Blue Jays among potential fits for Melky Cabrera: Heyman

According to a tweet from Jon Heyman, the Blue Jays are among the teams looking at free agent outfielder, Melky Cabrera, who played in Toronto from 2013-14.

In one of the quietest free agent markets we’ve ever witnessed in any of the major sports, there have been several serviceable veterans whose names have barely been mentioned at all. One of those players is Melky Cabrera, a 33 year old, switch-hitting outfielder who had a pretty solid season in 2017. Sure, he has some knocks against him, but he still produced a .285/.324/.423 slash line with 17 home runs and 85 RBI for the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals last year, so he’s no slouch.

His name finally popped up on the rumour mill on Saturday, at least according to a tweet from Jon Heyman of FanRagSports. Heyman mentioned that the Blue Jays are among several teams that may be a potential fit for the former All-Star, although he also listed the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, and Atlanta Braves as well.

Heyman didn’t specify whether or not the Blue Jays had been recently tied to Cabrera or not, just simply listed them as a potential fit for the veteran outfielder. If I were going to guess, I would assume that the Blue Jays likely talked to Cabrera earlier in the offseason before they signed Curtis Granderson, and traded for Randal Grichuk. Now that they’ve added those two to a stable that includes Kevin Pillar, Steve Pearce, Ezequiel Carrera, Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Alford and more, it wouldn’t make much sense to spend the remaining payroll on a redundant piece like Cabrera.

More from Jays Journal

• 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

There’s a very good chance that Cabrera is about to sign a bargain contract with some team out there, and perhaps the Blue Jays may jump on a chance like that, or with another veteran waiting for a contract offer. However, with the presence of so many outfielders, Kendrys Morales locked in at DH (and plenty of others who could use time there), Cabrera probably doesn’t make sense unless the contract is a borderline giveaway.

It’s entirely possible the Blue Jays could look to trade one or more outfielders to clear up the logjam a bit, but unless that happens I don’t think fans should expect Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro to be adding another outfielder. In fact, their offence looks more or less set in place save for maybe a back-up catcher, unless of course they trade from their core group in the coming weeks.

I’ve been surprised many times before, but I fully expect the front office to spend their remaining dough on either the rotation, the bullpen or both. While the idea of a reunion with Melky Cabrera seems like a fun idea, it probably doesn’t make much sense anymore.

Next: Blue Jays could use one more piece in the 'pen