Is Steve Simmons serious about having respect for his readers? It sure doesn’t seem that way.

The above notion is, of course, nothing new. I wrote about Simmons the last time I did a Dumbing Down the Discourse piece, and it turns out a whole lot of what I said then still applies.

Back in mid-September, Simmons had written that “there just doesn’t seem to be enough left” in the Blue Jays’ tank, and that we were “seeing this team fall apart at the baseball seams.” (Note: lol.)

To this I suggested that maybe “it’s simply understood that it’s not the role of the Sun to calm the masses, and not good business to plead for patience at every wrong turn, but to prey on fans’ emotions and worst impulses to get them fired up.”

Well, here we go again, as over the weekend in the Toronto Sun, Simmons wondered aloud, “Are the Blue Jays serious about bringing back Edwin Encarnacion? It sure doesn’t seem that way.”

This notion is supported by the following quote from Edwin’s agent: “We haven’t gotten into anything serious yet. We’re talking. There’s nothing imminent. That’s all I can tell you right now. We’re continuing to talk.”

I may have expressed some thoughts on this on Twitter.

I mean, does any big time free agent re-sign with his former team this close to hitting the open market? So, by Steve-o’s standard, has any team ever been serious about re-signing a player???

Hey, I’ll give him credit for trying to get out in front of the great Edwin Panic of 2016, I guess, but… like… can we not? Can the Sun not? Can the inevitable talk radio conversation that bleeds into the general discourse about the team not? Can the editors who evidently don’t give two shits about how insulting this kind of bait and switch is to their readers not?

GAH!