Toronto Blue Jays Morning Brew: Aging Curves, Winter Leagues, CTE

Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista (19) celebrates with first baseman Edwin Encarnacion after the game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Blue Jays News and Rumours

It’s been extremely quiet on the Blue Jays front since the Winter Meetings wrapped up last week so it’s been awhile since we did our last morning brew. Let’s try to get back on track today with the latest news and rumours about the Toronto Blue Jays.

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Jay Blue at Blue Jays From Away pivots off a potentially game-changing piece from Jeff Zimmerman at FanGraphs that looks at changing aging curves in the post-PED era. Zimmerman found that, in general, players don’t really improve much after entering the big leagues but rather plateau before slowing beginning to decline. However Jay finds that when looking at the smaller sample size of current Blue Jays players there is actually a huge variance when it comes to individual cases. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are two players who broke the trend by peaking late, both in their age-29 seasons.

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Jay also keeps us up-to-date with his Toronto Blue Jays Winter League Report at BJFA. Moises Sierra isn’t hitting for much power but has a 331/.401/.441 triple-slash and is making good contact, isn’t striking out and is taking bases via the walk. I know it’s winter league but he appears to be a player that is turning the corner. Kevin Pillar is starting to heat up after a slow start but his plate discipline still appears to need work (1 BB, 9 K in 41 ABs). Anthony Gose has just started playing in the Venezuelan but has been productive in his early PAs. Esmil Rogers had a nice start his last time out and hurled four scoreless innings.

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Charlie Caskey writes about the Blue Jays coming home empty from the Winter Meetings over at YourVanC’s.

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According to the National Post, former Toronto Blue Jay Ryan Freel had the brain disease CTE when he committed suicide. Freel is the first baseball player to be diagnosed with CTE, according to the article. Very sad stuff.

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Ben Nicholson-Smith at Sportsnet looks at potential targets at second baseman and includes Danny Espinosa, Jayson Nix, Ryan Raburn, Yuniesky Betancourt, Rickie Weeks and Dan Uggla. However it still looks like there is a very good chance the Blue Jays will be going with Ryan Goins in 2014.

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Tom Dakers at Bluebird Banter takes the time to familiarize us with the Blue Jays 2014 Winter Tour: Ontario Only edition. Players reportedly taking part are Adam Lind, Steve Delabar, Josh Thole, Colby Rasmus, Brandon Morrow, Dustin McGowan, Rogers, Todd Redmond and Gose.

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Blue Jays Plus looks at what Toronto’s bench might look like next season.

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The Blue Jays made their minor league signings of RHP Tomo Ohka and INF Jared Goedert official via team press release.