Monday Bantering

It is a little different around the house today. My wife started a new job. She has been consulting for the last 5 years, and working from home, but with the change in the world, that work had dried up. Then one of the companies she consulted for offered her an ‘go to the office’ job and she decided she’d try it. I’m hoping she doesn’t take my son’s advice: Go up to the biggest guy there and punch him. I think that might be a mistake. Though she can hit pretty good (joke joke).

It is a little quiet in the house.

There isn’t that much for Jays stuff today.

Will Leitch has a list of ‘pressing questions for each MLB team’. For the Blue Jays it was Will they sign any of those young players to extensions? At some point they have to. But this off-season looks to be a strange one. I can understand them waiting this year out and see how salaries shake out.

But I am all for signing Bichette, Guerrero, Biggio, Hernandez to long term contracts. It would settle the minds of us fans.

MLB teams have given qualifying offers to six players:

• JT Realmuto — Phillies
• George Springer — Astros
• DJ LeMahieu — Yankees
• Kevin Gausman — Giants
• Marcus Stroman — Mets
• Trevor Bauer — Reds

We could have a contest to guess which ones accept. Again, it is a strange off-season. I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them accepted, and hoped things are a little more normal by this time next year.

I think Gausman will. Stroman likely should, but then maybe he’d be happier some place else, even if it means he takes a little less money.

The Mets have a new owner, or at least will have a new owner as soon as the cheque clears. It looks like the Mets will be one of few teams spending money on free agents this year. That might start the Yankees spending too, but then the Yankees already are spending a ton.

The Tigers hired A.J. Hinch. I would have thought MLB would have wanted teams to wait a little longer before hiring the guys that were suspended in the cheating scandal. I mean, at least wait until the winter meetings (which are cancelled this year).

Carlos Beltran looks to be the only one that really got punished for all that stuff.

That no one claimed Brad Hand off-waivers shows that teams don’t want to spend any money this winter. I would have thought Hand would have been worth $10 million to the Blue Jays. He could take Ken Giles spot as reliable leader in the pen.

Tomoyuki Sugano, either the top, or at least in the top 3, of pitchers in Japan is likely to be posted in the next few days.

The 31-year-old Sugano is one of Japan’s most decorated pitchers, winning the Central League MVP in 2014 and Sawamura Award (the Japanese version of the Cy Young award) in 2017 and 2018. He had a back injury in 2019 and did not pitch to his career norms, but this season he is 13-1 with a 2.02 ERA. His fastball registers just 90-92 mph regularly, but his excellence is built around his array of pitches and pinpoint control (he has averaged 1.7 walks per nine innings for his career).

The Jays should have some money to bid on him. We can always use more pitching.

For our friends on the other side of the border, be safe, but vote. You get a voice in how you want your country to be. Use it. As always, vote early, vote often.

For those of us on this side of the border, who want to vote for something, MLB has online voting for the All-MLB Team. Biggio, Hernandez and Ryu are the Blue Jays who we can try to vote into office.