Another day, another free agent tells us the Jays are interested in him. This time it is Lance Berkman, who told the Houston Chronicle that the Jays are one of the teams talking to him. His stats are here. He's a switch hitter who has clubbed RHP (1.010 OPS career) but has had trouble with LHP (.776 OPS career). From 2000 to 2009 he was very consistent getting on base at at least a .400 clip and slugging over .500 each year averaging 30 homers. Last year wasn't so good, he went half the season in Houston hitting just .245 (with a .372 OBP) and 14 home runs. Traded to the Yankees he hit just 1 home run in 106 at bats the rest of the way. He says a knee injury caused his power drop off.
Lance will be 35 in February. I have a hard time believing he has forgotten how to hit but might not be the guy he once was. He would give us another option at first base and, of course, could DH. He hasn't played the OF since 2007, but I guess he could play LF in an emergency. I'd rather get someone that could hit left-handers. since Wells and Bautista forgot how, though Jose has always hit lefties well in the past, so maybe this was just a one year, small sample size, thing.
I'd imagine Lance wouldn't be looking for more than a one year or one year plus option deal, since I'd imagine he'd like to have a good season to give him a shot at a better contract next year.
I think Alex Anthopoulos talks to the agent's of all free agents. Whether it means anything or not is another question. It seems like just about everything that happens, this off season, revolves around the question of whether they think Lind could do the job at first base or not. If they could decide on that, a lot of other things would fall into place.