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Tuesday Bantering: Atkins Speaks, and Ahab still chasing the whale

By Matt W
Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

The first full day of winter meetings has come and gone very quietly, and without any moves from the Blue Jays. That leaves a vacuum, which nature abhors, so Jon Heyman delivered this last night:

At this point, I cannot help but think of Mark Shapiro (and/or Ross Atkins) as Captain Ahab and Jay Bruce as their elusive white whale whom they chase obsessively. The Mets apparently have interest on a three year deal, but Bruce is still sticking to a five year demand. If that's the case, and what it takes, hopefully they move on to other pursuits, lest their pursuit end as in Moby Dick.

Meanwhile, Ross Atkins addressed his Rogers Media colleagues the gathered media throng. Normally, I don't pay much attention to these as it's usually little more than banalities, but Mike Wilner went through the trouble of providing a blow-by-blow. It's not usually my thing, but there's nothing much else to discuss and the ennui of this offseason has left me restless, let's go through what Atkins had to say, with some annotations. I forewarn that restlessness tends to draw out my caustic and ornery side (moreso than usual).

In (mostly) chronological order:

Ooh, state secrets! Okay, Fair enough.

Well, you'd probably want to be negotiating an extension then, right? Somehow I doubt Ross would be much of a poker player.

I would say this is probably true. They're in better position than most to make their organization better, if only because several organizations have already made themselves significantly better.

I guess? Some more context here would help.

Some real penetrating insight here. Going to skip the next couple because they're really boring.

Something of a tautology here. If it's not necessary, then it's only attractive and makes sense if there's a surplus on the market driving prices down. Which is not really my read of the market.

Acquire an infield to move infielders to the outfield? Though most of those guys have to show they can hit enough to stay on the infield before that's even a possibility.

They have a surplus of outfielders so infielders might end up in the outfield?

If relief pitching as a surplus area from which to deal, I'm not quite sure why they'd be looking to use scarce and precious budget room there. Maybe a lefty, I guess.

As long as said guarantee isn't more than an invite to Spring Training and opt-out, cool.

Hear, hear!

I dunno, I'd have gladly traded the "energy and competitive spirit" for a few division titles the Jays could surely have won in the Central from 1998 to 2014. For my money, the playoffs are the greatest place to be. But to each his own I guess.

Re-signing Estrada simply means not starting in a bigger hole relative to last year. I don't think 2017 was anyone's idea of acceptable, especially on the depth side.

I suppose this is true. The worst case scenario would be if Joe Biagini ends up the 3rd or 4th starter because of others missing time. Speaking of which:

It is simply delusional if you want to contend in 2018 not to add another good starting pitcher. We just saw what happens when you're five deep without viable options behind.

Buffalo sure, but at best any of those would be question marks in Toronto, especially in the first half of the season. Borucki, Pannone and Guerrieri have the strongest eventual major league potential there, but have a combined 15.1 innings above AA.

Anyway, that was about it from our faithful GM. Let's see what Day 2 brings.

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