New Years Bantering: Links

There isn’t anything much for Blue Jays news out there. So let’s have some links.

Kaitlyn McGrath, in the Athletic, gives us resolutions for the Jays in the coming year. Unfortunately, it is tough to come up with anything really surprising. She thinks they should resolve to run the bases better, play defense better, throw strikes, keep hitting and play faster, but that last one is for her. It is tough to come up with anything interesting in those posts.

Tao writes about the uncertainty facing the MLB, for Sportsnet. And it is right, that’s what’s slowing down the free agent market. I think we all have moments of wondering how we are going to deal with the uncertain times ahead.

And Sportsnet tells us George Springer is looking for $150 million.

The Toronto Blue Jays have shown interest in the free-agent outfielder since November, along with the New York Mets who reportedly offered a deal worth five years and $125 million, according to Martino. Springer slashed .265/.359/.540 with a .899 OPS, 14 home runs and 32 RBI in 51 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Trevor Bauer sometimes has a bit of fun with the writers:

Trevor never says that Heyman is wrong in any way.

Bauer put up a video saying he was going to talk to the Jays, their pitching coach and the high performance coach.

Peter Gammons writes about Charlie Finley. It is a good read. I miss the good old days when owners had personalities. Finley was a character. I love reading about him. This is just one paragraph:

In Kansas City in 1964, he was so upset that The Beatles did not book that city on their initial U.S. tour that he paid them what then was the highest-ever single concert rate ($150,000) to do a night in K.C. He had a mule named Charlie O. that he’d bring to MLB parties. He tried orange baseballs. He had a mechanical rabbit pop up out of the ground to give the home plate umpire new baseballs when needed. He was the first owner to have ballgirls, the first being Debbi Fields, who later had a company called Mrs. Fields Cookies.

I usually make New Years resolutions. But this year, I’m just wanting to get through to the end of the pandemic. I’d like life to get back to some version of normal, then we’ll think about things like dropping some of the weight has come with the inactivity.

Anyone making resolutions this year?