Jeff Blair has started a column at Sportsnet.ca and, in his first, he has a bit telling Alex Anthopoulos to 'Do Something'. I'm sure we'd all like to see Alex do something, as long as it doesn't cost us too much in prospects.
For me, the interesting part of the post was:
Still, keep in mind that there is expected to be a 2015 season (at last report) and given the state of the market and everything we're led to believe from the Blue Jays brass, neither Melky Cabrera nor Colby Rasmus will be back.
Now I don't know what he means by 'led to believe'. Has he talked to Alex or someone else in the front office who has said 'we don't expect to sign Melky and Colby'. Maybe he has talked to the players or their agents and was told they are unlikely to be back. Or perhaps, and most likely, he's guessing that the team won't want to pay what the pair would be asking. Maybe it is a cheap Rogers thing.
Anyway, whichever one is true, it is fair speculation.
Rasmus is making $7 million this year and will be a free agent for the first time in the off-season. And he's hitting a big .212/.266/.453 with 12 home runs in 59 games. Baseball Reference has him at a -0.3 WAR, in part because his defense hasn't been good. Maybe it has been the little nagging injuries that has slowed him in the field. He's better than his numbers, we know that, but how much better is an open question. Will he be better than Anthony Gose would be next year is the question the Jays front office has to try to figure out.
Cabrera started the season on fire. On April 30th he was hitting .342/.368/.567. Since then he's been hitting .280/.340/.402 which is still pretty good but not an All-Star. His defense is, how to put it, an acquired taste (every timesomeone tells me something is an acquired taste, it turns out to be awful). He is so much better than last year, so it seems like this year is better than it is. He's making $8 million, the second year of the 2-year deal that he signed going off his suspension, he'll be looking for more next year.
If they both aren't signed, next year, we'd have Gose playing center field and someone else, Kevin Pillar or perhaps a free agent signing in left. I'd like the Jays to to keep one of them. Take your lumps watching Anthony's bat, to get his glove. Maybe platoon him if he's really bad against lefties, but give him a shot.
Let's have a poll.