Blue Jays Morning Brew: Turf, Bullpen & A Eulogy

Good Morning. Wipe the sleep from your eyes because we’ve brewed up a fresh pot of Blue Jay goodness to start your day. Here’s your Blue Jays Morning Brew.

In case you are a keener and already read the report about the Blue Jays’ plan to extend  Melky Cabrera a qualifying offer, here is the Jon Heyman report that also says the Blue Jays will also look to extend Melky long term. Yay!

More from Toronto Blue Jays News

• Matt Chapman has been exactly what the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: The goalposts are moving in the right direction
• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King

At Sportsnet.ca, Jeff Blair tells us that the Blue Jays plan on putting in new artificial turf for next season. One of the benefits will be to Jose Reyes. Blair says that rather than considering a position change, the club is hoping that a winter of rest will combine with the new turf to be easier on the $22M short stop. Reyes is set to earn another $66M over the next 3 years. The new turf’s price tag is not immediately clear, but I’m guessing it is lower than that of Reyes.

Also at Sportsnet.ca, Tim and Sid hold a ceremony for the departure of the Blue Jays’ 2014 season, declaring it dead. If you’re into Tom-foolery and have the time, check it out. I’m just wondering what took them so long. I’m pretty sure they’ve thought the season was over way before this.

At The Star, Richard Griffin discusses the Blue Jays young arms, particularly in the bullpen. His title of “Blue Jays Among League Leaders in Young MLB Pitching” gets you excited to read if the young arms are leading in some pitching categories. Turns out, they are just leading in getting a lot of innings out of young arms. That’s it. Perhaps it is debunking the notion that it takes a really long time to reach the big leagues; a notion that Griffin says may be stopping multi sport athletes from committing to baseball.

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Betsided

Speaking of the bullpen, Mike Wilner thinks that Brett Cecil has the ‘right stuff’. He makes an argument that Cecil could close out games for the Blue Jays should Casey Janssen indeed leave for greener (cha-ching) pastures. It is an interesting idea. I like the lefty angle. I like Cecil’s “stuff”. But, as Wilner points out, I’m not sure his consistency is better than Janssen. i wouldn’t really call him a lock down closer. But, these days, what Blue Jay is?