<font color=goldenrod>Wouldn't surprise me. They're likely to lose Gordon, Zobrist, and Cueto which will make things tough but the core of the team is still going to be together. The team is definitely built for long-term success.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Actually kinda crazy how fast the baseball offseason moves relative to other sports. In football it's like a month and a half of nothing before you even get into free agency.

Even though the big names will likely wait out the market, there can officially be free agent signings as early as Saturday morning. Weird to think about. For the World Series teams there's really no time to dwell on things.</font>

I spelt his name in a south African accent ANDREW

I wouldn't rule out them keeping Price.... he seemed to have a lot of fun with that team and if they could come close to the money he'd receive elsewhere, I think he may stick around..... I'd definitely resign Estrada, never going to be a #1 starter, but a solid 3-4 guy that will eat innings and will hardly ever have a bad night.....Restocking up the minors may not be a terrible idea either.....

I'm all for them breaking bank on price. He's a great fit. But I just don't see it happening.

Yeah I think Price is as good gone. In an open market with other bidders with need and money it's a tough task to keep him.

Only real option I think is trade Tulo for a reliable arm. I think that'd suck because he's such a calming presence in the line up, but he's the biggest asset to trade.

Also, they should sign Jeff Smardzjia as a #3 or #4 to eat up innings. Would have picked him up instead of picking up Dickey's option tbh.

Trading Tulo only creates another hole while filling the other. I agree they'd be better off going after Samardzija.

<font color=goldenrod>Matt Harvey and Prince Fielder are the 2015 Comeback Players of the Year.</font>

Really glad for Prince

Wish Jose Fernandez came back strong this year, though Harvey definitely deserved it

<font color=goldenrod>And we have our first official trade of the offseason.

Mariners get:
RHP Nate Karns
LHP CJ Riefenhauser
OF Boog Powell

Rays get:
SS Brad Miller
1B Logan Morrison
RHP Danny Farquhar</font>

Not really, move Goins to short and a healthy Devon Travis at 2nd, sign a Cliff Pennington/Darwin Barney-type veteran bench infielder as an insurance policy and calming influence for Travis and you are all set

Goins is neither an upgrade or lateral move from Tulo. Goins had to have a career year at 27 to keep pace with Tulo, who had an extreme down year. Shipping Tulo out and replacing him with a no hit utility player isn't going to make them better.

Darwin Barney sucks. He's never been worth a roster spot but once in his career. No value there. If it turns out he has to be relied upon the jays would be in deep shit. They'd have two light hitting infielders in one lineup instead of just one.

Don't know what Shapiro's plan is, but they need to add, not subtract. I doubt ownership ok'd the adding of Tulo's salary only to dump him the next year. They have a win now team. Signing a starter or two puts them right back into possible contention.

lol Darwin Barney or Cliff Pennington will not suffice. That would be JP Ricciardi esque in decision making.

Price is out of the picture though from all I've heard.

<font color=goldenrod>Unless Alderson has a genuine surprise up his sleeve I can see the 2016 Mets having the same kind of question marks that they had when 2015 opened up: awesome pitching, but will they have enough offense to get by? I won't even count the loss of Cespedes since they didn't open last season with him...but losing Murph's consistent bat will hurt even if you do gain back some runs defensively.

Probably just going to need to sink or swim with Dilson Herrera at 2B. The Pacific Coast League is a notriously good hitter's league but even still you don't usually see 21 year old kids handle AAA pitching with ease the way he did. He has nothing left to prove at that level. Time to see if he has what it takes to stick in the big leagues.

If Alderson upgrades the lineup I guess CF is the default choice even though Lagares swung the bat well late in the year. They won't tie up a ton of money in Heyward, Upton, etc. nor should they. But the secondary market has some good players in Gerardo Parra, Denard Span, Colby Rasmus, and Dexter Fowler. None of those 4 should break the bank should the Mets try to rope one in.</font>

I was simply referring to their utility infield status and that they'd play 1/5 days like Pennington/Barney has done in the past and Izturis would have done had he not gotten hurt....

No I understand. But why do that when you keep one of them and have tulowitzki, Travis and Goons? I think Travis would be great trade bait for a pitcher, since you have Tulo wrapped up for the next 5 years.

Blue Jays extend qo to Estrada

MLB Trade Rumor's offseason predictions are up for anyone looking for a laugh. I can see the Yankees going after Zobrist, but they're out of their minds if they think the Yankees are paying $200 million for Heyward.

As established by myself and handsome Drebin, Heyward is fin to get paid and it's not unlikely he gets that amount over 7-10 years.

