Spring notes: Wednesday, February 24th
On Bichette, Guerrero, Springer, Semien, Chatwood, the TV business, the Stripling trade, Hobie Harris, J.P. Arencibia, and more!
Spring notes? Sure, that’s what we can call this. You know the drill!
Oh! But before you get to reading about everything that’s going on with the Jays at the moment, please note that just before this piece went live, I put out a call for questions for this week’s mail bag. So please, if you’re into that sort of thing, head over to the requisite post and ask me some mail bag questions.
Jays players speak!
The Blue Jays have been rolling players and staff out on Zoom calls with the media pretty much every day since camp opened last week. They’re doing this so often, in fact, that it’s a bit difficult to keep up. Fortunately most of what’s being said isn’t particularly interesting. So, rather than trying to stretch the quotes from each of these sessions into full posts, every time I do a “Spring Notes” piece like this one (or whatever it is I’m calling them that particular week), I’m just going to round up that stuff like I would an “Atkins Speaks!” section. Like this!
• Bo Bichette
With the Padres recently having extended their star shortstop, Fernando Tatis Jr., for 14 years and $340 million, it was only natural that Bo Bichette was going to be asked about his own big-money future. The bulk of his answer was thoughtful and echoed the kind of speech we might hear coming from Ross Atkins or Mark Shapiro — "I think it’s really powerful that an organization believed in him enough to put the commitment they did. Obviously he’s probably still not going to get paid what he should have, but I think it’s good for Fernando and I think it’s good for the Padres. It’s good for baseball." — but the real newsworthy comment was his acknowledgement that the Jays had indeed discussed a long-term extension with him this winter.
“It was brought up, but no offer.”
I think it makes total sense that both sides weren’t in the same ballpark enough to have aligned on a deal just yet. A healthy season performing at the level he’s capable of could make his asking price skyrocket, and I imagine Bichette wanting to reach that point before agreeing to anything. I also imagine the Jays not wanting to guarantee him astronomical money before seeing at least a little more.
As for the comment itself, I think it would be great if we can all remember it the next time an agent or a player tries to score P.R. points by claiming there was “no offer” and letting people assume that meant there was zero interest. Contracts can be discussed without an offer being made!
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Somewhat unbelievably, this is technically Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s fourth spring training with the Blue Jays. He wasn't officially in big league camp with the club in 2018, but he certainly made his electrifying presence felt, producing the most memorable moment of that forgettable year when he walked off the St. Louis Cardinals at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. He's still a presence, only slightly less massive in years before, in more ways than one.
As of right now I lost 42 pounds.
Guerrero looked svelte when speaking via Zoom to members of the media on Wednesday, admitting through interpreter Hector Lebron that he's in a great place, physically. "Before I felt a lot of fatigue after 10 ground balls, now I can take 50, 60 ground balls and I'm feeling good," he said.
That's great news for both him and the Blue Jays. In no way is 2021 going to be a make-or-break season for a kid who is still (at least for a few more days) just 21, but it’s not impossible that 2022 could feel that way if his long-anticipated breakout fails to materialize over the next eight months. Fortunately, he’s done an outstanding job of putting himself in the best possible position to succeed.
And what’s his reward for that? According to manager Charlie Montoyo, whose Zoom session with reporters followed Vlad’s, the pair met with Ross Atkins today. The message to Vlad from above? “Become a Gold Glove first baseman.”
Thanks anyway for all the work though, kid!
Credit to Vlad for doing it, though. For real.
• On Tuesday, right-hander Tyler Chatwood had his first Zoom session of the spring, and revealed that he's expecting to be a "late inning leverage guy" in 2021. As a guy who has been a starter previously, he's been considered someone who might pitch in a multi-inning role, or could theoretically even be in the mix to start games. Not so! Chatwood cited the fact that he did some late inning work in 2019, that he enjoyed it, and that his "stuff ticked up a lot," as part of the reason he's going full-on into spring as a one-inning guy.
• “It's my job to earn the respect of all of the guys that are in the locker-room,” explained George Springer when speaking to reporters on Tuesday, echoing comments he made during his introductory press conference last month, and showing why the culture-obsessed Blue Jays front office is so high on him. “It's not just handed out. And the atmosphere that's been here, that's been established here already, it's my job to understand it. It's my job to navigate it. It's not anybody else's job to figure me out, it's my job to figure them out.”
• “I just didn't feel as strong and that's fine, but your body needs to adjust once you get into live at-bats," explained Marcus Semien, the Jays’ new second baseman on Monday, referring to his struggles in 2020 after an MVP-calibre 2019. "It's a tough, tough game to play if you're not at your strongest, and I got to a point where I didn't hit much BP on the field, I tried to manage it every day so I could be ready for seven o'clock. I felt like I was proud of the way I managed it even though the numbers didn't necessarily look great." (Semien added that he’s still getting accustomed to turning double-plays at second, but that he “felt natural there” so far.)
