Ahoy hoy, everyone! Can you believe it? Spring training is finally somehow right around the corner. The Jays announced this week that pitchers and catchers workouts will begin for them on February 18th — next week! Teams also have until this Friday, February 12, to submit a list of a maximum 75 players for spring training. They will be allowed to continue to add players throughout the spring (as long as they don’t go over 75), but hopefully these deadlines spur on a final bout of player movement, just to ensure that guys get a full camp in before the season.
The Jays have a little bit of work on their roster still to do — a starting pitcher, a lefty bench bat, maybe a reliever, some warm bodies for the taxi squad — so hopefully we get some actual news this week.
But in case that doesn’t materialize, we’ll definitely have a mail bag! And here’s where you can ask me some questions for this week’s edition. Leave yours in the comments on the post below!
Obligatory addendum:
Keep in mind, however, that the ability to post comments is for paid subscribers only.
Yes, this is a way to hopefully entice some people to upgrade to a paid membership. And yes, I’m sorry to have to do it like this, because I am very aware of the state of the world and how difficult finances are for a lot of people right now. As someone who lost his job in October and is now running this site as his only source of income, believe me, I know! Just please be sure that you know that I genuinely love and appreciate everyone who has signed up or has been reading regularly so far, paid or otherwise. (Though I feel that I must point out here that I learned over the last few years that limiting the comments to paying customers only makes for a much more respectful and inviting forum than the alternative — perhaps something else to consider if you’re on the fence about a paid subscription. Join us!)
Great work Stoeten, as always. I noticed Scott Mitchell of TSN tweeted that he thinks the Jays might be more of less out of money to spend on the offseason. I think that might be a guess more than anything, but if he's right, does that make you think twice about the Semien signing? I'm very happy to have Semien here on a one year deal, but if the choice was to spend that 20 million or so on him or a starter, I think I would have preferred that go toward a starter rather than adding to their already stacked line up. Or maybe they just felt there weren't starters out there beyond Bauer that warranted that kind of paycheque? Thanks again!
Is it just me or are we not talking about Teoscar Hernandez enough? I would love to know if you think his incredible season last year (until his oblique injury) was just a small sample hot streak or if something actually clicked. If it’s the latter, he sure looked a lot like Joey Bats 2.0. If he’s fully healthy now and hitting 4 in our lineup, I feel like he could be a dark horse MVP candidate.