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	<title>Toronto &#187; Rafael Soriano</title>
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		<title>Happy Trails: Rafael Soriano Calls it Quits</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/17/happy-trails-rafael-soriano-calls-it-quits/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/17/happy-trails-rafael-soriano-calls-it-quits/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2016 03:12:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Steve McEwen]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bullpen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rafael Soriano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=452</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back at the start of camp, the Blue Jays thought they had made a good depth signing when they brought in Rafael Soriano on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. He had been great as recently as 2014, so maybe there was a little magic left. Unfortunately, things haven&#8217;t exactly gone according [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Back at the start of camp, the Blue Jays thought they had made a good depth signing when they brought in Rafael Soriano on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. He had been great as recently as 2014, so maybe there was a little magic left. Unfortunately, things haven&#8217;t exactly gone according to plan. First Soriano&#8217;s arrival to camp was delayed by visa issues. Then, despite his continued absence, we heard nothing about the former All-Star closer. Well, that all changed tonight.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From former Nat dept.: hearing Rafael Soriano, who had a minor lg deal with Toronto, is retiring. Last full year in MLB was w/ Nats in &#39;14.</p>
<p>&mdash; James Wagner (@JamesWagnerWP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesWagnerWP/status/710659040217583618">March 18, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Rafael Soriano has apparently decided to call it a career.</p>
<p>As one of the favourites to win a bullpen job out of spring training largely due to his track record and reports of throwing well in the Dominican League, this news certainly comes as a bit of a shock.</p>
<p>Over 14 big league seasons, Soriano threw 636 1/3 innings with an ERA of 2.89, a DRA of 3.64, and 207 saves. He saved over 20 games for four different teams and ranks 44<sup>th</sup> on the all-time list. Soriano last pitched in the majors in 2015 with the Chicago Cubs, posting a 6.35 ERA and 9.02 DRA in 5 2/3 IP before succumbing to injury.</p>
<p>What does this mean for the Blue Jays? It appears more likely that one of David Aardsma, Steve Delabar, Bo Schultz, Joe Biagini, Ryan Tepera, or Arnold Leon will make the team out of spring training. Given the fact that Soriano likely would have pitched in some leverage situations, there is also an outside possibility that this could move Sanchez back to the bullpen. It would help save his innings for later in the year while giving the Blue Jays a more comforting face with the game on the line.</p>
<p>Regardless, it was a great career for Soriano and we here at BP Toronto wish all the best to Rafael in retirement.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Non-Roster Invites In Blue Jays Camp: The Pitchers</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/10/non-roster-invites-in-blue-jays-camp-the-pitchers/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/10/non-roster-invites-in-blue-jays-camp-the-pitchers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Mar 2016 13:55:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Steve McEwen]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Aardsma]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-Roster Invitees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pat McCoy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rafael Soriano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spring Training]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=36</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every year at spring training, there there are a numbers of non-roster invitees (NRIs) that may seem surprising; some are there more as instructors and mentors while others are projects returning from injuries or just looking for another shot at the big leagues. This year the Blue Jays have 29 players in camp who aren’t on [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Every year at spring training, there there are a numbers of non-roster invitees (NRIs) that may seem surprising; some are there more as instructors and mentors while others are projects returning from injuries or just looking for another shot at the big leagues. This year the Blue Jays have 29 players in camp who aren’t on the 40 man roster &#8211; twelve pitchers and seventeen position players. Fourteen (eight pitchers, six hitters) of these players have some major league experience while the remaining eighteen players comprising of minor league fodder mixed in with legitimate prospects.</em></p>
