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ESPN Insider Shreds Toronto Blue Jays, Calls The Offseason an "Unmitigated Disaster"

The Jays have a lot of good things to sell, Passan says, but it's all being weighed down by the not so good.

Brady Farkas

The Toronto Blue Jays Batting helmets and bats sit in the dugout during batting practice before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Rogers Centre on April 12.
The Toronto Blue Jays Batting helmets and bats sit in the dugout during batting practice before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Rogers Centre on April 12. / Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
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According to ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan, the Toronto Blue Jays offseason has been an "unmitgated disaster."

Per Passan, who was grading team's offseasons in a recent piece:

An unmitigated disaster. The Blue Jays whiffed on Soto. They whiffed on Burnes. They whiffed on Fried. They have not locked up Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a contract extension, and every day without one brings him a day closer to his impending free agency.

The Blue Jays have a lot of good things to sell. Toronto is an incredible city. The team's spring complex and renovated Rogers Centre are both top facilities. They have money and are willing to spend it. But in an AL East with a Yankees team that made the World Series, an ascendant Red Sox team, an always-competitive Tampa Bay squad and a Baltimore Orioles unit that could be the best of them all, the Blue Jays don't rate quite the same. And with an uninspiring farm system -- multiple free agent players took notice -- and next to no foundational players under contract beyond 2025, ultimately the good is counterbalanced by the not so good.

It's hard to disagree with anything that Passan says. The Jays finished last in the American League East in 2024 at 74-88 and have tried to buy their way back into contention, but they can't get anyone to take their money. They also whiffed on Teoscar Hernandez before he re-signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There's still time to convince Alex Bregman or Anthony Santander to do it, but time is running out fast with spring training approaching in just over one month.

And Guerrero Jr. has said that he won't negotiate a contract extension beyond the beginning of spring training, which means the clock is ticking there also.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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