Hey Vito, what do you think it'd take for Alderson to ship Lagares to the Padres? San Diego ranked near or at the very bottom in nearly every defensive category. Lagares was about the best centerfielder in the game in 2013 and 14 defensively. I'd take the light bat if that defense showed up going forward.

That Melvin Upton is a fine centerfielder.

Lol maybe on my adult team but I'd rather pay him to sit on his ass and not half ass around on the field.

Feel like Damian and I should get a cut of Heyward's 200 mil when he signs.

5% is how much? As much as I wish the Padres would back a Brinks truckto Heyward's front yard and shift old man Kemp to left, feel like they may be better getting Alex Gordon on a shorter deal for less annually. He's basically Heyward, just older, white and in left field.

10 mil.

Someone put up $12.85 mil. to negotiate with South Korean first baseman Byung-ho Park.

O's, Indians, and Padres put up bids but were not enough. Tigers and Rangers ain't in.

Who needs a 1B these days?

a lefty bat off the bench will not hurt.... all of them are right, as are Bautista, EE, Donaldson, Martin.... need to fit a lefty in there somewhere, and I'm not sure Smoak is the answer offensively....Ideally, they'd get a lefty that could bat 2nd.....

Apparently aggressively pursuing Chris Davis. Gonna win every game 20-18

<font color=goldenrod>I don't think moving Lagares is on the Mets' radar unless it takes a longer-term commitment to land a CF than they're anticipating. It sounds like they're going to hope that they can get a guy like Span for a year or two and pair him in a platoon with Lagares staying to face LHP rather than signing a full-time CF outright.

But if they do something surprising and sign a guy like Fowler to a 4 year deal, then yeah they might decide to move Lagares before his big money kicks in later in the deal. I suspect they'd be looking for a bullpen arm. Benoit is always someone I've wanted the Mets to go after but I don't see a chance in hell they spend $8 million for a relief arm. They'd probably ask for a guy like Quackenbush or something instead: young guy with potential still in pre-arbitration years.</font>

I'd give up Quack in heartbeat.

Not a huge fan of that at all.....They need to focus $$$ on pitching long before they need another bat....

Davis gives them trading leverage. If you have Davis, you can trade the bats because he gives the line up more depth.

plus you just said you wanted a left handed bat. MAKE UP YOUR MIND MAN.

I want a GOOD left-handed bat, not one that will lead the league in K's.... I want an on-base, 300-hitter that will be on base for Donaldson, Bautista/Encarnacion to make dozens of the 1-run homers they hit into 2-run homers....

Davis only gives them leverage assuming they have an extra bat, which they don't. Unless you mean Justin Smoak, who's been a bust prospect and hasn't been better than league average for his career.

Adding Davis doesn't hurt. But they'd need to add pitching as well and I'm not sure signing Davis facilitates a trade.

Davis has a career 330 on base, including 361 and 370 in two of the last three years. He's not on base machine but by no means is he an auto out. He's a instant upgrade on the Jays. Donaldson, Tulo, Bautista and Edwin will all get on base more than enough times around each other to hit multi run homers.

They can trade Colabello and someone else, though it'd probably have to be a real talent, but with Davis, they'd be loaded on offence, at least RBI wise. They need pitching, and you have to give something to get something. Smoak had a decent year power wise but obviously he's not much for trade bait, but Colabello hit over .300 with over 300 at bats and had a nice playoff. You add another every day guy to the equation and you can pull in some pitching.

At the end of the day, you can't deny 47 home runs. Plus, put that power in the Rogers Center and you may be onto something.

Colabello had a nice season but he's also 32 and hadn't hit anywhere near that level previously. I think teams can see this and wouldn't place much value on him. I don't what their farm system looks like but I'd imagine their best betis to sign a few starters.

They do need pitching but what use is it signjng pitchers of they are literally there to fill up a spot? Yeah they can sign Chris Young for instance but he will get knocked around of he has to pitch more than 5 innings. For the most part, the jays struggle with free agent signings, they need to trade for talent. If Davis wants to play here, sign him, so it's less damaging to lose a big bat. Colabello ALONG with a name talent.... I'm talking a real weapon can bring in a good, reliable arm.

In an ideal world Price would be interested in coming back which he is not, he wants to go to chi town. Then I'd say fuck chris Davis put all the resources in bringing back dp. And Greinke isn't signing with them that is for sure. And the rest that's out there are bargain pitchers. Yeah if they can pick up a hoss like samardjzia at a good price then go for it, but in say take the free agents that'll actually sign with Toronto, so you can trade for talent and it won't murder your lineup.

At the end of the day, Lacava and Shapiro have to have some idea of what they're doing so there'd be a reason the jaysnwould covet Davis.