Blue Jays Morning News: GM Search & Tickets

Things are slowly simmering on the old MLB Hot Stove. The Blue Jays are not fully boiling just yet, though. It seems that things are developing slowly. But, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. And, when something is happened, or rumored to be happening, we’ll update our Blue Jays Offseason Tracker for you! In the mean time, there is some interesting stuff being tossed around. Let’s take a look.

Toronto Blue Jays

Byrnes a Possible GM? Apparently, Mark Shapiro was not kidding when he said that the search for a new GM of the Toronto Blue Jays would be “thorough”. While he’s bought some time with Tony LaCava being named interim GM, work will still need to be done in order for the club to settle on the guy who will work under Shapiro to guide this team. And, you would think that the sooner this is done, the better.

Well, Bob Elliott (via TSN.ca) tells us that another candidate for the job could be Josh Byrnes. He’s the former GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks (2006-2010) and the San Diego Padres (2011- 2014). He’ll also join Ross Atkins who is VP of player personnel with the Indians and LaCava as potential candidates.

Craig Calcaterra of NBCSports.com points out that this really doesn’t matter much since Shapiro is really going to be making all the decisions anyway. He says: “…from a fan’s perspective, we care about who has final say on baseball operations decisions. Who pulls the trigger on deals and authors the team’s baseball strategy.” This is so true and couldn’t derscribe the GM Search better. Perhaps we aren’t really getting caught up in who will be the next GM for that reason.

LaCava Speaks– David Singh of Sportsnet.ca brings us a synopsis of LaCava’s appearance with Dean Blundell. It didn’t exactly reveal any eye popping news, but it was worth checking out. Firstly, he would not commit to saying whether he has spoken to David Price, but that the club has spoken to all internal free agents. But, he also added that they’ve “cast a wide net” in looking for pitching help. It’s just the kind of generic response you would get, but it also leaves us with enough to keep on guessing.

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LaCava also squashed any notions of trading R.A. Dickey. His ability to give 200 innings is something that the Blue Jays covet greatly and it is something they are not prepared to subtract from their club. At least, not yet. He also spoke on moving Aaron Sanchez to the rotation and left us with no clearer idea as to what the club will do. He said that “long term” Sanchez can be a good starter. And that they would speak to him about the idea, but that he’s also a very good bullpen piece. Gee, thanks.

The Cheap Seats? Steve Morales of Global News has an interesting perspective on the recent announcement that Blue Jays tickets will be a tad more expensive this year. Folks might be upset by the slight increase of their tickets next year. They’ll see a hike of between $3 and $6 and between $4 and $10 for premium tickets. But, in context, the Blue Jays remain the better bargain in Toronto Sports.

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Here are some points to consider: Firstly, the Blue Jays ranked as the 20th most expensive in MLB in ticket pricing at $33. Or, 10th cheapest, depending on how you look at it. The Maple Leafs have an average ticket cost of $151! To prove his point further, though, Morales should have mentioned the Raptors prices. In consulting Forbes.com, I found that the average Raptors ticket is $58. If you’re reading this, you probably are leaning toward thinking that a MLB game is the better product. Therefore, the value argument stands.