<p>Who doesn&#8217;t love late night rumours? Per Hector Gomez, the Jays offered 30-year-old utility infielder Jonathan Villar a one year, $6 million dollar contract.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">UPDATE: A person very close to Jonathan Villar told me that Villar hasn&#39;t rejected the Blue Jays&#39; offer. In addition to the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Dodgers continue to show interest in him. <a href="https://t.co/F3Q1J8m34j">https://t.co/F3Q1J8m34j</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) <a href="https://twitter.com/hgomez27/status/1502856759374983179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<h1>Update:</h1>
<p>Gomez mentioned that Villar has declined this offer, but now this apparently isn&#8217;t the case. Has he declined it? Has he accepted it? Have the Jays even offered it? Who knows! Rumour season BABBBYYY.</p>
<h1>His first tenure didn&#8217;t go great:</h1>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time the Jays have had an interest in the infielder, in fact, they traded prospect Griffin Conine for Villar in 2020. He wasn&#8217;t very good. In 79 plate appearances, he slashed .188/.278/.481 without a home run. He also had a rather high K% of 27.8%, but this number is only slightly elevated from his career 26.5% K%. He also stole 7 bases in all of his attempts, but had issues running the bases, being picked off multiple times.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a small sample size, but that&#8217;s not all.</p>
<h1>He&#8217;s a bad teammate:</h1>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looked as though Jonathan Villar picked up his equipment and left the dugout after the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlueJays</a> pinch hit for him in the top of the seventh <a href="https://t.co/P6o8hVmRor">pic.twitter.com/P6o8hVmRor</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/bnicholsonsmith/status/1311086831275044866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The guy picked up his things and walked out of the Jays dugout after being pinched hit. This was in game one of what would be only two games in the 2020 playoffs. My message to Villar: Don&#8217;t play like crap and you won&#8217;t get pulled.</p>
<h1>He didn&#8217;t have a great 2021:</h1>
<p>Villar slashed .249/.322/.738 in 505 plate appearances in the past season. He added an additional 15 homers, but his K% was still on the high side at 26.1%. His wRC+ totaled 105, slightly above average, but still not the replacement you&#8217;d expect at third base.</p>
<p>He also had his lowest success rate stealing bases at 66.666%, and the first time he&#8217;s been under 70% since his rookie season in 2013. What&#8217;s worse is the fact he had a -4 DRS at third base, where he played 748 innings in 2021, the most out of any position.</p>
<h1>Are they <em>actually </em>interested in him?</h1>
<p>Considering how the Jays have had no interest in both Josh Donaldson or Marcus Stroman since their departures, it&#8217;s hard to believe they&#8217;d be interested in Villar. Even if the Jays were, you&#8217;d hope that they were/are looking at him as a utility player or a second baseman. Hopefully the Jays are also looking to add a power bat to play third base, such as Jose Ramirez or Matt Chapman.</p>
<p><em>Twitter @Brennan_L_D. Please for the love of God don&#8217;t sign Villar, especially if he&#8217;s the replacement for Semien.</em></p>

Who doesn't love late night rumours? Per Hector Gomez, the Jays offered 30-year-old utility infielder Jonathan Villar a one year, $6 million dollar contract.



https://twitter.com/hgomez27/status/1502856759374983179
<h1>Update:</h1>
Gomez mentioned that Villar has declined this offer, but now this apparently isn't the case. Has he declined it? Has he accepted it? Have the Jays even offered it? Who knows! Rumour season BABBBYYY.
<h1>His first tenure didn't go great:</h1>
This isn't the first time the Jays have had an interest in the infielder, in fact, they traded prospect Griffin Conine for Villar in 2020. He wasn't very good. In 79 plate appearances, he slashed .188/.278/.481 without a home run. He also had a rather high K% of 27.8%, but this number is only slightly elevated from his career 26.5% K%. He also stole 7 bases in all of his attempts, but had issues running the bases, being picked off multiple times.

It's a small sample size, but that's not all.
<h1>He's a bad teammate:</h1>
https://twitter.com/bnicholsonsmith/status/1311086831275044866

The guy picked up his things and walked out of the Jays dugout after being pinched hit. This was in game one of what would be only two games in the 2020 playoffs. My message to Villar: Don't play like crap and you won't get pulled.
<h1>He didn't have a great 2021:</h1>
Villar slashed .249/.322/.738 in 505 plate appearances in the past season. He added an additional 15 homers, but his K% was still on the high side at 26.1%. His wRC+ totaled 105, slightly above average, but still not the replacement you'd expect at third base.

He also had his lowest success rate stealing bases at 66.666%, and the first time he's been under 70% since his rookie season in 2013. What's worse is the fact he had a -4 DRS at third base, where he played 748 innings in 2021, the most out of any position.
<h1>Are they <em>actually </em>interested in him?</h1>
Considering how the Jays have had no interest in both Josh Donaldson or Marcus Stroman since their departures, it's hard to believe they'd be interested in Villar. Even if the Jays were, you'd hope that they were/are looking at him as a utility player or a second baseman. Hopefully the Jays are also looking to add a power bat to play third base, such as Jose Ramirez or Matt Chapman.

<em>Twitter @Brennan_L_D. Please for the love of God don't sign Villar, especially if he's the replacement for Semien.</em>

Jonathan Villar has been offered a one-year, $6.5 million dollar contract. (Updated)

Blue Jays’ big 3 need to perform better for a variety of reasons

Blue Jays GDB – 26.0: Jays head to The Bronx to play Yankees for the first time this season

Blue Jays: Trey Yesavage strikes out 10 in second consecutive outing

Blue Jays series recap: Everything went wrong in the series against Astros

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) hits a double during the third inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.

Recent articles from Ryley Delaney

Breaking News