It’s been a disappointing winter for the Toronto Blue Jays so far. The team was swept in the playoffs again, they came up short in the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes, and haven’t landed a big fish to compensate.
According to The Athletic, Blue Jays fans have been one of the biggest losers of the MLB off-season, coming in second behind only David Ross, the manager who the Chicago Cubs shoved aside before hiring Craig Counsell. 
“The Blue Jays were legitimate contenders to land Ohtani before he decided to sign with the Dodgers. And as the Ohtani sweepstakes were coming to a dramatic conclusion, Toronto fans were whipped into a frenzy by rumors and what proved to be false media reports. Remember the flight of N616RH on Dec. 8? Sadly for Blue Jays fans, Ohtani was not on that private jet headed to Toronto to sign with the Jays. Their excitement soon turned to disappointment when Ohtani announced his signing on Instagram the next day. What a roller-coaster ride.”
After losing out in the AL Wild Card to the Minnesota Twins in heartbreaking fashion, the Jays were set up for an interesting offseason. Toronto had numerous key players hitting the market including Kevin Kiermaier, Jordan Hicks, Matt Chapman, Whit Merrifield, and Brandon Belt. 
Bound to add a big bat to the lineup, names like Cody Bellinger, Juan Soto, and J.D. Martinez have all been tied to the Jays this winter, but none have come to fruition. 
But it was the whole Shohei Ohtani debacle that led to the biggest amount of disappointment among Blue Jays fans. Signing Ohtani was initially a pipe dream that quickly became a potential reality as teams started to drop out of the race for the unicorn. MLB insiders continued to slip the Jays amongst the finalists for Ohtani until Toronto eventually became the favourite to bring in Shohei. 
It all came to a head on December 8th when a plane departing from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, took off to land at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Over 3000 people tuned in to track the over six-hour flight, and it set baseball Twitter a blaze. Jon Morosi jumped on the tumultuous dagger as he reported Ohtani was on the plane and on his way to Toronto, official MLB social media pages reported he was on his way to Toronto, air-traffic controllers were reporting Ohtani was on his way to Toronto, all of this for Canadian multi-millionaire and Dragon’s Den Dragon, Robert Herjavec (who is represented by the same agency as Ohtani), to saunter off the private jet as if he didn’t know what was happening. 
Ohtani said he found out about the whole debacle from people texting him, asking if he was flying to Toronto. Ohtani was sitting on his couch in Southern California with his dog Decoy. Ohtani said in his introductory presser for the Dodgers that he found the whole situation “funny.” Adding more fuel to Jays fans’ dire emotions. 
Since then, it has been disappointment after disappointment for the Jays. Jordan Hicks signs with the Giants, Soto gets traded to the Yankees (which happened before the Ohtani Saga), Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez sign with the Dodgers, and their marquee signings so far this offseason are Isiah Kiner-Falefa and international signing Yariel Rodriguez. It has not been pretty for the six in the winter. 
Plus, while players like Cody Bellinger, J.D. Martinez, and Rhys Hoskins are all available, it seems very unlikely Toronto will sign any of these guys. Now, it has been reported that the Jays are the front-runners for Jorge Soler and still in the race for Cody Bellinger, but we’ve heard this song and dance before. With Spring Training less than a month away, the Jays are running out of time to salvage this below-mediocre off-season. 

Anthony Rendon wants the season shortened

Anthony Rendon is not happy with how much he has to play baseball. In an interview with baseball writer, Jack Vita, Anthony Rendon said that there are too many games in a single MLB season. 
“We got to shorten the season, man,” Rendon said. “There’s too many dang games–162 games in 185 days or whatever it is. Man. No. We gotta shorten this bad boy up. Let’s go.”
In recent seasons, the MLB has done everything it can to shorten the pace of play around baseball. In 2023, MLB games were an average of 24 minutes shorter than in 2022, mostly thanks to the implementation of the pitch clock. Now, in 2024, more changes are on their way to Major League Baseball; the pitch clock will be trimmed from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base.
The league adopted the 162-game schedule in 1961, but Rob Manfred has teased the potential of shortening that bad boy down. Last summer, Manfred confirmed that a 154-game season had been a “conversation” around the MLB recently. However, Manfred suggested the schedule reduction in order to play more games internationally. 
The MLB has played games around the world in recent seasons including Australia, Japan, and England. In 2024, MLB will return to London, Mexico City, and Seoul, while also making a stop in Santo Domingo. The 154 game proposal would allow for more time to travel, not only domestically, but internationally as well. Manfred says the league prefers these trips to be at the start of the season so it allows teams “flexibility” coming out of Spring Training and it “gives players time to recover after travel.” But if you’re only shortening the season to allow for more travel, is it really that effective to drop eight games?
Rendon has faced some backlash from his suggestion from baseball fans. Jared Carrabis tweeted Rendon’s quote and claimed that “nobody hates baseball more than one of the game’s highest-paid players who gets paid not to play.” 
Since signing his $245 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels in 2020, Anthony Rendon has played in 200 games, 38 more than one full regular season. In those four years, Rendon has failed to play more than 58 games in a season and has failed to look even remotely close to his form with the Washington Nationals.
But it wasn’t only Carrabis and social media piling onto Rendon. Rendon’s former teammate, Jonathan Papelbon, who played with Rendon with the Nationals between 2015 and 2016, says Rendon “literally hates baseball.”
This isn’t the first time Rendon has faced these allegations. In 2014, Rendon was quoted saying, “I don’t watch baseball… it’s too long and boring.” That quote came halfway through his second season in the league. He even has a rule with his family to avoid discussing baseball when he’s with them. Lucky for Rendon, with him missing 373 days of baseball activities since joining the Los Angeles Angels, he has had a lot of time to himself and not watch baseball with his family. Over those 373 days, Rendon has been paid $65,996,065 million from the Angels. Guess it makes sense why he’s so willing to play so few games. 

Quick Notes:

  • Ken Giles eyeing MLB comeback. Giles will be throwing a bullpen on January 26th with teams reportedly interested in the former World Series champion.
  • Chicago Cubs take lead in Cody Bellinger sweepstakes. Reports suggest the Cubs are likely to re-sign Bellinger despite heavy interest from numerous teams.
  • Angels sign reliever Robert Stephenson to a three year, $33 million deal. Stephenson was considered one of the top relievers on the market but will return to Los Angeles after an impressive second half to the 2023 season.
  • Blue Jays and Diamondbacks viewed as finalists for Jorge Soler. MLB insider, Robert Murray, suggests the race for Soler is down to Toronto and Arizona as the Mets may not be able to afford his contract.

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO