Friday Bantering: Jays links

Happy return of Donaldson and Tulowitzki day! I looked in the card shops but I couldn’t find the perfect card for the occasion. No word yet on the corresponding move. They are likely waiting to see who has to be put on the DL after today’s batting practice.

Over at Sportsnet, David Singh takes some guesses at who could make Tuesday’s start for the Blue Jays. His suggestions:

• J.A. Happ, who made his first rehab start Thursday. David notes that next Tuesday would work as his next throw day. He threw 3 innings yesterday, he might be able to throw 75 pitches, 5 innings or so. It would be a surprise if the Jays decided he only needed one rehab start. I don’t know, I don’t think it would be a terrible idea.
• Mat Latos. Oh I hope not, but it’s possible. He would have to be added to the 40-man (and likely DFAed a couple of days later). He started Thursday in Buffalo.
• T.J. House. His last three starts haven’t been good. He’s allowed 13 earned in 15 innings over the 3 starts. I kind of doubt they will go with him, but then, maybe he could stay as a lefty reliever after the start. We could use a good lefty reliever.

I guess there is the possibility that they could make it a bullpen day. Start Tepera or Leone and run out everybody in the pen. I’d think they wouldn’t do that unless their pitchers start going deeper into games over the weekend.

Let’s do a poll:

Jeff Passan, at Yahoo, talks about how each team is set up for, well, 2018-19’s free agent class. It’s always good to be looking way into the future. Actually, his point is there are a lot of very good players who might be available that winter:

Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Clayton Kershaw, Josh Donaldson, Daniel Murphy, Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Blackmon, Andrew Miller, Zach Britton, Craig Kimbrel. There are dozens more. Teams will guarantee $3 billion to players that winter. The number could exceed $4 billion.

He notes that the Jays will be in good shape, but he doesn’t expect us to be spending on the top names:

The financial outlook for 2019 looks sunny, with only $54 million committed. A year later, it’s even better: $16.9 million, which is the sixth lowest in baseball. Never has Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro been a big spender, and the idea of him giving Donaldson the eight years-plus and $200 million-plus he’ll demand simply doesn’t compute. The Blue Jays are more the team that will go on a shopping spree in the second tier, mining it for those who will look good alongside Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Roberto Osuna and company.

Ryan Tepera is getting a lot of work (Ben means he’s 5th in innings pitched among all Jays pitchers):

This was 25 years ago.....yes it makes me feel old.