{"id":298770,"date":"2025-11-22T02:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298770\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T02:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:40:10","slug":"blue-jays-sitting-pretty-as-they-prepare-to-swing-big-in-off-season-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298770\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays sitting pretty as they prepare to swing big in off-season once again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays star Bo Bichette celebrates his three-run home run during Game 7 of the World Series.Brynn Anderson\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Were I Edward Rogers, I could not imagine a more satisfying end to the baseball season. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine Jeff Hoffman strikes out Miguel Rojas, and Shohei Ohtani, too. A nation celebrates. Maybe that celebration tips into Sunday. On Tuesday, they do the parade and we are newly reminded why victory parades are a bad idea. <\/p>\n

Management comes out on Wednesday or Thursday, basks for a bit, and then spends 20 minutes reminding everyone how hard it is to win twice in Major League Baseball. <\/p>\n

By Saturday, everyone\u2019s wandered back off to their hometown hockey team, most of whom are thinking about collapsing. It\u2019s not as much fun as baseball, but what is? Guess it\u2019s time to start doing heavy drugs. <\/p>\n

Unless you can do it over and over again, winning in sports is the highest entertainment high, followed by a crushing cultural hangover. Everything else becomes bland.<\/p>\n

Losing is the buzz you can maintain. Handled right, losing is a gold mine. <\/p>\n

Is Shohei Ohtani better than Babe Ruth?<\/a><\/p>\n

So because Hoffman did them a solid, the Jays are rewarded with the most intensely observed off-season in their history. As best I can tell, more Torontonians are interested in the non-playing baseball club than they are in the surging Raptors or the sinking Leafs. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s early in the off-season, and, per the usual, the Jays are in on everyone. Firstly, they\u2019re in on the their own free-agent star, Bo Bichette. <\/p>\n

Nothing would say more about the transformative effect of the Jays\u2019 October run than Bichette choosing to return to Toronto. At this time a year ago, no one doubted he would leave. Bichette was broadcasting those vibes like the bat signal. Management talked about it like it was already done. Everyone in baseball knew it was time for these two to start seeing other people.<\/p>\n

You could argue that those same circumstances held until Game 1 of the World Series. Had Bichette not returned from injury, or returned and been terrible, or had the Jays been blown out, or the team won without him, hard feelings would have remained. Instead, a Goldilocks scenario unfolded \u2013 Bichette came back, was a difference maker, and Toronto almost did it. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers batter Miguel Rojas and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jeff Hoffman, left, watch Rojas’s home run during the ninth inning in Game 7 of the World Series earlier this month.Ashley Landis\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

If Bichette re-signs, regardless of the money he\u2019s paid or the position he agrees to play, that is the clearest sign to the rest of baseball that Toronto is no longer baseball\u2019s luxury prison camp up north. One of its longest serving inmates just said so. <\/p>\n

From an ownership perspective, Bichette should be the primary objective. Whether or not it makes baseball sense, it makes script sense. <\/p>\n

If you want the sequel to sing like the original, you need your main characters to return. No one should feel more thwarted than Bichette. Had Hoffman not blown it, his homer in Game 7 had him set up to become Gen Z\u2019s Joe Carter. No one is more due a hero\u2019s arc in 2026. <\/p>\n

Next guy on the list \u2013 Kyle Tucker. <\/p>\n

Earlier: Blue Jays front office looks back once more and gets to work on next season<\/a><\/p>\n

Tucker is the prototype baseball star \u2013 hits like a horizontal jackhammer, dull as dishwater. I\u2019ve just stared at his picture for a solid minute and if he walked through my kitchen later tonight, I wouldn\u2019t recognize him. Every team needs his bat, but what the Blue Jays really need is his lack of presence. <\/p>\n

This Jays team has enough chemistry to start a pharmaceutical company. People get that they like each other, and they like them back, which causes the team to like the fans, creating a highly profitable virtuous circle. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a function of the best players having the biggest presence, a la the Yankees. Ernie Clement might be the most loved Jay, and he\u2019s their seventh or eighth best player. <\/p>\n

That Clement is allowed to talk so much says something about the secure egos in that room. Elsewhere, especially in baseball\u2019s hive culture, that would be a problem. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs right fielder Kyle Tucker will be a free agent in demand this off-season.Matt Marton\/Reuters<\/p>\n

This balance is delicate. You don\u2019t want to introduce too many strong, new personalities into the mix. That makes Tucker perfect. He has the blank stare and unwavering monotone of a man who wears his batting gloves in the shower. All he does is hit. That\u2019s what the Jays need. <\/p>\n

Tucker can name his price wherever he goes, but Toronto is his perfect hiding place. He gets to join a winner, and then disappear. Clement can be funny, Alejandro Kirk can be broody, Kevin Gausman can be philosophical and Tucker can be repeatedly mistaken for the travelling secretary. <\/p>\n

Failing Tucker, Cody Bellinger can play the same role. He is suspiciously interesting. Might have even read the back cover of a book. But he has the blas\u00e9 approach of a veteran who\u2019s won before and doesn\u2019t require the approval of others. <\/p>\n

An oral history of the 18-inning World Series Game 3, a Jays-Dodgers thriller for the ages<\/a><\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Outfielder Cody Bellinger could also fit the bill for the Toronto Blue Jays as they look to fill out their roster this off-season.Brad Penner\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Jays are in on relievers. All of them. If you know what the eighth inning is and own a baseball glove, they\u2019ve scoured your socials. These widgets are interchangeable. Obviously, for his own sake, Hoffman can\u2019t be the closer any more. But this is just a matter of spending money, and, by baseball standards, not much of it. If you don\u2019t like what you buy, you can swap it out for something else at the trade deadline. <\/p>\n

Ditto starters. There are a few of them available. They\u2019re all basically the same. A new one would be nice, but the Jays\u2019 rotation is adequate as currently constituted. <\/p>\n

If you had to boil it down, that\u2019s the off-season wish list \u2013 Bichette, one more brand-name bat, a few bits and bobs. Tucker would be great, but he\u2019s not going to light a city that\u2019s already burning on fire twice. <\/p>\n

The trick will be to string these flirtations out, while not letting the media get too hot or heavy on your behalf. For the first time in forever, the Jays and their fans are in the position of being wooed, rather than wooing. Like the moment that\u2019s just passed, it\u2019s a feeling that should be savoured. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Blue Jays star Bo Bichette celebrates his three-run home run during Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,2922,82,8023],"class_list":{"0":"post-298770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-topstory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}