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Blue Jays Morning Brew: Fixes, Hope and Catching Up

By Shaun Doyle

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Welcome to today’s Blue Jays Morning Brew. We’ve got news and links to start your day off. We’ll look at possible fixes for this team, some hockey, some comments from a former Blue Jays closer and a special birthday wish.

Over at Sportsnet, Tao of Stieb wonders which type of target the Blue Jays should be seeking to improve this team. He offers 3 options: starting pitcher, bullpen arm or outfielder. Either of these would be a welcome addition in Toronto. But, you have to be realistic in your expectations. It is not likely that the Blue Jays will be able to upgrade via multiple moves. So, Tao asks which you’d go after. 

Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays /

Toronto Blue Jays

This is a tough one. As he points out, a starter would have to be  better than at least 2 of your current starters. Those don’t come cheap. And, do the Blue Jays actually need one? They have Daniel Norris up their sleeve. Is this enough? Or, does the club go and try to work some magic and bring in a rental? GM, Alex Anthopoulos may have to make his most ninja like move yet to bring in some impactful talent and still keep enough to compete.

Also at Sportsnet, Shi Davidi brings us Stanley Cup picks from some of the Blue Jays. Apparently, Drew Hutchison picked the Tampa Bay Lightning to win it all way back when. Apparently, the boys have been keeping track of the playoffs and have done fairly well in picking winners. Hutchison leads the group with and 11-3 record. The group consists of Mark Buehrle, Brett Cecil, Liam Hendriks and coach, Tim Leiper. Not surprisingly, Buehrle has picked the Blackhawks to win the Cup likely due to his connection with the city of Chicago. I always enjoy seeing athletes follow other sports the way we follow them.

Shi Davidi also talked to former Blue Jays closer, Casey Janssen. With the Blue Jays visiting the Nationals, it was a great chance to catch up with Janssen. His comments were rather interesting. While we can take his comments at face value, one can’t help but think there is a bit of…hard feelings when Janssen discusses his old team. In particular, when he discusses the offseason the Blue Jays had, there just seems to be an undertone of resentment. Or, maybe that is just what we’ve been led to believe by comments about clubhouse negativity, etc. 

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Judge for yourself:
-On negotiations with the Blue Jays in the winter: “I think the Blue Jays weren’t as serious as other teams”

-On the Blue Jays lack of bullpen moves: “I thought it was something they might address a little more, but I haven’t followed them enough…With the new guys that they brought in, I’m not quite sure how they fit in or will play out, but over the course of the 162 games the guys that I remember are going to be just fine and I think without getting into the whole GM stuff … I’m sure they did the best they could with the money they had and allocated it according to what they thought was best.”

-On the Blue Jays addressing the clubhouse issues: “I don’t want to say things or whatever, but I think there are things that probably needed to change. I think there were some people in there that probably got a little stale with the frustration and then others, yeah, I’m sure the guys they brought in, from what we hear, they’re great people in the clubhouse and of course great baseball players as well…I felt like I was part of the solution, not part of the problem and, you know, played out my contract and it was just time to move on.”

In an effort to possibly shine some positivity on the 2015 season, Ken Fidlin of The Sun brings us manager John Gibbons belief that the Blue Jays can turn things around and make some noise in the generally mediocre AL East. While Bob Elliott feels the Blue Jays are a “mess”, Gibby feels that this club is fortunate to be in the position they’re in despite playing poorly thus far. The rest of the division is spinning its collective tires as R.A. Dickey suggests. But, the problem is that the Blue Jays keep spinning along with them. But, it is true. This club is a big winning streak (which they haven’t had yet) away from climbing the standings and taking control. But, then again, so is the rest of this division.

Finally, we should all wish our favorite Japaneeeeeeeeeeeeese player, Munenori Kawasaki a very special Happy Birthday! He turned 34 on Wednesday!

Next: The Rise & Fall of 10 Former Blue Jays

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