The Blue Jays had some largely “exploratory” commerce talks involving Bo Bichette early final offseason, TSN’s Scott Mitchell writes. This isn’t precisely new information, as a number of stories final November indicated that the shortstop’s identify certainly come up in commerce discussions, although these talks had been portrayed as different groups checking on Bichette’s availability. Mitchell, nevertheless, specifies that “the Jays did certainly store Bichette.”
As at all times, there’s loads of grey space when parsing hot-stove terminology, as the excellence between actively making an attempt to maneuver Bichette and listening on Bichette commerce gives may very well be fairly skinny. Executives routinely focus on scores of gamers in commerce talks with different golf equipment, simply as a matter of due diligence in gauging curiosity. For example, if Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins had realized {that a} rival membership had a specific curiosity in Bichette and had a participant or gamers that the Jays appreciated, Atkins might need been extra inclined to “store” Bichette in that specific course to be able to swing a good commerce for Toronto. In any case, as Mitchell observes, revisiting any commerce talks involving Bichette this winter may very well be tough as a result of the shortstop is coming off an injury-plagued down 12 months, so the Blue Jays aren’t more likely to land a premium return even when they did look to maneuver Bichette.
Extra from across the AL East….
- “Some clear discord” developed between the Pink Sox and Masataka Yoshida final April, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo writes, when Yoshida was positioned on the 10-day injured listing with a left thumb sprain. Yoshida selected to hunt out second and third opinions on his sprain, which apparently didn’t sit effectively with the group, who felt the preliminary evaluation (that Yoshida wouldn’t want surgical procedure) was sufficient. Yoshida ended up not needing surgical procedure, and spent a bit greater than six weeks on the IL earlier than returning in mid-June. Between this example and Yoshida’s displeasure at being a DH-only participant who principally confronted solely right-handed pitching, Cotillo wonders if either side would profit from a commerce this winter. Such a transfer is simpler mentioned than performed, in fact, as Yoshida is owed $54MM over the 2025-27 seasons, and has been good (112 wRC+ in 1001 plate appearances) however not nice over his two Main League seasons. Yoshida was additionally enjoying by means of a shoulder drawback for a lot of 2024, which might signify one other purple flag for any commerce suitors.
- Nestor Cortes is slated to throw between 20-30 occasions throughout a recreation of catch right now, the Yankees left-hander informed The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty. This represents the primary time Cortes has thrown since struggling a flexor pressure in late September. Cortes mentioned he was “feeling good” in his restoration up to now, and “if my physique responds and if my arm responds, we’ll attempt to be as fast as attainable” in charting out a possible return to the mound. The Yankees would naturally must advance to not less than the ALCS to be able to give Cortes any likelihood of pitching once more in 2024, and even when New York does get deeper into October, it stays to be seen if Cortes will be capable of be wholesome sufficient to benefit a roster spot.
