Toronto Blue Jays Morning Brew: Bautista, Hanigan, Johnson

Toronto Blue Jays star right fielder

‘s name keeps coming up in trade rumors. Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Blue Jays News and Rumors

Many rumors, little news for the Toronto Blue Jays so far this off-season. Here’s the latest:

Nick Cafardo at the Boston Globe started to shake the Jose Bautista rumor tree on Sunday when he provided the following update on the Jays’ slugger in his “Updates on Nine” feature:

"6. Jose Bautista, RF, Blue Jays — Rumors that Bautista could be dealt for pitching have persisted for a couple of offseasons but the Blue Jays haven’t wanted to break up the Bautista-Edwin Encarnacion dynamic in the middle of the order. The Jays are desperate for at least two starting pitchers and dealing Bautista may land them one. “It’s a name we’re hearing through backchannels right now, but wouldn’t be surprised if he’s available” said an NL general manager. Bautista was one of Farrell’s personal favorites in Toronto, however it’s doubtful the Blue Jays would deal within the division — even though the Red Sox have extra pitching."

Noah Sherman from Bluebird Banter responds with a look a similar trades around MLB that involved a premium corner outfielder with at least one or more years remaining of team control.

Andrew Stoeten at DJF shares a bit of a weird exchange that involves Charlie Sheen, Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista and something about packing his bags for Cincinnati?

Jay Blue over at Blue Jays From Away says that the Jays should just say no to Reds’ catcher Ryan Hanigan, which pivots off pieces from Drew Fairservice at Getting Blanked and Stoeten at DJF.

Mr. Blue also has updates on members of the Toronto Blue Jays playing winter ball, which includes not only an Arizona Fall League wrap-up but also news on Blue Jays participating in the Australian, Dominican and Mexican leagues.

Minor Leaguer at Bluebird Banter bids adieu to Mike McCoy who was signed by the Boston Red Sox to a minor league contract late last week.

Richard Griffin at the Toronto Star has some suggestions for Alex Anthopoulos to consider this offseason, which Griff says AA “must do” if he plans on staying employed as the Blue Jays’ GM for much longer.

Scott Ferguson at TSN.ca shares that five consecutive years of being in the top five in home runs in the American League hasn’t led to much success for the Blue Jays.

Jason Collette provides a nice piece a FanGraphs that looks at Josh Johnson‘s glaring issues out of the stretch, which Collette says “tend to appear when a pitcher is struggling with the command of his pitches, as well as falling into predictable patterns of pitch selection.” According to a tweet last night from Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle the San Francisco Giants or San Diego Padres are Johnson’s top two choices.

Catcher Jack Murphy from the Toronto Blue Jays system hit a clutch tenth-inning home run to clinch a historic berth for the Canberra Cavalry in the Asia Series Final. Another member of the Jays organization, shortstop Jon Berti, also played a big role in the win as he was 3 for 5 with three stolen bases.

According to the Canberra Times, the Calvary are “the first Australian Baseball League team to win an Asian Series game, the first to make the play-offs, the first to make the grand final and the first non-Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese team to win a game.” Impressive stuff and thanks goes out to @DonnaTopping1 for sharing!