There was some Blue Jays news yesterday. The team hired David Bell to be Vice President of Baseball Operations and assistant GM. Bell was the Reds’ manager from 2019 to near the end of this past season.
You might remember that Bell was interviewed for the manager back in 2018 when Charlie Montoyo was hired.
Bell will:
oversee the Player Development and Physical & Mental Performance departments, while also contributing to major league strategic planning decisions and advising on player evaluations and acquisitions
The Jays have two other Assistant GMs, Michael Murov and Joe Sheehan.
There is going to be speculation that Bell has been hired to take John Schneider’s job should the team get off to a slow start, but we thought that about Don Mattingly too.
Beyond that there isn’t much for news. I’ve read that the Jays have no chance to sign Juan Soto and that the Jays are a shoo-in for getting Juan Soto.
I hate rumour season.
The other rumour is that the Jays are in the lead to get Gleyber Torres….which doesn’t excite me
It has also been two years since the Teoscar Hernandez trade. I’m sure you’ll remember that Hernandez went to the Mariners for Erik Swanson and Adam Macko.
Our opinions were far more mixed, I thought….I figured we disliked the trade…but we were closer to 50/50 on it.
The Mariners got one pretty average year out of Teoscar. He hit .258/.305/.435 with 26 home runs and a 2.1 bWAR, and then he left to sign with the Dodgers as a free agent.
Swanson had a good year and a bad year. Macko spent most of 2024 with the Fisher Cats. He had 105 strikeouts in 93.1 minor league innings, with 40 walks, 78 hits and a 4.63 ERA.
I don’t think we can call a winner on that one. It will be a win if Macko turns into a decent starter for the Jays.