Blue Jays made low-ball offer to Mike Moustakas

According to Jon Heyman of the MLB Network, the Toronto Blue Jays were one of the runner-ups in the Mike Moustakas sweepstakes this offseason.

Jon Heyman reports that the Blue Jays made a formal 3-year, $30 million dollar offer to Mike Moustakas who eventually signed a much more lucrative multi-year pact with the Cincinnati Reds.

The Moose would secure more than double what the Blue Jays offered agreeing to a 4-year, $64 million dollar contract with Cincy. Moustakas had a rough trip through the free-agency process the season before signing a one-year, $7 million dollar deal near the middle of February with the Brewers.

He didn’t have to play the waiting game this time around signing on the dotted line at the beginning of December. He will slide over to second base with the Reds seeing the hot corner is occupied by Eugenio Suarez.

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In 2019, the 31-year old hit .254/.329/.516 with 35 round-trippers and a 3.2 WAR in 143 games for the Milwaukee Brewers. Moustakas presumably would have also had to make a position switch to first base had he latched on with Toronto.

Once the Blue Jays were unsuccessful in landing Moustakas, they shifted their focus to his former teammate Travis Shaw. The first baseman inked a one-year, $4 million dollar contract after a disappointing 2019 campaign.

In 2019, Shaw mustered an uninspiring .157/.281/.270 line with seven homers in 86 games. However, the 29-year old does have previous back-to-back 30+ homer seasons on his resume. He is being tabbed as a good bounceback candidate hitting in the friendly confines of the Rogers Centre.

The brain trust was busy this offseason aside from the free-agents they managed to corral. At various times throughout the offseason, it was also speculated they either had a significant interest or made formals offers to Didi Gregorius, Edwin Encarnacion, Rick Porcello, Josh Lindblom, Collin McHugh, Michael Pineda, and Yasmani Grandal along with Moustakas.

The offer may have been a low-ball offer to Moustakas but hey, you can’t score if you don’t shoot. Regardless of how the 2020 season pans out, Ross Atkins left no rock unturned this offseason in an attempt to improve the ball club.