Winter Meetings Wednesday: Atkins Expects Movement In the Next Week, Talks CC, Yelich, More

Ross Atkins has once again met with the assembled media down in Orlando to discuss where his team is at after what’s been a quiet Winter Meetings so far, and once again the great Mike Wilner has done an excellent job of scooping up all of the GM’s comments and tweeting them out. So once again, let’s take a closer look at where the GM is at…

I know that there’s an instinct among fans watching other teams starting to make moves that makes them want to shout “DO SOMETHING!” at the Jays, but I think we all know that rushing into moves just for the sake of doing something doesn’t make any sense. We need only to look at last year’s Kendrys Morales signing as an example of why patience can be a virtue. Not patience for the sake of it, either, of course. But the fact that fans are antsy for moves is a pretty dumb reason to pay more to add a piece than you might have if you waited for things to develop more.

So… we wait. In the meantime, as Atkins said yesterday, progress continues to be made:

I mean… OK. Lots of talk, lots of similar valuations, not a lot of teams in the two Wild Card era doing the Marlins thing where they’re just packing it in and not even attempting to be good.  The Jays are in the second tier of AL clubs, all of whom are behind the Astros, Yankees, Red Sox, and Cleveland, and all of whom are looking to make incremental improvements at as low cost as possible. The Jays, Mariners, Angels, Twins, and Rangers all want to avoid destroying their futures in futile pursuit of the teams ahead of them, but are good enough as constituted to grab a Wild Card, maybe even a division if things break right, and who knows where things go from there? You could maybe even put the Rays, Orioles, and A’s in this group, too.

They’re going to add. They’re going to be cautious about it though. Case in point:

It’s little wonder things are slow. They won’t be forever.

As I said yesterday, he’d be a very nice fit. All for it.

Yelich would be a great, great addition to the Jays. But holy shit he would cost a lot. As much as he’s precisely the kind of guy that you want your best prospects to turn into, uh… is he the guy you want three of your prospects to turn into?

I think he certainly could be if you’re a team that’s closer to being a true, unequivocal championship contender than the Jays are. Or if you’re one that has a lot deeper a system to shed talent from than the Jays do. But will the Jays be willing to push as hard as another team to get this one piece? This one piece who will be great, but that only gets them so much closer to being able to contend for the AL East? I just don’t see it. I just don’t see them having the willingness to push that extra piece in that gets the deal done.

Fair stuff. Fingers crossed.

The Jays have tried to use the Rule 5 to swipe a player in each of the last two years, with one of them working out very well, and one not. Glenn Sparkman was a bust in 2017, but Joe Biagini remains a valuable piece for the organization, as Atkins himself noted today:

Could another alternative for the rotation be what the Jays look at when they pick 12th in the Rule Five tomorrow? Maybe, but an arm is going to be difficult to keep on the roster all year. One player that could fairly easily carry, I think? Tampa catcher Nick Ciuffo.

Baseball America prepared capsules on all Rule 5 eligible players for their subscribers this week, and out in front of the paywall was their top five picks, among them Ciuffo, about whom they said this:

The Jays pick 12th and BA ranked Ciuffo as the fifth best option available, so maybe he’s not there by the time they pick, but he could definitely be an intriguing option at a spot where they still need help.

Maybe I’m wrong on that. The Jays already have a bunch of catchers on the 40-man, and while Luke Maile could be optioned down to the minors if a better backup option is added, that would create a bit of a log jam in Buffalo, where Danny Jansen and Reese McGuire really need to get the bulk of the reps. Maybe McGuire is as good as Ciuffo anyway — he had better raw numbers at the plate than Ciuffo did this year, and they both were at Double-A, but that’s before factoring for park and league.

So… I don’t know! Maybe I’m wrong there and pitching is the more likely move. After all:

Sounds like they’re at least going to do something — and with just 38 spots on their 40-man occupied, they might as well.

There was a “rumour” earlier that the Jays are one of the teams in in Eduardo Núñez, though that feels like more of a “putting two and two together” kind of thing than anything especially newsworthy. But sure — another piece for the middle infield, especially because with a view to moving that piece or Devon Travis into the outfield when the roster is fully healthy, makes a bunch of sense.

Yes it would. Yes it would.

No, but seriously, do it!