Bob Elliot has a piece up in the Sun talking to a 'baseball evaluator' about what the Blue Jays should be doing. Among the points:
"The Blue Jays have the money, their best option is Heath Bell," said one evaluator familiar with the closing landscape.
Oh please no. Bell pitched well for the Padres, in the best pitcher's park in baseball, in the easiest division in baseball. He's 34 and his numbers have been falling off, as often happens to pitchers moving into their mid-30's. Can you imagine giving him a 4-year, B.J. Ryan type contract? I don't know who Elliot's evaluator is but I hope he isn't working for the Jays.
The Jays have explored trading for relievers Huston Street of the Colorado Rockies and Oakland's Andrew Bailey. Carlos Marmol of the Cubs is also available.
I like all 3 better than Bell.
Insiders say Jays president Paul Beeston is not a fan of the current posting system in place which sees teams pay anywhere from $50-to-$100 million to the Nippon Ham Fighters for just the right to negotiate with right-hander Yu Darvish. Consider the Jays interest lukewarm.
You figure Beeston would be going around telling folks how much he wants Darvish and how the Jays plan bid high on him? Course not. Does that mean that the Jays aren't interested in Yu? Nope.
The New York Yankees are interested in right-hander Kyle Drabek...
Uh huh. I imagine a lot of teams would be interested in Drabek hoping that the Jays might be willing to sell low. I doubt they will. And no, the Yankees won't offer Jesus Montero for Kyle, they ain't stupid.
The Royals (are) looking at Colby Rasmus of the Jays.
They better be willing to give up a lot. We'd almost have to get a CF back somewhere. Anthony Gose isn't ready and I don't think we want to go into next year with Rajai Davis.
The Phillies have discussed possible ways on how to re-acquire catcher Travis D'Araund from the Jays. Good luck.
I'm sure there isn't a team in baseball that wouldn't like to find a way to get Travis. He's a pretty terrific prospect. We'd have to get a heck of a lot back.