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Blue Jays team preview: Bounceback Bo, Vladdy Jr. trade szn? · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As for whether they would trade Laddie, I think if
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: they're let's say they're forty four and fifty six at
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the trade deadline. At that point you have to listen.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, sports nets. Ben Nicholson Smith is dialed in on
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: the Blue Jays. You can follow him at b Nicholson Smith.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: AJ's already shaking his head. Not at you, Ben, we
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: love you, you're great, But tell us what happened over the
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: past twenty four hours and how you decipher the quote
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: with Laddie Junior not even coming in his mind close
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: to a contract extension with Toronto.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that says a lot right there. I mean, when
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you're talking about a player who means this much to
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: this franchise, to their offense, you really have to put
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: your best foot forward. You know, you can't kind of
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: stumble in. You can't. This is the deadline. He's set
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: out his terms. He wanted that offer to be on
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the table last night, and so the Blue Jays had
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a clear chance to bridge that gap and set themselves
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: up for a decade of potentially Hall of Fame production.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is a young player who's been an
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: elite hitter, as you guys know, so yeah, they just
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: didn't get it done. And this is a huge, huge,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: missed opportunity for the Blue Jays. I mean, this is
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a lot harder for them to
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: compete with lagoa junior playing potentially for the Mets or
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox or who knows where ends up in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a year from now. But it's never looked more likely
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: that he is going to leave the Blue Jays and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: test free agency and very well could sign with somebody else.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Is he not Canada's baseball son? I mean, tell me
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: how much he means in marketing money for a team
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: that was willing to go to very high levels for
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Wan Soto and to very high levels for Shoheo. Tani.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Otani's marketing value is well documented at this point. He
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: is making, you know, over time here hundreds of millions
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: of dollars in extra money on the business side alone,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: let alone, let alone what he makes on the field,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: obviously in the performance and what that brings to a team.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: But tell me about the value of Laddie bringing people
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: to the ballpark and how that would change if he's gone,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and how affected he could be by seeing them try
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  Speaker 2: to dish out big contracts to other people and not
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: go as high for him.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I mean he's I think he's by far
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  Speaker 1: the most popular Blue Jays player, probably the most popular
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  Speaker 1: player they've had here since Bautista and Donaldson. He's maybe
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: even beyond those guys, like he had a chance to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: be a legacy player who would pass franchise records, you know,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: belonging to Carlos Delgado and Tony Fernandez and really be
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the all time Blue Jays. So fans understand that they
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: appreciate who he is and they wanted to see him
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: stay here. I think that in this country, you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you look to Austin Matthews, you look at Connor McDavid.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I think Vlad Junior is right up there as far
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: as the most popular athletes in Canada. And so the
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  Speaker 1: Jay's should have been really motivated to get something done.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And you know, clearly they think that they made a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: good offer. But they thought that with one, so they
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: thought that with Corbyn Burns, they thought that was shoheyo tani.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: At a certain point, you have to bridge the gap
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: between hope and between possible and you know, in the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: mix and actually get a deal done. And sometimes that
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: might mean just paying more and paying for a deal
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: that's quote unquote not a good value or just beyond
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: what you would say the player is worth on a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: dollars per war level. But end of the day, you
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: either have the player or you don't. And beyond October,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the Blue Jays don't have Flat Junior. So to me,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: that's a it's a real miss. It's a chance that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: they had and now they've kind of missed the boat
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: on that ben.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: First of all, don't bring up hockey because USA has
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: taken that from you now.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: So listen, you.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Can't even bring up hockey. You can't even bring up
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: hockey after that bud whooping the other night or the
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: baby we got hockey now hand it is over here
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  Speaker 3: we come.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Boys, gold medal Dame is still ahead, so we'll see.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I know, you know, like when the Chuck Boys beat
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: up those Canadians didn't get perre. Did Shapiro need to
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: get kind of personal with the Now you can say
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  Speaker 3: however you want to say it, but oh, we went
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  Speaker 3: above what we thought he was worth.
