“We have very large lists (of targeted players) that include arms and position players at every single position,” says Atkins. “Those players, we’ve worked through and have integrated the potential trades with our potential free-agent acquisitions, and preferenced those out at every position. …

“How that impacts run prevention and run creation could come in many different ways. It could come in the form of three players that impact us on the offensive side, or three players that impact us on the pitching side. It’s unlikely that we’ll acquire six major-league pieces without some level of subtraction. The most likely scenario is that there’s some type of combination of 3-6 players where we’re complementing the core that we have and making sure we’re providing as much depth as possible.”

BRUNT:
It’s an interesting calculation, whether you — let’s take Conner Greene as an example. A guy who was highly valued by the previous administration, a guy who throws 100 miles an hour, but has stalled out a little bit at Double-A. Would a team want to carry him for an entire season? Could you dangle him out there and not worry about it? Max Pentecost, a guy who’s had a really good fall league, and looks like he’s healthy — a catcher who can hit, an eleventh overall pick — you’re probably not going to dangle him, but even him — would a team carry him for a year? It’s an interesting calculation to make. You’ve got guys who, they’re attractive, but maybe not quite major league ready.

SHI:
I think just by the fact of the sheer number of guys that are up for there, and the number of 40-man roster spots that are already taken, there going to have to dangle a few of them. They’re going to have to take pretty educated guesses on who gets through. Conner Greene, I think, is a guy who gets plucked for sure, because he throws 100, you can stick him in a bullpen and say, “We’re going to make this guy a reliever, we’re not going to wait and see if he figures out his breaking ball and can end up turning over a lineup two or three times.”

BLAIR:
Why don’t these guys do that?

SHI:
I think they just want to exhaust the option of him as a starter. They continually see just enough progress with the curveball to say, “You know what? It might just be around the corner.” Because it’s so intriguing — he can maintain high 90s, 100, for six or seven innings — you want to make sure that you’re not giving up on that too early. And if they do have to give up on it, it should be a pretty quick transition — you just figure out a slider, you come out of the bullpen with 100 and a slider, and that’s going to play. I think that’s why they keep exhausting it.

BRUNT:
And I think they’re going to deal him. I think they’re going to try and get some value for him — I’m not sure they’re convinced by him. I think they’ll try and keep him around and try and get some value for him — whether that’s possible or not, I don’t know. They may not want to expose him anymore, is I guess what I’m saying. He’s a funny — he’s a bit of a conundrum for them. Because I know in spring training last year he was a bit of a disappointment to them.

SHI:
And I think the thing that everybody keeps scratching their heads around is that, why is this guy who throws 100 — why is there so much contact off of him? You’d expect there to be a lot more swing and miss, and that’s the riddle. I think part of the theory is that if he had more consistency with a secondary pitch, at that point guys can’t sit dead red. But you’re right, how much patience do you have for that?

BRUNT:
I may be reading too much into this, but I sensed listen to, or reading Ross Atkins quotes, over the last little while just a little bit of a softening over the rhetoric around Vladdy Jr. and whether he could play here in 2018. Because the organizational position was, “no way, no how, we don’t do that, we don’t go north with six rookies, that’s not how we operate, we don’t rush, we’ve got to develop guys.” But it seemed to me — I just felt a little bit of a waver in what he’d said about him lately. Maybe it’s because he just went down to the winter league in the Dominican, played really well there against men, but the scenario that gets him — you know, he’s got to have a position to play. Again, the scenario that gets him here is a midseason trade of Josh Donaldson for a non-contending team, so that’s not a good reason to bring him up, or not a good scenario, but I just wondered if, for baseball reasons — or, you hate to think about other reasons, like keeping people excited — about whether they might waver on that a little bit or whether he might force their hand on that a little bit.

SHI:
I agree with you, first off, in that there has been a softening in the discussion — both quietly and publicly. I started sensing a little bit of a change, I’d say, maybe late August. Where there were murmurs where, “you know it just might be possible sooner than you think.” And I think that’s just because of how advanced he’s become as a hitter, that if he has another season of progress next year like he did this year, then it’s going to be a tough call for them — a very intriguing one. As much as you think they’re committed to him at third base, too, I wonder if the Jays aren’t, say, in an interesting position, and they’re doing well next year, that maybe he ends up in left field, or something like that, and comes up midseason as a boost — sort of the way the Red Sox added Devers this year. He was up a third base, his natural position, but Guerrero came to the organization as an outfielder, I don’t think it would necessarily take that much work for him, and the bat is so special that you can certainly create a bit of room for him at a position where defence is often secondary to the offensive production. So I think that’s a scenario that’s probably more on the table than it would have been even a few months ago.

BRUNT:
Is it on the table in Spring Training, though, Shi? Because that would be a leap, wouldn’t it?

SHI:
That one I can’t see. That one would be trying to jump over a chasm, and I just can’t see that happening.