Heyman: Blue Jays among three teams looking at Jimenez

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY SportsAccording to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, a source familiar with the situation of Ubaldo Jimenez has told him that the free agent pitcher is currently being pursued by three teams, one of which is the Toronto Blue Jays. The other two teams are “unnamed” but Heyman goes on to assume the Baltimore Orioles are also “likely” interested and the other team “could be” the Seattle Mariners.

Heyman connected the same three teams to interest in Ervin Santana last week while Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi of Fox Sports reported that according to their source the Blue Jays and Orioles were among the teams to contact Santana’s agency Proformance Baseball. However as we wrote at the time, Mike Wilner of The Fan 590 says the Jays are not one of the teams “closing in” on Santana.

Where this leaves us I’m not exactly sure. It’s become a borderline ridiculous situation with most of what we are reading at this point likely posturing from agents. Obviously the Jays are interested in signing one of Jimenez or Santana. I thought four years at $14 million per was fair market value and although it’s unclear with draft compensation attached the price for either appears to have suppressed even lower than that.

The Mariners are a team to watch and could be more interested in signing a free agent pitcher now that Hisashi Iwakuma will be sidelined for 4-6 weeks with a finger injury. Like the Blue Jays, Seattle also has a protected first round pick and according to Rosenthal would lose the 46th overall pick by acquiring another FA with draft compensation attached.

As fans we’ve been sitting on pins and needles for months waiting for the Blue Jays to make a move that will upgrade their rotation. Pitchers and catchers had their first workout today and the question remains – will they be joined in Dunedin by a new teammate?