild that the catcher with by far the most potential is the one that’s been dealt, because I can’t say I expected that to happen, but in the end it was the win-now move. And this is very much a win-now team.
What is it you like about Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen as your catching duo going forward?
It was exceptionally difficult thinking about taking players who have such large impacts on our team off of our roster, but at the same time we felt so good about Gabby's potential impact with us that we were listening on all three. But, having said that, the leadership component, the relationship component, we felt to be of significance and meaningful for us with Kirk and Jano. And that was something that had to be factored into any subtraction.
Replacing Jansen’s leadership and experience behind the plate would have been difficult, and simply trying not to and rolling with Kirk/Moreno would have been a gamble. I was ready for that gamble, myself, but I understand why there were those that weren’t. And Kirk’s partnership with Alek Manoah worked so exquisitely well in 2022 that I also understand the extreme reluctance to break it up.
To lift a line from myself, which I also quoted in Thursday’s piece, oh no! More games played by the two other guys who are also very good!
Were the Diamondbacks an obvious fit for you as well, and how long had you been working on this deal?
It absolutely was a great fit with their surplus in outfielders, specifically left-handed-hitting centre fielders, and us having a surplus of catching, and their need. Right from the start we felt that was going to be a very important team and fit. From the very beginning of the offseason that dialogue began. We've done deals with Arizona, obviously, and have an incredible relationship with that organization. Of any executive in the game, Mike Hazen might be the one that I'm the closest to outside of the Toronto Blue Jays.
So close as to be able to concoct a nifty bit of spin to serve both of your needs before agreeing to the deal? Ho ho ho, I joke, I joke.
Atkins went on…
So, felt very fortunate to have very open dialogue from day one. As far as iterations, it was similar. All three catchers were of some interest to them, and all of their outfielders were of some interest. I think the component that made it challenging is that we were both trying to consolidate more talent on our major league roster. So, they are looking to take steps forward, obviously, and push the envelope on the winning front, and that's why Lourdes Gurriel came into the picture and made this deal work.
Crazy how things work out, isn’t it?
Lastly, was this deal in your back pocket the last couple of months, or was there doubt that it would actually happen until it did?
The constructs were always in our minds, and then we were constantly thinking about this as a lever as we considered alternatives. And the other influence is the amount of left-handed hitting that is off of the board, and how limited that population in the market was certainly creating a level of urgency — or increasing our level of urgency and anxiety. But at the same time, felt like we were in a very strong position for the reasons I mentioned about our catching.
See, and now here’s why I probably should be a liiiiiittle more careful openly wondering about unstated motivations for the deal — and rejecting the stated ones. I can absolutely believe it’s not a coincidence that it wasn’t long after Michael Conforto came off the board by signing with the Giants that this deal finally came together. This seems to be the way the Jays work. They have a whole buffet of options when the winter begins. Sometimes they jump quickly at a station with no lineup. Sometimes they get in a lineup only to find the tray empty when it’s their turn. Sometimes they think they’re going one way but decide it’s best to pivot. Sometimes they sit back and wait to see which spots are less busy. Sometimes they end up with three pieces of chicken instead of a big juicy steak and some scraps of salad. But, to mercifully end this laboured analogy, they always walk away with a plate full of food.
Which is to say, once again, that there were any number of ways this winter could have played out. That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t have ultimately moved Lourdes and Teoscar anyway, even if the players coming back were different, but it’s overly simplistic to think that they must have been hellbent on moving those guys. If they were, the Varsho deal might have been done weeks ago, and maybe they make him the centre fielder and do something else with the $9 million they’re going to pay Kiermaier this year. So I don’t think that’s a good conclusion to draw here, even if it is rather interesting to think about how the roster they’ve ended up with fits within the context of what happened this year, and Atkins and Shapiro’s previous comments about culture.
OK, that’s it! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, happy holidays, hope everyone is able to enjoy a little downtime before the new year, and be sure to keep your eyes out for a call for mail bag questions from me in the next week or two! (And more posts about anything the Jays might get up to before then. I ain’t going anywhere!)
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Merry Christmas, Andrew and thank you for the great and interesting articles you write all year long. Go Jays Go.
Thanks for the read, Stoeten and Merry Christmas to you and yours.