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  Speaker 4: He doesn't need to say that, does he.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think he does. I agreed with what you
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: guys were saying. Before before I came on here. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think that that's really necessary end of the day,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: if you're a front office official talking about players, I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: just think the safest path is just to compliment them.
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  Speaker 1: These guys are the best at what they do, especially
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Vlad Junior. It's not hard to come up with good
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  Speaker 1: things to say about this guy. He's twenty five years
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  Speaker 1: old and he's done incredible things. I mean, Aaron Judge
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  Speaker 1: at the same age had one hundred fewer home runs
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: than what Vlad Junior has right now. He is a very,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: very young player, which is easy to forget because he's
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: in his seventh season. But you know, to answer your question,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think that was necessary. But it's not the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: first time. I mean, if you guys remember at the
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  Speaker 1: end of last season at a season ending press conference,
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  Speaker 1: Shapiro was asked whether Vlad Junior is a generational player,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and he really hesitated and and again in that situation,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I thought that I wrote this at the time. I
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: thought the move at that point is you say he
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: is so good, you just heap praise on him, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: is he generational?
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: Is he not?
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  Speaker 1: I personally think he is, and I think that he's
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  Speaker 1: you know, he's got a ton of accomplishments for a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: dude who's twenty five years old and still has probably
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: another decade of production in this game. And if you're
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: a front office official of any form, I think the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: safest move is just to talk about how much you
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: like the player.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: All Right, we'll talk more about him in a moment.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Let's hit some storylines here for the Blue Jays. Actually
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: PTSD on that storyline's intro for Blue Jays fans, sorry
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: for including Soto and Rookie. It was not intentional. We
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: do love Canada off season plan beat. They did add
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Anthony Santander and Andres Semenez. How do we think that's
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: going to play out for this team? The Vladdie drama
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: that we want to take it to is do they
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: trade him at the deadline? What about Boba Schett and
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: his on field performance? Can he rebound? Twenty twenty four
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: did not work out well for me at the play,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: but he was really good before that and they made
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: a little swap Jordan Romano out Jeff Hoffman in Okay,
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  Speaker 2: So let's start at the top. What did you think
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: of their offseason acquisitions?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I do actually think that their offseason acquisitions push them
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: in the right direction. I think they're a lot better
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: team than they were at the end of last season
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: when they lost eighty eight games. But if you're adding
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Max Scherzer and Santandeer and Andre Semenez Hoffman, Jimmy Garcia,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Nick Sandlin, that's enough to help a bullpen that really
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: needed the help. So I do think they're a little
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: short on starting pitching depth, and I think they could
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: use one more bat to round out this batting order here.
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  Speaker 1: But it's a decent team in a really tough division.
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  Speaker 1: I do think they have a chance to compete to
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  Speaker 1: be a wild card team potentially. Obviously, once you're in
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the playoffs in this format, anything can happen. But they
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  Speaker 1: have a ton of work to do before they can
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  Speaker 1: get to that point that they're potentially, you know, back
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  Speaker 1: in a wildcard series.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: Okay, back in the wildcard series, Vlady Laddi Junior said
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  Speaker 3: he wanted to play for a winner. Okay, if you're
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  Speaker 3: saying that you hope they can get to a wildcard.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Let's say they're out of it. Laddie's probably gone. Do
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  Speaker 3: they trade them? Do they dare make the bold move
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: and trade them or do they flip and try to
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: sign bobashek Because we had this conversation also, so will
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: they trade Lattie and will they take that money and
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: try to sign Bo to at least keep one of
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  Speaker 3: the two superstars they're supposed to have.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and what's interesting about Bo is he's talked so
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: much about how he loves playing with Flattie and how
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: he would want to win with Lattie and really be
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: alongside him for a long time. So that scenario seems
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: to be out the window for at least the next
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: eight or nine months. And it seems like recruiting Bo
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: probably signing any free agent is harder now that you
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: don't have that clear direction. And it's not just flat,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: by the way, because Mark Schapiro's contract is also up
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: after two thousand twenty five. So this whole franchise is
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: kind of in flux as far as what the next
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: steps are, and that's you know, kind of some big
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  Speaker 1: question marks there. But as for whether they would trade Vlattie,
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  Speaker 1: I think if they're you know, let's say they're forty
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: four and fifty six at the trade deadline, at that point,
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  Speaker 1: you have to listen, like you really do, even if
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: you don't want to, you have to be out there
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: seeing what the offers are. I think this team is
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: better than that, and they'll probably be hovering around five hundred,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: if not a bit above, But you can't rule it out.
