There are a few little bits of Blue Jays’ news:
Vlad Guerrero wins the Silver Slugger award for AL first basemen. There wasn’t much doubt he would win, as it wasn’t a great year for first basemen not named Vladimir. I don’t know what’s happened to the position. But Vladdy was a deserving choice.
The complete list of winners is here.
The team has announced that Marc Tramuta has been promoted to Director of amateur Scouting. Marc was a special assistant in the scouting department for the last year. Before that, he was the Mets’ scouting director. You’ll remember that Shane Farrell left to join the Tigers.
I have no opinion on the hiring since it’s not something you can say, ‘Oh, he’s great’ or ‘That guy sucks.’ We’ll just have to see how things go.
Matt Hague has left the team to become the hitting coach for the Pirates. You’ll remember that he came up from the Bisons before the 2024 season. He was well thought of with the Bisons.
After letting Guillermo Martinez go, the Jays hired David Popkins as the hitting coach next year. That made me figure that Hague would look elsewhere after not getting the head job here.
I’m sad to see Hague go, but eliminating the word “assistant” likely means he’ll make a fair bit more money.
The Jays will meet with Scott Boras in the next few days to discuss Juan Soto. I’m not overly hopeful, but I think the team will make a competitive offer.
But, if they were to sign Soto and extend Vlad, I would be a very happy boy.
FOCO has a bobblehead to celebrate Vlad’s Silver Slugger win. Though it was supposed to be going on sale at 11:00 Eastern, there isn’t a picture of it yet. But when it is for sale, it will be here.
I own more bobbleheads than anyone my age should have, so I’m skipping this one.