Ken Rosenthal tells us that the Jays are ‘showing interest’ in Steve Pearce, perhaps to be a platoon partner with Justin Smoak (until Gibby gets tired of sending Smoak out there, which seems to happen sometime early July).
Yesterday was an exciting day. Both signings surprised me.
On Lourdes Gurriel:
Really like the signing.
At first I figured he would be in the running to play left field this year, but now I realize that he’s likely to be starting the year in the minors, giving the team time to see what positions his glove works at and letting build up to facing big league pitching.
It looks like Gurriel will be the type that can full whatever position is needed, which is a handy thing, and it looks like his bat should play at almost any position.
It seems like Shapiro is looking for way of keeping the team competitive beyond the current ‘window’, I’m glad for that. As much as I like seeing ‘win now’ moves, it is nice to think that we can continue to have a good team.
On Kendrys Morales:
Yeah, another one that surprised me. I didn’t expect we’d be looking at a DH type until Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista signed elsewhere.
Kendrys, a switch-hitter, breaks up the all right-handed feel of the middle of the order. In his career he’s hit lefties (.765 career OPS) and righties (.808 career OPS) about the same. He hit 30 home runs, last year, in KC, so he should show pretty decent power in Toronto.
He can play first base a little, or right field (if absolutely needed), but he’s pretty much only going to DH.
Three years, and $11 million per isn’t a ton of money, so it doesn’t limit what else the team does. We still need a first baseman and one or two outfielders, depending on what the team thinks of Dalton Pompey. I’d like them to give him and outfield job and tell him he gets 400 at bats no matter what, but I doubt the team agrees.
Does signing Moralez mean they are giving up on Encarnacion? I don’t think it has to mean that they won’t sign him. We still need a first baseman, and Edwin just happens to play that position. I think signing Edwin depends on Jose Bautista’s decision on the Qualifying Offer.
It does mean that we won’t be bringing back both Edwin and Jose, but I think we knew that long ago.
Let’s have a poll.