Thursday Bantering

There are lots of little Blue Jays rumors out there. I thought we'd collect them all up, while we wait for the Rule 5 (I really wanted to use Rule V, just to drive Minor Leaguer crazy, but I figure he's hungover this morning. Adding injury to injury isn't fair). MLB.com 'coverage' of the draft starts at noon eastern.

I figured the Jays might try to pick up a hard throwing right-handed pitcher, for the back of the pen, knowing they can return him after spring training if it doesn't look like he'll work out. It really doesn't cost anything, but it sounds like the Jays will sit it out. Being an old Expo fan, I wouldn't mind them taking Delino DeShields Jr and let battle for a 4th outfielder/backup infielder/pinch runner job.

Other stuff:

• Bob Elliot seems to think that Daniel Norris would be the price for a closer, suggesting that he could go to Kansas City for Greg Holland or Wade Davis. If he is the price, I hope they don't do it. Bob says:

Say the Jays rotation lines up like this: R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Drew Hutchison, Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez.

The next five would be Marco Estrada, Todd Redmond, Norris, Liam Hendriks and Chad Jenkins.

Would you trade your No. 8 starter for a lights-out closer?

Whether his name was Davis or Holland?

First, let me say I'll never get over the one sentence paragraphs the Sun forces writers to use. Second, if you just see Norris as only this year's number 8 starter, I really think we have a difference in how we view baseball. Elliot goes on to suggest that Davis or Holland could be the difference between the playoffs and Alex being fired. A GM that is worried about keeping his job is apt to make bad moves, I'm hoping Alex will be smarter.

• It looks like the Dodgers are signing Brandon McCarthy. I was having nice little daydreams of the Jays signing him and having Sanchez start the season in the pen.
• I'm starting to think that the Jays ought to look to get Casey Janssen and Brandon Morrow back.
• Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets that the Jays haven't talked to Sergio Romo. Maybe the team knows he wouldn't want to come to Toronto.

Shi Davidi has a ton of information in his post from late last night, including a look at how much money the Jays have left to spend. Go read it, but here are a few bits of info out of it:

• Aaron Sanchez might be used as a closer to manage his arm, and while the team still has Mark Buehrle to pick up innings, then Sanchez could go into the rotation in 2016.
• He figures Gregory Infante, John Stilson and Tyler Ybarra could be lost in the Rule 5 draft.
• He says "the acquisition of Justin Smoak drew plenty of praise in lobby talk." The feeling is that moving from Safeco to Rogers will make a player out of him.
• And he repeats Scott Boras' line of the week, speaking of the Cubs: "Much like swimming pools, when there's too many kids in the pool it changes the colour of the water,"