<p><em>Over the next three days, BP Toronto will be breaking down these NRIs into three groups &#8211; veteran pitchers, veteran hitters, and prospects &#8211; and assessing their odds of making the opening day roster.</em></p>
<p>Without further ado, let&#8217;s get to the veteran pitchers in camp looking for a job.</p>
<p><strong><a title="David Aardsma" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=45369" target="_blank">David Aardsma</a> – Right Handed Relief Pitcher</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projection: 41.2 IP, 4.00 ERA, 4.72 DRA, 8.7 K/9, 3.7 BB/9</p>
<p>Aardsma, the guest on the <a title="debut episode of Artificial Turf Wars" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/podcasts/artificial-turf-wars-episode-1-david-aardsma-debuts-and-dingers/" target="_blank">debut episode of Artificial Turf Wars</a>, was as one of the best college pitchers during his time at Rice University. An eventual first round draft pick, he is most remembered as the Mariners closer in 2009 and 2010. During that time, Aardsma posted a 2.90 ERA and saved 69 games. Following those two terrific years, he struggled with injuries. After undergoing hip labrum surgery and then two Tommy John procedures he managed to throw only 71.1 innings with an ERA of 4.54 between 2011 and 2015. Finally healthy, Aardsma’s 2015 was spent with the middling Braves where he posted a 4.70 ERA in 30.2 IP and struck out 35 with a fastball that sat 91-92 MPH. He was excellent at the start of the year, posting an ERA of 1.80 over the first 20 innings, but over his final ten innings his ERA was an abysmal 10.13.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> Aardsma is likely mostly just depth in the bullpen should they need him, and he can provide some decent innings for the Blue Jays as long as he isn’t over exposed.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 3.5/5</p>
<p>If Soriano (below) isn&#8217;t healthy, Aardsma should have a leg up on Steve Delabar for the final bullpen spot, who seems far removed from the pitcher who made the 2013 AL All-Star team.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Scott Copeland" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=66520" target="_blank">Scott Copeland</a> – Right Handed Swingman</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projection: 118.3 IP, 5.05 ERA,5.13 DRA, 4.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9</p>
<p>In with a bang and out with a whimper is the best way to describe Copeland&#8217;s 2015 with the Blue Jays. In his first start with the team threw seven innings of six hit, one run ball, then gave up seven runs in his following 1.1 innings. A control specialist, Copeland doesn&#8217;t have a lot of upside and has already been on and off the 40-man once and cleared waivers.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> For a guy who is 1o-12th  on the organizational starting chart he is fine, but a lot will have to go wrong for Copeland to ever make it back to Toronto.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 0/5</p>
<p>Unless the rotation is hit by a meteor in ST, Copeland has no chance of making the team.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Scott Diamond" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=57790" target="_blank">Scott Diamond</a> – Left Handed Starting Pitcher</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projection: 122.7 IP, 4.89 ERA, 5.19 DRA, 4.0 K/9, 2.3 BB/9</p>
<p>The Blue Jays decided to bring in a soft tossing lefty who relies on control and mixing pitches. No, it’s not Mark Buehrle. A veteran of 58 major league starts, the Canadian-born Diamond has posted a respectable 4.43 ERA over 343 innings. While he has never been a strikeout pitcher, he has produced very solid strikeout to walk ratios. His best season came in 2012 when he posted a 3.54 ERA for the Twins while striking out batters at a 12.6 percent rate and walking less than five percent of all batters. To accompany his strong control stats he also posted a 53.4 percent ground ball rate.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> He is a quality depth and a spot start candidate who will probably be in line to get starts before someone like Copeland.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 0/5. Much like Copeland there would have to be four or five serious injuries in the rotation for him to get his shot.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Roberto &quot;Fausto Carmona&quot; Hernandez" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=33548" target="_blank">Roberto (Fausto Carmona) Hernandez</a> – Right Handed Swingman</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projection: 15 IP, 5.01 ERA, 5.30 DRA, 5 K/9, 3.4 BB/9</p>
<p>Hernandez is yet another depth piece for the Blue Jays rotation. Formerly an All-Star with the Cleveland Indians under his alias Fausto Carmona, Herhandez is probably the best of the non-roster starters brought to camp. Despite declining velocity, he has posted a very respectible 4.19 ERA in 249 innings over the past two seasons. This is entirely due to his ability get good sink which makes him a sure bet to post a ground ball rate greater than 50 percent.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> Likely the 9<sup>th</sup> man in line should a starter go down, he could provide some quality long relief outings out of the bullpen.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 1/5</p>
