According to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated, the Blue Jays have offered a scouting position to former Mets and Expos general manager Omar Minaya.

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Vernon, a long time friend of Young’s, spoke at length about how the situation has developed in Texas and how it has been handled overall. It’s funny in some ways that many people had picked Texas as the best landing spot for Wells because of Young’s presence on the team and due to their homes being near by. Instead, both are speaking against the organization and how it treats its players. That’s a huge sign to other players that says “maybe I should consider other destinations”, a sign that Cliff Lee saw well ahead of time.

The quotable portions from Wells are as follows, for those who missed it (quotes obtained from the Los Angeles Times article written by Mike Giovanna, available here):

“It’s been handled poorly on their end, I’ll say that,” Wells said of the Rangers. “Of course, I dealt with it in a completely different way. I dealt with it in-house, which was the right way to do things. He’s having to deal with it, unfortunately, publicly. It creates all kinds of problems.” (more…)

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As I hear about how the talks are souring between the St-Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols, I sit here, I wonder, I dream. There’s arguably a 0.05% chance that Albert Pujols will not be a Cardinal in 2011 or 2012, and probably a lesser chance that he would become a Blue Jay if he were available. However, let’s imagine for one second that talks did get so bad that St-Louis executives realized that they had little choice but to move him for as big a package as they could find. Let’s also imagine that Alex Anthopoulos would be in the front row of the pack chasing him, as he has been for the majority of available players, making inquiries, offering an attractive package that includes pieces from the team with the 4th best minors system in the majors.

Before I get into the Pujols market, however, I wanted to add that I’m not the only one looking into the possibility of Pujols becoming a Toronto target. Alex Anthopoulos wants to target the very best at each position, and we all know Albert is the best 1B OR DH. The last part is particularly important, because it tells us that Pujols may want to bring his craft to the American League for his next contract in order to prolong his career. If he signs a 10-year contract in St-Louis, what are the chances he’ll be an effective 1B at the end of it? It’s also important because it means that even if the Jays want to add Pujols AND keep Adam Lind, they can do so. If they do have to deal Lind to get Pujols, it’s really no big deal because Lind can’t hit LHP. (more…)