Noteworthy nuggets from Mark Shapiro’s Tim and Sid interview
By Ian Hunter
4 years agoIt can’t be an easy task being a front-facing member of a Major League Baseball team, let alone a team on pace to lose 100 games and have its worst season in 40 years. For better or worse, Mark Shapiro signed up for this job.
Not that there’s much to discuss on the Blue Jays as of late, but he appeared on Tim & Sid a few days ago and left a few noteworthy nuggets during his sitdown on Sportsnet.
He didn’t address the future of Rogers Centre (although Sid Seixeiro alluded to it), but Shapiro dropped a few hints about what’s to come for this franchise amid its rebuild. (Link to the full interview here, but here’s a small snippet from the segment below.)
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On wading into free agency this offseason to sign starting pitching:
It’s a tough area to play, free agent starting pitching. It’s a really challenging area to do well. Some of the best deals we’ve done here were Happ and Estrada. We’re going to probably step outside our comfort zone into an area we know is pretty dangerous: free agency.
Shapiro acknowledged the team would prefer to acquire starters via trade, but recognizes the front office needs to augment their starting pitching depth by signing some free agent starters.
I didn’t realize the Jays front office was so averse to signing free agents, but if they want to use less than 21 starting pitchers next year, they need to lock up at least two starting pitchers.
Ivan Nova might not garner Cy Young votes next year, but he’d be a nice veteran arm in a rookie-heavy Blue Jays starting rotation. Plus, he’d be a vast improvement over every existing starter on the Blue Jays depth chart. Pair him along with another veteran starter, and the Blue Jays could vastly improve their starting pitching next season.
On timing “the jump” to contention:
Shapiro: The urgency for that [contention] changes as it’s more clear.Micallef: Is that wins?Shapiro: That’s probably wins. Where we sit at different junctures of evaluation. We’ll look at that juncture heading into next year, where we project the wins to be next year, based upon the players and their performances. Then we’ll look at that again in late June next year and that will be next window that exists.
For anyone who was hoping the Jays would sign Gerrit Cole and trade for Luis Castillo this offseason, put those dreams on ice. Maybe this is how every front office operates, but it was interesting to hear Shapiro say the front office uses projections (something similar to ZIPS, presumably) to estimate their win total, and they strategize from there.
Given the progress that Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have made this season, it’s safe to say the Blue Jays win total projects to be higher in 2020 than 2019. All that considered, it’s difficult to see them jumping from 65 wins this year to 85 or 90 in 2020.
However, if the team takes the next step in 2020, maybe next offseason is the time for the Blue Jays to take “the leap” and make a big splash in free agency and/or trade.
On compromising to keep the team’s window of contention open back in 2016:
We inherited that and we tried to keep that going past what most fans wanted us to do. Revisionist history is: ‘you should’ve blown it up earlier’, that’s what I hear. It’s a loss each way.I felt like as long as there was any chance we could keep that [window] open, we had to try. That meant compromising; that meant playing in the middle, which is against everything I believe. I believe in being resolute in one direction. That’s the situation and circumstance; that’s not the belief.
Shapiro is right here; the front office often gets raked over the coals for not dismantling the roster after the 2016 season and capitalizing on trading players like Josh Donaldson, Roberto Osuna, Marcus Stroman and others. The organization tried to pry open their window of contention a little longer, but it failed.
Did it cost them by hedging their bets in 2017? Sure, but nobody was running away with playoff spots in the American League in 2017. It was also an unlucky season in terms of major injuries to key players on the Blue Jays roster. I still maintain that fans shouldn’t begrudge the front office for trying to contend in 2017.
However, it was surprising to hear Shapiro say the team compromised by “playing in the middle” and lamented not being firm in one direction or another (contending or rebuilding). His comments about “being resolute in one direction” also says a lot about whether the Blue Jays are all-in or all-out over the next few years.
Under Shapiro’s watch, don’t expect the Blue Jays to employ half measures towards contending as they did in the past. If they’re going to load up and go for it, they’re emptying the tank. Otherwise, pencil in one (or two) more 100 loss seasons for the Blue Jays.
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