The boob tube
Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun continues to work the Blue Jays TV beat, and on Wednesday he added to his report from earlier in the week about Sportsnet’s decision not to produce home broadcasts during spring training this year. Back on Monday we were informed that "when possible, Sportsnet will pick up games broadcast by the Yankees and Phillies." Fortunately, that at least means Jays fans will be able to see the club's Grapefruit League opener on Sunday, as it will take place at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and be produced by the Yankees' YES Network.
Ahh, yes. Nothing says Blue Jays baseball is back like the sounds of Michael Kay and Ken Singleton, am I right Jays fans?
According to the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, New York, in addition to the game on Sunday, February 28, there will be YES broadcasts available on Sunday, March 21, and possibly on Saturday, March 27 (their listing says YES "may add").
Details of the Phillies’ spring broadcast schedule have yet to be released.
As for the Jays and Sportsnet, not all is necessarily as well as it could be.
“We don’t control that and we obviously are supportive of having as many games as possible being broadcast,” club president and CEO Mark Shapiro told Longley. “But we’re understanding that they have their own business to run.”
That's a diplomatic way to put it, but I'd imagine that the Jays are as angry and confused about this as fans are. Maybe more so. The company originally bought the team largely because they wanted cheap premium content for Sportsnet! And though, as I noted on Monday, mid-week, mid-afternoon games aren't exactly a ratings bonanza, Longley points out that the Jays' final week of Grapefruit League games will be largely played at night!
“We always have believed that night games at the end of spring training are a good idea because players eyes need to get re-acclimated to tracking the ball and seeing the ball under the lights,” Shapiro told him.
A quick look at the schedule shows that the Jays have home games at 6:37 PM on the Monday, Thursday, and Friday of their final week of exhibition contests, plus another home game Saturday afternoon. And yet even that doesn't change the equation? Despite the fact that Sportsnet will need to be ready to broadcast from Dunedin just a week later when the first homestand takes place?
What’s happening here would be more understandable as a business decision if the Blue Jays and Sportsnet weren’t both part of the same business. It would be easier to swallow as a financial decision if Rogers hadn’t taken $82.3 million in Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy payments this year while still paying out dividends to shareholders — not to mention spending more money on baseball players in free agency than any team in the majors.
You have a great, exciting product that people want to see. Put it on your TV network. This still isn’t hard!
Stripling deal complete
Finally, last summer’s trade between the Blue Jays and Dodgers has been made official. On Tuesday evening, the Jays officially announced that in order to complete the deal they had sent outfield prospect Ryan Noda to Los Angeles as the PTBNL (player to be named later) to go along with right-hander Kendall Williams, who was sent there back in August.
Credit to the Dodgers for getting two of the more interesting low-level prospects the Jays could have offered here. Williams was a second-rounder not very long ago (2019), throws reasonably hard, and per Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, could look like a starter with some adjustments to his delivery. Noda, though a bit old for his levels and prone to striking out, hits the ball hard and does an incredible job of taking walks.
They were behind a lot of guys in the Jays system, so in a vacuum it’s hard to get upset about losing them. But, as is often the case when prospects are traded (especially to teams that know what they’re doing), now that they’re lottery tickets for the high-powered Dodgers it’s maybe a little easier to see them turning into valuable big leaguers.
The situation would feel a little more comfortable if not for the fact that Stripling didn’t exactly light it up in his five appearances for the Jays last September. Overall he produced a 5.84 ERA and the worst K-BB% of his career last season, and while he's not that bad — and the fact that there was no appreciable decline in velocity suggests he probably won't continue to be that bad — he's surely not as good as the 3.51 career ERA he had coming into 2020 either. What he really is lies somewhere in that chasm, and if he stays on the wrong side of it, Jays fans will, understandably, continue to worry about the Dodgers unlocking something special in Williams and Noda.
Breyvic? I hardly know Vic
Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets that Breyvic Valera, who spent most of last year on the restricted list because he was unable to leave Venezuela and report to summer camp, is back with the Jays in Dunedin. Awkward!
It’s not likely that Valera factors into the team’s plans this year. He’s out of options and doesn’t have an obvious spot on the active roster. However, there are some procedural hoops the club will need to jump through before they figure out what’s going on with him. Bluebird Banter's Minor Leaguer informs us that Valera will not need to be given a 40-man roster spot right away, as "he does not count towards the 40-man limit until the Blue Jays deem him fit to play or 30 days have elapsed since his report to camp."
