Toronto Blue Jays: Latest 2020-21 Offseason Predictions

The Blue Jays have been pretty much linked to almost everyone

Unlike basketball or hockey, where free agents typically come off the board once free agency starts, in baseball the offseason is developed at a much slower pace. Most players and teams aren’t necessarily in any rush to make a huge move right away as players, agents and organizations in baseball typically want to see how the market develops before doing anything.

This offseason could be slower than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many teams are expected to cry poor due to the losses they suffered without fans in the seats, and other sources of income being nonexistent during the shortened 2020 campaign.

Despite many teams expected to be cheap, the Toronto Blue Jays won’t be, as they’ve said they won’t be limited financially and they’re at an advantage due to the fact that the team is corporately owned.

So far this MLB offseason, not many free agents have signed. The MLB winter meetings where things typically start to ramp up have come and gone and very few moves were made. Big name free agents like George Springer, DJ LeMahieu, J.T. Realmuto, Trevor Bauer and others remain unsigned and could stay like that heading into the new year.

There have been some moves that have been done though that have included the Blue Jays. In fact, the Blue Jays were the first ones to strike in free agency when they brought back Robbie Ray on a one year deal worth $8 million. That definitely won’t be the Blue Jays only move though as they’ve been linked to a bevy of players including high profile ones.

Here’s what could happen with the Blue Jays this offseason.

Blue Jays sign a veteran catcher

The Blue Jays have immense catching depth in their organization. At the big league level, they employ Danny Jansen, Reese McGuire and Alejandro Kirk behind the dish. In the minors, they have prospects Gabriel Moreno and Riley Adams who were added to the 40 man roster just recently to prevent them from being exposed in the Rule 5 draft.

Even with all those guys, the Jays will bring in another catcher by signing a veteran who has experience catching major league games.

They did so last offseason when they signed Caleb Joseph to a minor league deal. While roster rules may be different this coming season, Joseph travelled with the team all season and was huge in building chemistry amongst the players. For an example of this, look no further to when he gave his speech after the Blue Jays clinched a playoff spot.

The reason why they’ll bring in a veteran catcher though is to help the development of Jansen, McGuire and Kirk. All three of those guys are young with minimal catching experience at the major league level.

By a veteran catcher, they won’t be bringing in the top one on the market in J.T. Realmuto, but they’ll sign one who they can use at the AAA level and call up in case of injuries.

Maybe a reunion with Joseph could be the cards, but other guys like Sandy Leon, Austin Romine or Matt Wieters could be a handful of guys that could be options as well.

A catcher is traded

As mentioned on the previous slide, the Jays have five catchers on their 40 man roster. Three at the major league level, and two in the minors that are getting close to being big league ready. Having five catchers on the 40 man roster is a lot to carry, and takes up space to fill other positions of need.

As the Jays simply won’t be releasing any of the five catchers they have on their 40 man roster, they’ll trade one or maybe even two of them to a team that’s in need of a catcher. Jays Journal co-site expert Chris Henderson wrote a piece on how you can bank on the Jays trading a catcher.

In regards to which one they’ll trade, none of them will be off limits for the right price.

As they Blue Jays are seemingly planning to address their offence via free agency, they’ll use the trade market to get pitching help which is where they can use their immense catching depth as bait.

At the trade deadline, the Blue Jays apparently discussed a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates for Joe Musgrove, but the acquisition cost was Kirk, which the front office deemed too much.

They could circle back to the Pirates, who have been seeking their catcher of the future for a while. The Jays could also explore trading one of their catchers to the Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies, or a handful of other teams that are in need of help behind the plate.

Homecoming of sorts

Even though the Blue Jays will most likely acquire pitching help through trades as mentioned by Ross Atkins, it doesn’t mean they won’t sign a single free agent that’s a pitcher.

In fact, they will sign a free agent pitcher in the name of James Paxton, who’s a Canadian that hails from Ladner, British Columbia and is nicknamed “The Big Maple”. He even has a tattoo of a maple leaf on his right arm to show his Canadian pride.

In 2020, Paxton was limited to five starts posting a 6.64 ERA with an opponent average of .284. He was only able to make five starts due to a flexor strain in his throwing arm, which is just one of multiple injuries he has suffered throughout his career.

When healthy though, Paxton is a widely underrated pitcher. In his career he’s 57-33 with a 3.58 ERA striking out 829 batters compared to 684 hits given up in 753.1 innings pitched across 136 starts.

Signing Paxton to a “pillow contract” with a team option for a second year would work for both sides. The Jays would hope for a bounce-back season from Paxton and if he does well, they’d be able to have him for one more year.

Blue Jays dip into the international free agent market

Last offseason, the Blue Jays brought two players from the international market to the major leagues. They signed Rafael Dolis who played with the Hanshin Tigers in Japan before he signed with the Blue Jays, and they also signed Shun Yamaguchi who came from the Yomiuri Giants.

From the Yomiuri Tigers, pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano has been posted by the team and has until January 7th to sign a major league contract. While the Blue Jays have been linked to him, they won’t be the ones to sign him.

If you fly two hours from Japan to South Korea, that’s where the Blue Jays will dip their toes as they’ll sign Ha-Seong Kim of the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korean Baseball League.

Kim is a versatile infielder who is primarily a shortstop but can also play third base and possibly other positions on the diamond. Last season in 138 games, he slashed .306/.397/.523 with 30 HR, 109 RBI, 163 hits, 23 SB on 25 attempts with more walks (75) than strikeouts (68).

Just about a week ago, he had dinner with Korean Blue Jay Hyun-Jin Ryu at the request of Kim.

He has until the new year to sign a contract and he will ultimately join his countryman in Ryu and put pen to paper with the Blue Jays.