Great stuff Stoeten. After sleeping on it, I've moved from "What the hell, this sucks!" to "Eh, it's fine, actually." It's really all about getting to the dance and I think this roster will get the job done. From there, if the bats heat up anything is possible. Giddy-up!
Time will tell I guess. Let’s just see how this plays out for everyone before getting all angst-ridden about it. Let’s focus back on the team. Anyone noticed that our bats have gone a bit quiet lately? And what is going on with Bichette and stolen bases compared to last year?
I listened to the fan 590 online yesterday for the afternoon counting down to the deadline, and even the radio coverage felt a bit like watching a local hockey game with that one person yelling "Shoot!" the entire time. It wasn't super fun to listen to but I wasn't going to turn it off as I was just as excited waiting for the deadline to come.
I wondered if the vaccine thing was an issue at all throughout the day, but then this whole Merrifield thing is happening and I don't know what to think.
Not saying the Jays wanted or planned for this, but how does the rule for restricted players work itself out here?
If I recall correctly, bringing someone up to make for a restricted player is an exception to all sorts of roster rules including IL minimums. If Merrifield is a minimal upgrade, than does, for example, being able to move guys on and off the roster without exposing to waivers when at home, offset what value you lose by not having Merrifield for those games?
> If you had told me a month ago that at the deadline the Jays would add a couple of nice relievers, find some back-end starting depth, and added a versatile bench piece, I’d have told you that sounds about right. It probably is about right.
I dunno. I'd say it's the bare minimum to credibly claim to be competing. Needed a high-leverage reliever and more starting pitching than a depth/spot starter.
Despite numbers this year, I'm unconvinced Bass is a real-deal high-leverage guy. I'll believe Kikuchi's reinvention when I see it, and have to assume Stripling will regress to the mean - he's never been this good before, and it's unlikely he figured something major out at his age. Hopefully Berrios will get back to his old form, but if not, we basically have two pitchers we can credibly count on to start playoff games. That won't cut it.
It's thin gruel. Especially compared to the teams we will be facing in the playoffs.
I think even before Atkins spoke yesterday it was fairly clear that this was probably not 'Plan A' for the Jays, and we'll probably never know whether the moves they were able to make were Plan C, D, E or whatever. But as much as everyone gets hung up on the 'get it done league' thing (and it was a good line) of course it's not actually that simple and it's probably quite difficult to have your fallback positions sort of prepped and know when it's time to pivot to those rather than keep after something that's not going to work.
All of which to say while it would have been a lot more fun to see the Jays add Luis Castillo and Iglesias or something, you don't have to jiggle the focus too much to see that as far as Plan X goes, this was all right.
Stripling to the IL today - which makes trading Castillo harder to swallow. I can't believe they couldn't have worked out a deal for Merrifield that didn't include one of their only depth SPs (one who Eno Sarris just said on the Athletic 3-0 podcast immediately becomes one of KC's best young pitchers, and a guy he's excited about.)
Ok your rationality has made me a little less disappointed. But to have only raised the floor when the ceiling also went up feels like it wasn't totally a win-now deadline. The moves are solid, not sexy and I think we all wanted something a little sexy. I still have tons of optimistic belief, but a little less certainty about it. Also, is Tapia really that bad at CF? From the eye test he looks perfectly adequate.
Great stuff Stoeten. After sleeping on it, I've moved from "What the hell, this sucks!" to "Eh, it's fine, actually." It's really all about getting to the dance and I think this roster will get the job done. From there, if the bats heat up anything is possible. Giddy-up!
Time will tell I guess. Let’s just see how this plays out for everyone before getting all angst-ridden about it. Let’s focus back on the team. Anyone noticed that our bats have gone a bit quiet lately? And what is going on with Bichette and stolen bases compared to last year?
I listened to the fan 590 online yesterday for the afternoon counting down to the deadline, and even the radio coverage felt a bit like watching a local hockey game with that one person yelling "Shoot!" the entire time. It wasn't super fun to listen to but I wasn't going to turn it off as I was just as excited waiting for the deadline to come.
I wondered if the vaccine thing was an issue at all throughout the day, but then this whole Merrifield thing is happening and I don't know what to think.
Thanks for the coverage!
Re Merrifield
Not saying the Jays wanted or planned for this, but how does the rule for restricted players work itself out here?
If I recall correctly, bringing someone up to make for a restricted player is an exception to all sorts of roster rules including IL minimums. If Merrifield is a minimal upgrade, than does, for example, being able to move guys on and off the roster without exposing to waivers when at home, offset what value you lose by not having Merrifield for those games?
> If you had told me a month ago that at the deadline the Jays would add a couple of nice relievers, find some back-end starting depth, and added a versatile bench piece, I’d have told you that sounds about right. It probably is about right.
I dunno. I'd say it's the bare minimum to credibly claim to be competing. Needed a high-leverage reliever and more starting pitching than a depth/spot starter.
Despite numbers this year, I'm unconvinced Bass is a real-deal high-leverage guy. I'll believe Kikuchi's reinvention when I see it, and have to assume Stripling will regress to the mean - he's never been this good before, and it's unlikely he figured something major out at his age. Hopefully Berrios will get back to his old form, but if not, we basically have two pitchers we can credibly count on to start playoff games. That won't cut it.
It's thin gruel. Especially compared to the teams we will be facing in the playoffs.
I think even before Atkins spoke yesterday it was fairly clear that this was probably not 'Plan A' for the Jays, and we'll probably never know whether the moves they were able to make were Plan C, D, E or whatever. But as much as everyone gets hung up on the 'get it done league' thing (and it was a good line) of course it's not actually that simple and it's probably quite difficult to have your fallback positions sort of prepped and know when it's time to pivot to those rather than keep after something that's not going to work.
All of which to say while it would have been a lot more fun to see the Jays add Luis Castillo and Iglesias or something, you don't have to jiggle the focus too much to see that as far as Plan X goes, this was all right.
Stripling to the IL today - which makes trading Castillo harder to swallow. I can't believe they couldn't have worked out a deal for Merrifield that didn't include one of their only depth SPs (one who Eno Sarris just said on the Athletic 3-0 podcast immediately becomes one of KC's best young pitchers, and a guy he's excited about.)
Ok your rationality has made me a little less disappointed. But to have only raised the floor when the ceiling also went up feels like it wasn't totally a win-now deadline. The moves are solid, not sexy and I think we all wanted something a little sexy. I still have tons of optimistic belief, but a little less certainty about it. Also, is Tapia really that bad at CF? From the eye test he looks perfectly adequate.