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  Speaker 1: And if they had extended him then obviously we wouldn't
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: talk about that at all. But because they haven't, you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: who knows you could be traded to the Reds for
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: their number nine prospects. Like weird things happen. I obviously
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I am not predicting that, but you know, anything is
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  Speaker 1: on the table now for Flatty and for the Blue Jays.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: One way that they can get above that mark and
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  Speaker 4: be in playoff contention is Boba Schett has a bounce
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: back year. How big would it be not only for
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: the team but also for him, because I you know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: I don't agree with what was saying or whatever, just
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: that that they could sign him. I think he's gone gone.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: He has a great year, he's definitely gone. He is
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: a bad year, he's also definitely gone.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree with you there. I mean,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: you never know, but you know, Bobaschett at this point
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  Speaker 1: after the season he had last year, it's just going
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to be tough to align on what that number should be.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And it's I see it more likely that he does
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: reach free agency and potentially leave the Blue Jays. So yeah,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that's that's even more transition that's coming for this ball club.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: And it's Chris Bassett, Max schurz Er, Chad Green. Those
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: guys are veterans, but they're also hitting free agency after
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: this season, so it kind of puts the pressure on
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the here and the now. And I do think they
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: have a reasonably good team at this moment, good enough
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to compete, you know, and even in a tough division,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: but they really have to get off to a good start,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: like you need those first few months to be all right,
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  Speaker 1: we're really in this, we're holding one of the wild
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: card spots. Then you go out in that pitching maybe
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to bat, and you see what happens. But it's, uh,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: this isn't where this franchise should be. Right when you
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: when you dial the clock back six years ago to
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: when Vladimbo were debuting, the amount of hope that surrounded
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: this team at that time, it was pretty wild, like
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of optimism about what that group
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: could be and these young guys coming up, and you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: they haven't won a playoff game with ladiam Bo, so
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  Speaker 1: this is potentially that last chance to do so.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: Never would have thought we'd say that right.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Never would have thought when they when they had Bigo,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Guerrero and Bashet, they were like, oh man, we got
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: a chance to be great for years, and they went
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: out and signed some guys. So it's crazy that they
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: haven't won a playoff game with this core group of people.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Now they went out. Jordan Romano was great for the
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Blue Jays, closing in the ninth inning. You know, he
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: had some wild rides, but when he got it done,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: he got it done. They go out and get Hoffman
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: to switch. Is Jeff Hoffman the answer for the ninth
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: inning for the Toronto Blue Jays? Can he be that
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: closer every day?
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I think he can be. I think that we'll have
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: to see you. Hopefully the shoulder holds up through spring.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I know that the Braves and the Orioles had some
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: concerns about that, which fled to some deals that fell
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: through there. But if he's closing, if he's pitching one
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: inning at a time and not being asked to start,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: which Atlanta I think had talked to him about then
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you're looking at maybe sixty innings in the course of
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a season. You know, I haven't seen the MRIs. I
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: wouldn't know how to interpret them if I did, so,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: it's kind of guesswork from here. But if he is healthy,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: just how dominant he was with the Phillies the last
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: couple of years, I really do see that as being
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a pitcher who can close thirty thirty five games and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: be really reliable, and they need that in their bullpen
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: because it was not a good scene down there last year.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: We shall see there at least were changes. We'll see
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: if the changes actually lead to success for this team. Ben,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: really great breakdown from me. Appreciate it obviously. Everyone check
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: out Ben's work at Sportsnet and you can follow him
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: to see all his work at E Nicholson Smith.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Always great to talk to you, Ben, Thank you, Thanks
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: so much us anytime,