Happy Thanksgiving to those of you on the other side of the border. I’m enjoying the football this morning.
The Jays, frustratingly, continue to refuse to give us any news to talk about, and I’m not a big fan of discussing the generally made-up rumours, but we are where we are:
- The Jays are one of five teams making an offer to Juan Soto. The others are the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Dodgers. Please don’t let it be the Dodgers. Or the Yankees. Or Red Sox. Or Mets. But the Dodgers have signed enough of the top free agents. These won’t be ‘final offers’; a fair bit of back-and-forth will happen before a deal.
- The Jays signed Michael Stefanic to a minor-league contract. Stefanic is 28 and has played mostly second and third base. He’s had 264 MLB PA, with a .232/.301/.317 batting line. He had a nice season at Triple-A Salt Lake, hitting .389/.456/.510. The Pacific Coast is a hitter’s league, but .389 is still pretty impressive. He’s depth, if all goes well we won’t see much of him with the Jays.
- The Jays are also linked to several free agents: Max Fried, Luis Severino, Anthony Santander, Corbin Burnes, and Alex Bergman. We shall see.
- Former Blue Jays DH Rico Carty passed away. He was an original Jay, picked in the 1976 Expansion Draft, but was traded to Cleveland before the 1978 season, getting Rick Cerone and John Lowenstein (a pretty good deal for us). Then we got him back before the 1978 season. He hit .284/.340/.481 with 20 home runs in 1978 for us before we traded him to the A’s in August (for Willie Horton and Phil Huffman). Then we picked him up for the third time, as before the 1979 season, hitting .256/.322/.390 with 12 home runs in 132 games. He retired after the season. In all he played 15 seasons in the MLB, 1651 games, with a .299/.369/.464 line and 204 home runs. Carty was 85.
- Old Friend Yusei Kikuchi signed with the Angels, for three years and $63 million. I hope things go well for him.
- And, of course, Blake Snell, who really should be a country singer with a name like that, signed with the Dodgers for something like $182 million but with a signing bonus and deferrals that reduce the we-don’t-call-it-a-cap hit. MLB should do something to stop teams from saving on the Luxury Tax.
I think that’s about it for anything resembling Blue Jays news. I’m playing in a squash doubles tournament this weekend. My partner and I haven’t played squash doubles, and it is a different thing than singles squash, but we’ll have fun, and there is beer after.