So lately I've been reading about two players that people want the Blue Jays to go after Jason Bay (most recently by Dave Perkins in the Star) and Carlos Delgado (in the Jay Hunter). Neither of which really excite me. Lets looks at Bay for a moment. This is what he hit last year
A season not all that different than Adam Lind's:
So what's the trouble? Well, Jason can only play LF and not a very good LF at that. He has roughly the same defensive ability in LF as Lind. He had a -13.9 UZR this year and that was in a tiny LF in Boston, you want him roaming a larger LF? As you might know, we already have a line of guys that play LF poorly. If he could play RF then maybe he'd be a player to go after, but he has played all of 8 innings in right. So we we were to sign him, he would have to play left, Travis Snider would have to play right and Lind would DH. And Vernon Wells would have to run his legs off. We wouldn't gain much defensively over a Lind, Wells, Snider outfield.
How much would Bay cost us? I would guess at least $15 million a year for 4 years. He is 31 now so 35 at the end of the contract, offensively I'd still expect him to be a valuable player, defensively I'd expect you'd want to move him to DH by then. I'd also expect we'd want to move Vernon out of CF sometime in the next 2 or 3 years.
Yeah he's Canadian and that is a draw but only if he can help us win. There are lots of Canadians we could sign if we weren't worried about winning. I don't know, maybe if Overbay could be moved and Lind could play first it would be worth signing him. But even then we are setting ourselves up to have a lousy defensive outfield for the next several years.
I guess if we were to sign him I wouldn't cry and complain but he's not the first guy I'd chase. I'd much rather we go after a guy that could play good defense in the outfield.
Now Carlos Delgado, what do he do this year?
He was hurt a lot of the year. Someone would have to promise me he is healthy before I'd want to sign him but the year before he hit 38 homers. Would he take a one year contract? Would he want to be a full time DH? He is 37 now and there is a glut of DH types on the market this year.
The downside? Well you are forcing Lind into playing LF full time, so we are forced into a Lind, Wells, Snider outfield. Get used to watching balls hit the ground. It also makes us a little left side heavy in the offense. Lind, Snider, Overbay and Delgado would all swing from the left side.
So no, unless he comes really cheap, I'm not really all that excited about picking him up, but then I think there will be DH types that will go cheap again this winter, so if he's one I won't complain if we picked him but he's not who I'd build my off season around.
Now if someone was to suggest we go after Mike Cameron or another good defensive outfielder so we could rework ourselves back into a good defensive team, that I could get behind.