Well, we’re now into the off-season for real. Today marks five days since the end of the World Series, the deadline for players and clubs to make decisions on 2027 contract options and for clubs to extend qualifying offers. The Jays almost certainly won’t extend a qualifying offer, as none of their departing free agents really have a case for a $20 million payday.
They do have to make a decision on Myles Straw’s option. It would pay him $8 million in 2027, or they can part ways for a $1.75 million buy
out. The Guardians are sending over the buyout amount as part of the original trade that brought him to Toronto. He’s been a very useful fourth outfielder for the Jays the past two seasons, and he’s said all the right things about wanting to stick around. His defensive stats were more solid than exceptional this season, but his speed is still top of the scale at 31 years old and he’s likely to have a year or two left providing strong value in the field and on the bases. All that said, $8 million is steep for his role and the Jays were looking at a tight luxury tax situation under the old CBA. I expect they’ll decline, but maybe try to bring him back on a new deal at a lower salary.
Free agency begins at 5:00pm Eastern, meaning the players who declared free agency on Thursday will no longer be restricted to re-signing with their old club and can freely negotiate with anyone. Of course, everyone expects that the owners will initiate a lock-out on December 1st, so the market probably won’t move much this month if at all. Still, it’s fun to read lists like this and dream about Tarik Skubal in a slightly different shade of blue.
In other news, the Jays were shut out of the Gold Glove awards last night. They had several strong candidates, and per Fangraphs’ numbers the second best team defence in baseball and the best in the AL.
- Andres Gimenez probably had the strongest case. You could have argued Bobby Witt jr. over him, but actual winner Taylor Walls looks like a quirt of Defensive Runs Saved, the metric used on the ballot, while MLB’s own more advanced Outs Above Average, based on StatCast data, thinks he’s mediocre.
- Christian Walker over Vlad is much more reasonable, although in spite of his brutal offensive season the Jay’s first baseman deserved to be firmly in the running.
- Alejandro Kirk and Brandon Valenzuela were clearly the best defensive catching duo in baseball this season, but they split playing time almost evenly and the winner, Detroit’s Dillon Dingler, caught almost 400 more innings at a similarly high standard.
- Lastly, Nathan Lukes had a case over Boston’s Wilyer Abreu in right field, but was probably hurt by moving around as much as he did, logging innings in centre and left.
It’s fitting for this Jays season in which nothing quite went right that they’d narrowly miss even some consolation awards. I suspect we’ll see it again on the 12th, when Dylan Cease’s excellent season earns him a respectable second place to Cam Schlittler in the Cy Young voting.
