“Toronto is not in an advantageous position to remain as competitive as other clubs.”
The Toronto Blue Jays was the team that kept the Los Angeles Dodgers on edge until the end of its bid to recruit Shohei Ohtani (30, LA Dodgers) in the 2023-2024 FA market, unexpectedly. Ohtani confessed that he had agonized over going to Toronto after signing a 10-year, 700-million-dollar contract with the Dodgers until just before the final decision. This is why misinformation was made on board the famous private jet bound for Toronto.
Toronto faced the perfect opportunity to rebuild its team by reducing its payroll as it moved away from the ranking battle early this year. With the trade deadline as of now, Toronto had a chance to clean up its star players Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bobissett, who have one and a half years left before becoming eligible for free agency. However, Toronto kept its key players in order to announce its “Win Now” in the 2025 season.
In the off-season, some say that Toronto is the dark horse in the race to recruit the biggest fish in the FA. Juan Soto (26) is the biggest fish in the 2024-2025 market. The prevailing view is that it is a two-way race between the New York Yankees and the New York Mats. However, U.S. media continue to report that Toronto will be as formidable as it was in the game against Otani. The move is aimed at winning the World Series when Guerrero and Bissett remain.
However, Deerslatic Ken Rosenthal pointed out on the 18th (Korea time) that Toronto is actually not competitive in the recruitment campaign. In short, with Guerrero and Bisset qualifying as FA a year later, it is expected that it will be difficult to recruit Soto without hesitation.
There is an eye that Toronto will keep Guerrero, who has been active this season, as a long-term contract. He also expressed the question of whether Toronto’s financial power will be able to create a combination of Soto + Guerrero. It is unclear whether he will give a contract that meets both their needs. Moreover, Toronto ranks 23rd in the palm system in Baseball America and 20th in the palm system according to the evaluation of Deathlatic Keith Law. Trading Guerrero and Bissett may be just right for the team situation.
Rosenthal said, “It is clear that Soto is the target of Toronto’s appeal. The Soto-Guerrero combination may not be as powerful as the Soto-Aaron Judge combination, but it is not that big of a difference. In this season’s OPS+ 토토사이트, Judge was ranked first overall in the Major League, Soto was ranked third, and Guerrero was sixth. What is interesting is that Guerrero is four and a half months younger than Soto and seven years younger than Judge.”
Rosenthal analyzed that Guerrero might have told Toronto that he would consider staying if he finds a big shot to match him. However, he predicted that the Mets, Yankees, and Boston Red Sox will all perform better next year than Toronto. He also predicted that Soto will be able to receive more money from the club. In that Soto wants to win, this could be an Achilles heel for Toronto.
Toronto has had its first meeting with Soto. Soto is now set to have his first meeting with two teams in New York. Attention is also focusing on what kind of strategy Toronto will show to survive the recruitment campaign.
No Responses