Thursday bantering

So, the logjam at catcher might be less crowded soon as Jeff Passan says the Jays have discussed trading Russell Martin and he is drawing interest from ‘a number of teams’

As we are all aware, Martin has one year at $20m left on his deal. The Blue Jays are willing to pay down a significant amount of that, per sources according to Passan.

Trade Rumours has more here.

Russell only appeared in 90 games last season for the Jays and had one of the worst seasons of his career, ending with 10 homers and 25 RBIs. He also posted a career low .194 batting average with a .338 OBP. As well as playing catcher, he played shortstop, third base (where he looked good) and had a brief dabble with left field.

Russell has been a great player who has accumulated a 15.2 career defensive WAR. While he might not be an everyday catcher anymore, he could easily platoon with another catcher and help mentor a young pitching staff (which is what i thought the Jays would have him do, but clearly not)

If Russell does go, im sure we will all wish him the very best.

Now, all we need is a team to show some interest in our veteran shortstop. What was his name again..?

Meanwhile in Korea:

Ex Jays 1st-rounder RHP Deck McGuire has signed with the Samsung Lions, the team announced. McGuire only appeared in 4 games for the Jays and compiled a 6.48 ERA.

There has a been a little bit of backchat about Josh Donaldson’s time with the Jays and how we handled/ballsed up his injuries.

Did Toronto blow it in their handling of him? Richard Griffin says no we didn’t (subscription piece).

So now that we have our group of shiny new assistant coaches, what’s the most important thing about them? Collaboration and the he data revolution of course!

Its no secret that the Jays are after more pitching. But are you familiar with these names?

Yency Almonte of the Rockies, Adam Conley of the Marlins, Amir Garrett of the Reds, Jose Castillo of the Padres, Austen Williams of the Nationals and Caleb Frare of the White Sox.

Why these six? Because they are intriguing breakout candidates for our bullpen.

The A’s have unveiled plans for their quite lovely and shiny new ballpark. To be honest, they could play in a burning nuclear fallout shelter filled with human waste and it would be better than the Coliseum. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what the Coliseum is...

And i leave you with a question. Is there a more beautiful play in baseball than the bunt?

Lets vote on it.