TORONTO — The Texas Rangers looked like a force to be reckoned with during a four-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays Sept. 11-14 and after surviving a pair of late-season hiccups, they certainly were, winning the World Series in five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In knocking off the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros along the way, they are deserving champions and their first title in franchise history is something to savour.
Still, the baseball off-season’s immediate start left little time for the Rangers to nurse hangovers and the Diamondbacks to lick their wounds before getting to work Thursday.
The other 28 teams, the Blue Jays included, have had the past month to gear up for the winter’s machinations and now that the final pitch of 2023 has been thrown, everyone is off.
Already the changes have started in Toronto, where Dave Hudgens, the club’s major-league hitting strategist, is being reassigned elsewhere in the organization, according to two industry sources.
The move opens up a second spot on manager John Schneider’s big-league coaching staff, as third-base coach Luis Rivera retired at season’s end after 11 seasons in the role and 13 years with the club.
Hudgens’ reassignment comes after general manager Ross Atkins said during his season wrap news conference on Oct. 7 that the Blue Jays intended to study what led to the underperformance at the plate that cost them throughout 2023.
Asked at the time what that would entail, Atkins said the examination would look at “not just lineup construction, it’s not just when they’re playing and how they’re playing, but it’s also how they’re preparing and what information they’re receiving or not receiving. What we have done in the past has worked. It did not work this year. We thought we were adjusting enough for the changes and for things and trends that we were seeing from the league and specifically from teams that we play on a consistent basis. We didn’t get the job done, so we will get to work on what that is. We were working on it all year. We weren’t able to find a solution. We’ve started the work again and we’ll work tirelessly until we do.”
It’s unclear if other changes are coming.
Players can also begin declaring free agency Thursday, with Matt Chapman, Kevin Kiermaier, Brandon Belt, Jordan Hicks and Hyun Jin Ryu eligible. Clubs have an exclusive five-day negotiating window before other teams can jump into the fray.
Other dominoes begin falling as the baseball calendar unfolds with club executives gathering for the GM Meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., next week.
Here’s a look at what comes next:
Nov. 6 – Clubs have until 5 p.m. ET to extend qualifying offers to free agents, make final decisions on player options and reinstate players from the 60-day injured list. The Blue Jays have work to do on all three fronts.
Chapman should be the club’s only free agent expected to receive a qualifying offer, reportedly worth about $20.325 million over one season, and he’s expected to turn that down for the open market, where he’s likely to do far better than that. Qualifying Chapman ensures that if he signs elsewhere, the Blue Jays will receive a compensatory draft pick after the fourth round, pushed back from a selection just before the third round because the Blue Jays surpassed the first Competitive Balance Tax threshold this year.
On the options front, the Blue Jays have two calls to make, one far more straightforward than the other. First, there’s an $18 million mutual option on Whit Merrifield that isn’t expected to be exercised, sending the second baseman/outfielder into free agency. Second, there’s a far more complicated set of options on reliever Chad Green, with the Blue Jays due to make the first call on a $27-million, three-year deal for the righty. If that’s rejected, Green can exercise a $6.25-million, one-year option for 2024. Should he pass on that, and it’s expected he would, the Blue Jays then have a $21-million, two-year club option they can pick up. The decision they make here could serve as a leading indicator of the club’s off-season approach.
Finally, the Blue Jays have three players on the 60-day injured list: right-handed relievers Adam Cimber and Hagen Danner and Canadian infielder Otto Lopez. Expect them to add all three as doing so would still leave them with four open spots on the 40-man roster.
Nov. 14 – Clubs need to finalize their reserve lists by 6 p.m. ET and within that is protecting eligible prospects from being exposed in the Rule 5 draft by adding them to the 40-man roster. This isn’t as easy as it seems as teams value 40-man flexibility, so they ideally want to add as few players as possible without risking that they get plucked by another team. Sometimes this can lead to talent consolidation deals between teams facing a 40-man crunch and those with room.
Interesting Blue Jays names to keep an eye on here include outfielder Will Robertson, who is following up a strong finish at double-A New Hampshire with a solid showing at the Arizona Fall League, and single-A Vancouver lefty Adam Macko, who came over from Seattle with Erik Swanson in the Teoscar Hernandez trade a year ago.
Some other notable Rule 5 eligibles: Catchers Phil Clarke and Zach Britton; first baseman Rainier Nunez; outfielders Rafael Lantigua, Steward Berroa and Dasan Brown; starting pitchers Jimmy Robbins, CJ Van Eyk, Trent Palmer and Dahian Santos; and relievers Brandon Eisert, Jimmy Burnette and Fitz Stadler.
Also on this day, players also until 4 p.m. ET to accept or reject qualifying offers from clubs. This helps further define the free agent pool and which players have compensation attached to them. Because the Blue Jays signed a qualified free agent last year — Chris Bassitt — the penalty they’d pay this winter is the loss of second- and fifth-round picks plus the forfeiting of up to $1 million in international bonus pool money.
Nov. 17 – Clubs must offer 2024 contracts to their players by 8 p.m. ET or the player becomes non-tendered and enters free agency. Clubs sometimes part with arbitration-eligible players for financial reasons here, leading to an additional influx of talent on the open market. The Blue Jays have 13 players eligible for arbitration and they could look to create some spending power this way, with Adam Cimber (projected by MLB Trade Rumors to earn $3.2 million next year) one player possibly on the bubble after an injury-shortened 2023.
Dec. 3-6 – The baseball industry gathers in Nashville for this edition of the winter meetings, where a host of transactions can go down. Last year, the Blue Jays fell short in their pursuit of lefty Andrew Heaney at the annual swap-fest, but laid the groundwork that led to deals with Kevin Kiermaier and Chris Bassitt shortly afterward. The draft lottery, which won’t impact the Blue Jays, and the Rule 5 draft, which might, are held here Dec. 5 and 6, respectively.
Jan. 12 – Players and clubs exchange arbitration numbers if they can’t reach agreement on a 2024 salary.
Jan. 15 – The 2024 international signing period opens, a key opportunity to restock farm systems.
