LAS VEGAS – Here’s a question that can be hard to make sense of as the MLB off-season unfolds: How can a team like a player enough to offer them hundreds of millions but still be fine if he goes elsewhere?
For team officials, the answer is routine – a part of daily life that requires little to no thought. Yet for some fans observing the off-season and others who work within the baseball industry, the question persists.
Take Kyle Tucker for example. A phenomenal hitter who’s just 28 years old, he’ll make someone a far better team in 2026 and beyond, but it’s rare for teams to go all-in on a player, even ones as talented as top free agents like Tucker, Bo Bichette and Cody Bellinger.
Instead, teams typically have thresholds past which they don’t engage anymore, their so-called walkaways. As with other types of auctions – Storage Wars, real estate purchases, fine art sales – the potential buyer eventually decides they’re better off waiting and using their funds elsewhere.
All part of the ruthless reality of an MLB off-season. With that said, here are some notes on the Blue Jays from the GM Meetings, including thoughts from some rival executives on topics related to the defending AL champions…
Gibbons joins Angels
The Angels hired longtime Blue Jays manager John Gibbons as their bench coach, a move that gives rookie manager Kurt Suzuki an experienced adviser and reunites Gibbons with Angels GM Perry Minasian, who worked alongside him in Toronto.
Asked what led him back to Gibbons, Minasian said “everything.”
“One of my favourites,” the GM told Sportsnet. “His experience throughout the game, his personality, what he’s accomplished, the type of person he is, what he can bring to a clubhouse, strategically how good he is in a dugout – he’s one of the better strategic managers I’ve ever (known), so, yeah, I’m really excited to add him.”
In 11 years managing the Blue Jays, Gibbons went 793-789, climbing to second place on the franchise’s all-time managerial wins list behind only Cito Gaston. For the past two seasons, Gibbons had worked as the Mets’ bench coach.
“He’s one of those guys that brings people together,” Minasian said. “And he brings a little edge and toughness, too, which is exciting.”
Recovery plans?
Blue Jays pitchers threw 170 additional innings in the post-season, adding substantially to their 2025 workload on top of their regular season total of 1,438. At this point, though, that workload isn’t expected to impact the team’s 2026 plans. For instance, there are no plans to start the 2026 season with a six-man rotation.
Speaking at the GM Meetings, another former Blue Jays executive, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos reflected on how he approached the 2022 season following Atlanta’s 2021 World Series championship. While Anthopoulos and his front office considered reducing workload for starting pitchers, they ultimately decided against it.
“I thought about all of those (1991-2005) Braves teams,” he told Sportsnet. “Fourteen divisions in a row with deep playoff runs and they pretty much carried on, so we didn’t try to overthink it. Guys still had normal springs. (Granted) your main guys don’t pitch in games the first week, but for the most part you still have to get them ready to start the season.”
Talk of the lobby
At the GM Meetings, many neutral observers remarked that the 2025 World Series was among the most compelling they can remember. One GM had detailed thoughts about Jeff Hoffman’s pitch selection to Miguel Rojas in the top of the ninth inning of Game 7. Another GM pulled up screenshots on his phone to illustrate a point about Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s baserunning in the bottom of the ninth. And many other observers had takes of their own.
None of that makes the Blue Jays’ loss any easier to stomach, of course, but between the World Series talk and Toronto’s early presence in free agency the Blue Jays were on people’s minds more than usual.
My MVP vote
It’s always a privilege to vote for MVP, and this year was among the closest races I’ve ever attempted to call. Realistically, both Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh deserved to win following incredible seasons. Out of respect for the candidates and any curious fans, here’s a brief explanation of my thinking.
Faced with the task of choosing one player over the other, I compared their offensive, defensive and base-running numbers while also asking some executives and coaches from around the league for their perspective. While Judge is the league’s best hitter and someone I’ve placed atop MVP ballots before, Raleigh took on a far greater defensive load at a more important position while ranking among the game’s top pitch framers. Plus, he hit 60 home runs – not 30 but 60! – becoming the first ever catcher to do so.
In theory, WAR should account for most of that and WAR prefers Judge, but it’s just a 1.0-WAR gap on FanGraphs and if there’s one position that WAR might not fully appreciate, it’s catcher, where game-calling and behind-the-scenes leadership are hard to capture with numbers alone. Most years, I would have been happy to put Judge atop my ballot again, but overlooking a catcher who hit 60 home runs felt to me like overcomplicating it. Plus, a few people whose opinions I respect chose Raleigh over Judge on the season’s final weekend.
So while Judge is a deserving winner and was someone I considered at length, I went with Raleigh first and Judge second. Here’s the full ballot, which was submitted before the playoffs began:
1st: Cal Raleigh
2nd: Aaron Judge
3rd: Bobby Witt Jr.
4th: José Ramírez
5th: Tarik Skubal
6th: Julio Rodríguez
7th: George Springer
8th: Byron Buxton
9th: Jeremy Peña
10th: Garrett Crochet
