Wednesday Bantering: Lots of Signings, None by the Jays

Dec 8, 2022 - 4:19 PM

We can safely call the Winter Meetings a bust for the Jays. There is a lot of off-season left, and I expect there will be moves coming, but so far, it hasn’t been a lot of fun. I would love to get to write about a trade or a signing. That’s a lot more fun than writing about

Xander Bogaerts signed an 11-year, $280 million contract. This is the Padres who have Fernando Tatis at shortstop, and Ha-Seong Kim filled in for him this past season and did well enough that the team was considering moving Tatis to another position. Tatis can’t be moved to third, with the Padres having Manny Machado there.

Anyway, Bogaerts has a no-trade clause.

11 years seems like a long contract for a guy who just turned 30. It does seem that baseball teams have given up on telling us how broke they are and how badly baseball is doing these days.

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The Red Sox made two signings:

• Kenley Jansen, for 2 years and $32 million.
• Masataka Yoshida for 5 years and $90 million. They also have to pay $15.4 million to the Orix Buffaloes as a posting fee. This past season, he hit .335/.4447/.561 in Japan.

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The Mets signed Jose Quintana for 2 years and $26 million. He joins Justin Verlander as additions to the Mets' rotation

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The Cardinals signed Willson Contreras to a 5-year, $87.5 million contract. I don’t know what this does for the market for the Jays' potential trade of a catcher. Does it make teams more interested? Or is it bad that there is one less possible trade partner?

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The large signings must have Vladimir Guerrero and Bo Bichette’s agents drooling. I wonder what they are thinking about extension deals.

I would love to be able to write about the two of them signing long-term deals. Or any Jays' news, for that matter.