The Toronto Blue Jays relationship repair with super-agent Scott Boras could bode well for future negotiations including that of Canadian pitcher James Paxton next offseason.
For the first time in franchise history, the Toronto Blue Jays landed a free agent represented by Scott Boras when the team signed Hyun-Jin Ryu to a 4 year/ $80 million dollar pact last week. The organization and Boras have had a checkered past, to say the least including last season when the agent ripped Rogers Media and the Blue Jays for not doing enough to win.
Last November, Boras went on record to say this about the lone baseball entity north of the border. A shot over the bow that was heard all over the baseball world.
"“Toronto’s a wonderful city, it’s been a great franchise, they’ve drawn over three million fans, (but) they’ve lost nearly a third of their fan base due to the ‘Blue flu” of not bringing attractive players that fans find interesting to their market.”"
The hatchet appears to have been buried since the Ryu signing as everyone involved played nice in the sandbox during yesterday’s press conference. Boras even signalled that people will be looking at the Blue Jays a lot differently in next year’s round of free agency compared to a couple of years ago.
Agent Scott Boras on future impact of the Ryu signing: "I think in next year’s round of free agency there’s going to be people looking at this team a lot differently than they did two years ago." #Bluejays
— Rob Longley (@longleysunsport) December 27, 2019
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The crop of players hitting free agency next season include James “The Big Maple” Paxton who is a client of Boras. The Canadian would be a nice complementary piece alongside Ryu and prospect Nate Pearson in the 2021 rotation. Hopefully, the Ryu signing is an olive branch that will transform into a big maple leaf next offseason.
The Ryu commitment has gone a long way in not only proving to Boras but also the Jays fanbase that the brain trust is serious about contending and winning will be on the forefront sooner than later in Toronto.
All I know is #99 looked really good in Blue Jays colours yesterday, much better than Dodgers colours to say the least. Bring on the baseball season!