Blue Jays Morning Brew: Baseball in Montreal & More Buehrle

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

So, the Blue jays will bring their talents to Montreal again this coming season.

The fact that they’ll be joined by Joey Votto and the Reds makes it more exciting. Then, you can also add the following interesting tidbit to the story.

Apparently, Tampa Bay ownership has had discussions about bringing the Rays north to Montreal. Permanently. According to the New York Daily News (h/t to MLBTR.com) the club would be better off moving to Montreal when it comes to ticket sales.

More from Toronto Blue Jays News

• Blue Jays: Alek Manoah on pace to succeed in possible postseason
• Blue Jays: Bradley Zimmer has carved himself a valuable role
• Anthony Bass has been the shutdown reliever the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. open to a long-term contract
• Blue Jays: Snapping cold streaks at the right time

Even though Montreal had its issues, Tampa Bay has had even more turnstyle disappointment. Even during the playoffs, it seemed like Tropicana Field was barely full.

Speaking of Tropicana Field, Bill Madden of the NY Daily News says that the one thing Tampa Bay needs most is a new field and they’ll never be able to afford it. Imagine the work that would need to be done to get a functioning MLB stadium in Montreal, though. Olympic Stadium would need some work. And, what would that mean for the “Canadian market” the Blue Jays currently have cornered?

Adding to the (perhaps unnecessary) drama created yesterday regarding Mark Buehrle’s being a potential trade chip, Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com, tweeted that the Minnesota Twins have long been interested in the uber-consistent lefty.

Initially, my reaction was to scoff at this. But, then look at the contracts they handed out to starters (Rikcy Nolasco and Phil Hughes). They’ve overpaid for pitching before. Could the Twins actually make this happen?

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The bigger question for me is: Will they send Brian Dozier back to Toronto? This could be very good, even if it is wildly unfounded.

In part 3 of his series examining what went wrong for the 2014 Blue Jays, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm examines the infield. Basically, when injuries struck, Toronto’s depth, or lack thereof, was exposed. They may have some infielders who can step in here and there, but none of those guys should be seeing regular at bats. Hopefully, Alex Anthopoulos sets this as a priority this winter.

Finally, I’ll leave you with some random Blue Jays goodness from the past few days:

Via Barry Davis, Mark DeRosa offers some advice for Brett Lawrie:

Richard Griffin with an “Oh, Snap” comment:

And, one that may cause a bit of a stir: Canadian Indians reliever, John Axford provides a cheeky response to possibly coming to Toronto as a closer: