At least there’s Club 328!
It was a stretch of less than 36 hours that has come to sadly define the Blue Jays business model in the past couple of years.
First, the breathless release form the team on Thursday morning with details of its new Club 328, a pimped up use of largely unused space in the right field corner of the Rogers Centre. It’s yet another opportunity to extract exorbitant amounts from a fan base to divert from the deflating on-field product.
Then came the crushing blow early Friday evening when news that 23-year-old Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki had done the inevitable and opted to pass on the Jays. Perhaps that would have been easy enough to stomach, even with the considerable resources the Jays had devoted in trying to land Sasaki, given that the Dodgers always get everyone they want anyway.
But this wasn’t just a loss, this was an embarrassment. This was front office incompetence that extends far beyond not being able to land a big-name free agent.
Earlier in the day, the Jays had “landed” Myles Straw from the Cleveland Guardians – a 30-year-old minor league outfielder whose career has been spiralling in the wrong direction for two years. By now you know that Straw didn’t come for nothing. The Jays did get US$2 million in international bonus money under the belief it would help them land their man, but to do so had to pick up more than US$11 million in salary from the Guardians.
If you get Sasaki as a result, it’s Ross Atkins brilliance. Lose in such spectacular fashion and it’s a larcenous bit of business from which this front office may never recover, a US$11 million roll of the dice that turned up craps.
Missing out on Sasaki was always going to be the end result here, predictable as it was pitiful. But when the Jays announced the deal for Straw, they took their vulnerable (gullible?) fan base for a ride not seen since the laughable erroneous reports from December 2023 that Shohei Ohtani was on a plane. Only this time it was worse. It cost them money that could have been spent in any number of directions that would viably improve the roster.
So what’s remaining on the Jays carcass as Atkins attempts to pluck something out of a wayward off-season that will fix the team’s offensive woes?
Well, there is a team coming off a shameful 74-88 season that has demoralized those still remaining in the clubhouse and further riled a fan base that may not be as full of suckers as management suspects.
They’re a team that bowed out in embarrassingly horrific playoff series in back-to-back Octobers prior to the 2024 mess.
They’re a team with a top 10 payroll and bottom five farm system.
They’re a team that many in the industry feel is about to let both Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette walk to free agency, a concept unfathomable as recently as 12 months ago.
And perhaps most damning of all, they’re a team with no immediate prospect for improvement, unless you’re confident that Atkins can elevate the off-season in a hurry.
There have been suggestions that the Jays can now easily transition its attention to free agents such as Alex Bregman, Anthony Santander and Pete Alonso. In theory, this is true. In reality, it’s more challenging than it’s ever been for Atkins and his staff.
Among the many problems with Atkins’ efforts to do so is that perception of the Blue Jays has turned to harsh reality like never before. It’s not just the local fan base and market either as the Jays are now being openly criticized by the national baseball media throughout the U.S. That in turn roots skepticism in any free agent looking to find a long-term home, especially those looking to play for a contender long-term.
For those desperate for optimism, there exists the possibility that the team’s record is so poor come July that Atkins will be able to trade one or both for some mid-level prospects rather than letting the pair walk for nothing.
I suppose there’s a chance the team extends Guerrero long-term, but with the 25-year-old’s status in eternal limbo, most free agents have to be asking themselves why they would go to a team that can’t even line up their one big star long term.
For a punchline, there’s always Myles Straw to entertain those Club 328 patrons buying into the idea that there will be a good view from that corner. Sure, Straw is a minor leaguer, but somebody has to play centre field early on while Daulton Varsho recovers from shoulder surgery. And Straw has what the Jays front office values more than anything: Solid defensive metrics.
Yes, a punchline. A confluence of so much over the past three seasons has the Jays on the brink of being the laughing stock of not just their own market but of the sport. The staggering cost of taking a swing and a miss on Sasaki stings much deeper than missing out on free agents such as Ohtani and Juan Soto. And as a result, barring a miraculous turnaround in the three weeks and change until spring training begins, how does the Jays front office recover from this latest debacle?