However, he will need to be given a 40-man spot, if only ever so briefly, in order to be activated from the restricted list. At that point he can be placed on waivers.
This would have caused a roster crunch for the Jays last week, but it turns out they now have an opening that could be used on Valera, as reliever Joel Payamps is no longer with the club.
Claimed on waivers from the Red Sox earlier this month — and given the 40-man spot that had previously belonged to Shun Yamaguchi, who has now signed a minor league deal with the Giants — Payamps was never long for this roster. The Jays tried to sneak him through waivers to Buffalo this week, but he was claimed by those same Red Sox, it was announced on Tuesday.
It’s a pretty good bet that there will be stint on the waiver wire in Valera’s future as well.
Links!
• More roster news, as Shi Davidi tweeted on Tuesday night that the Jays have added right-hander Hobie Harris as a non-roster invitee at their big league camp in Dunedin. Harris was taken from the Yankees in the Triple-A phase of the 2019 Rule 5 draft, Shi tells us, and calls him an "interesting power arm."
In naming him the 34th best prospect in the Jays system, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs noted that Harris, who will turn 28 in June, is a late bloomer who has seen significant velocity gains since he was throwing 90 mph in junior college. "He's now parked at 96-98 and has been up to 101 out of the bullpen," he says. Impressive stuff, save for the fact that he apparently needs to find a secondary pitch. Seems like he's worth taking a look at, though. Longenhagen has him just a spot below Yennsy Diaz on his list.
• Somehow an even smaller move: According to MLB Pipeline’s William Boor, the Jays have also brought catcher Christopher Bec into camp. The 25-year-old is way down the organizational catching depth chart, but was a fifth-round pick in 2018 out of the University of Maine and showed the ability to get on base a little bit in stints in Vancouver and Dunedin in 2018 and 2019.
• I’m no expert, and this obviously is pretty much at the bottom of the list of things that matter about Ontario’s slow vaccination rollout, disappointingly weak procurement from the feds, and everything else that’s going on with COVID and the border and our lack of infrastructure to mass produce vaccines here in Canada (thanks, Mulroney!), but since it's my job I will regardless note that timeline isn’t exactly alleviating my doubts that we'll see the Blue Jays in Toronto before 2022. Ugh.
• Some Astros fan schadenfreude for the day:
• A book review that’s worth a read for anyone who wants to understand the way modern MLB executives think. Or, at the very least, how they occasionally speak.
• Great stuff from Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet, who gives us a deep dive on Simeon Woods Richardson, another confident prospect in the wave of kids still below the big leagues (though, if he has it his way, not for long).
• And we’ve got even more likeable prospects still, with Shi Davidi of Sportsnet telling us about Austin Martin and Alek Manoah.
• Old friend alert: According to a tweet on Tuesday from Jon Heyman, the Atlanta Braves have signed Travis Snider to a $600,000 minor league contract. The former top Blue Jays prospect hasn’t played in the majors since 2015, spent 2018 in independent ball, and didn’t play in 2020. It’s nice to see that Alex Anthopoulos still believes in his guys, and that meats still don’t clash.
• Also according to Heyman, the Jays were one of a handful of teams who… showed interest in Brett Gardner this winter? The way it’s worded, this could have happened at any point, so… sure, OK. The Jays obviously did slightly better in their quest to improve in the outfield.
• Lastly, I don’t want to make a habit of embedding my own tweets here, but this one I’d like to expand on a little.
If you don’t know who this person is, first of all, congratulations. Second of all, she’s a grifter who became famous for offering up racist dog whistles and similar red meat to right wing media consumers who, instead of engaging with and learning about a changing and difficult world, just want their own biases echoed back at them and to be patted on the back for it, told they’ve never been wrong, and that they are, in fact, the real victims in the world.
She sucks! She’s also evidently dating former Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia, who this week was featured in a video from Sportsnet about the effects of negativity on athletes. Hence her tweet.
It’s a powerful topic, and I have all the time in to world to hear a guy like Ricky Romero, who was also featured in the video, talk about it and the challenges he faced in his career because of it. But holy shit, miss me with the serious words about the repercussions of facing negativity from a guy who chooses to be with someone who uses her huge media platform to, for example, compare Black Lives Matter protestors to the Capitol rioters or the KKK, or to engage in absurd Islamophobic fear-mongering. Negativity is only bad when it effects me, personally, I guess?
It’s my understanding that this stuff was shot before the relationship between Arencibia and Lahren became public, which makes me feel better about Romero being in it, but that doesn’t mean Sportsnet had to still use it. Or that Arencibia needed to be left in there to undermine the whole endeavour — which is a good one!
Top image: Bo Bichette via the Toronto Blue Jays