The Blue Jays have signed George Springer (fuck yes they have) and it looks like they aren’t done there.
According to Jon Heyman, Springer has been talking his former teammate Michael Brantley into joining him with the Blue Jays. I won’t believe it until Brendon Kuhn reports on it, of course.
George Springer has been selling the Jays and Michael Brantley on working out a deal so his friend and Astros teammate can join him (possibly) north of the border. @Ken_Rosenthal mentioned the tandem talk
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 20, 2021
But, yeah, this is something that we saw Ken Rosenthal mention recently, as I talked about earlier on Tuesday…
Free agents George Springer and Michael Brantley are close friends. They are represented by the same agency, Excel Sports Management. Imagine if the Blue Jays signed both in the kind of package deal more common in the NBA than Major League Baseball. Springer and Brantley would not only elevate the Jays’ offense but also provide leadership for the team’s young position players, transforming the franchise.
Brantley is a guy that Mark Shapiro and Co. are familiar with given he was part of the return in the deal that sent CC Sabathia from Cleveland to Milwaukee.
Over the past two seasons, Branley slashed a .309/.370/.497 line with the Astros, spending his time split between left field and designated hitter. It’s hard to say how he would fit into Toronto’s outfield puzzle, but there’s no doubt that adding Brantley on top of already adding Springer would be a huge swing for the team.
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Scott Mitchell also adds this…
There’s legit legs to the Michael Brantley package deal and #BlueJays are very open to it, per source.
It would create an outfield logjam, but the extra OF and catcher pieces in the system could be used to upgrade the rotation, which is the clear, clear, clear need at this point.
— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) January 20, 2021