Thursday Bantering: Walker, Seager

Surprisingly enough, there isn’t much for Blue Jays news today.

• Jeff Passan tells us that the Blue Jays were in on Corey Seager, likely until the Rangers went to 10 years and $325 million. But then the Rangers had to go harder to get players since they lost 102 games last year. Apparently, the Jays were willing to go six years for Marcus Semien but lost out when the Rangers went to seven.
• And he also tells us that the Mets offered Kevin Gausman more money than the Jays did, but he liked the idea of being with the Jays.
• There is a lot of talk of the Mets considering Pete Walker for their manager job, which, of course, has Jays fans on Twitter heading out to the ledge of the nearest building.

It is hard to tell if Morosi has some information or if it is some guess on his part.

At first, I had doubts that Walker would want to be a manager, but managers make a lot more money. Might as well make some bucks. It is hard to say that someone shouldn’t take a promotion if it is offered.

• Steven Goldman, over at Baseball Prospectus, writes about the lockout. It is well worth the read, as is anything Steven writes. He tries to work out what side he should be on.

As such, the only ethical position is to be neither pro-owner nor pro-player but pro-fairness.

That may seem like an empty argument given how slippery “fairness” is. We’re right back to “commensurate.” That said, baseball players have some special arguments that only they and other entertainers can make. Think of your favorite pop stars. It seems clear that the band that wrote and performed a hit song should get a larger slice of the resultant revenues than the manager who booked the recording studio and the concert hall and made sure they were supplied with only green M&Ms at both locations. A team of players is a bit like a band, but the differences are significant—the complexity and the expense of coordinating a league of players for your band to play with requires a great deal more time and money than Colonel Tom Parker exerted for Elvis. Mike Trout isn’t going to get on the phone and order 81 games’-worth of hot dogs, pay for them, take delivery; Fernando Tatis isn’t going to grab his screwdriver and replace seat 23 in section 301 if it breaks; Max Scherzer does not have time to fly down to the Dominican Republic and sign the ace who will one day replace him.

But go read the whole thing. It isn’t behind the paywall.

• Gord Miller had a slip of the tongue, calling the Leafs “Blue Jays”, which, to me, is a compliment to the Leafs.