<p>Hernandez likely has no shot at making the opening day rotation, but he gets one point for his ability to provide help in relief.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Wade LeBlanc" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=51959" target="_blank">Wade LeBlanc</a> – Left Handed Swingman</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projection: 34.7 IP, 4.27 ERA, 4.56 DRA, 6.5 K/9, 2.6 BB/9</p>
<p>LeBlanc is a 31 year old veteran with 446 innings in his big league career who spent last season in Japan. Another soft tossing left hander, he never has shown a terrific ability to command the ball or strike out batters. In addition to not having any sort of defining characteristic as a starter, he doesn’t have much of an identity or path to playing time in the bullpen. For LeBlanc’s career he has a triple slash of .313/.368/.532 against left-handed batters, so <a title="Aaron Loup" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=60619" target="_blank">Aaron Loup</a>’s injury concerns don’t appear to help his chances.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> Depth starter at AAA to keep the Buffalo Bisons owners happy. Maybe he gets called up if the Jays need a long man who they don’t mind losing on waivers, but that&#8217;s really his only value.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 0/5</p>
<p>There is just no chance. LeBlanc is even behind Copeland on the depth chart.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Patrick McCoy" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=56074" target="_blank">Patrick McCoy</a> – Left Handed Relief Pitcher</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projections: 57.7 IP, 4.65 ERA, 4.93 DRA, 5.8 K/9,  3.3 BB/9</p>
<p>One of the few true lefty relievers in camp, Pat McCoy has one of the clearest paths to the majors of any non-roster invitee. With Aaron Loup dealing with flexor tendon issues and possible extended time off, the Blue Jays will need another lefty. McCoy throws 91-92 mph and has a decent slider, but is relatively unproven at the major league level, with only 14 career major league innings under his belt. While his Triple-A ERA isn&#8217;t great by traditional standards (4.03 in 89.1 innings) either, he has been used against right-handers and left-handers which doesn’t suit him entirely. Where he excels is as a lefty specialist, or LOOGY; against lefty minor leaguers he allowed an OPS of .593 in 2015 and .575 in 2014. To go along with this dominance he throws 91-92 and has a useable slider.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> McCoy could either be a left handed specialist or a long man for the Blue Jays. In AAA he was used in multiple innings fairly regularly.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 3/5</p>
<p>There is a strong chance that with a solid spring McCoy could be chosen as the temporary second lefty out of the pen while Loup recovers from injury.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Brad Penny" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=524" target="_blank">Brad Penny</a> – Right Handed Starting Pitcher</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projections: 104.3 IP, 4.66 ERA, 4.93 DRA, 4.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9</p>
<p>Easily the most experienced non-roster pitcher the Jays brought in, Penny is a veteran of nearly 2000 MLB innings. Despite his age (38 in May), Penny still throws in the low 90’s with a sinking fastball. However, while he has spent plenty of time in his career on big league rosters, Penny hasn’t truly seen regular duty in the majors since 2011 when he posted an ERA over 5.00 in 31 appearances. Since then, Penny has flipped between the bullpen and starting for the Giants, Marlins and White Sox. From 2003 to 2007 he was a very solid pitcher for the Dodgers and Marlins putting up a 3.72 ERA over 911 innings. That may not sound that impressive, but because baseball was just starting to come out of the steroid era, the 3.72 ERA was actually 15 percent above league average.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> Yet another AAA starter who will provide depth for the Blue Jays should they be targeted by a sociopath who removes arms.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 0/5</p>
<p>There just are too many pitchers ahead of Penny at this time to give him a legitimate shot of even light hope to make the team.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Rafael Soriano" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=1182" target="_blank">Rafael Soriano</a> – Right Handed Relief Pitcher</strong></p>
<p>PECOTA Projection: 38 IP, 3.92 ERA, 4.54 DRA, 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9</p>
<p>Probably the most notable name on this list, Rafael Soriano was one of the best relief pitchers of the last decade. With a career 2.89 ERA (an astounding 44% above league average), one might begin to wonder how he is only a non-roster invite. The reason is that after a fantastic first half in 2014 (0.97 ERA at the all-star break), he imploded down the stretch to the tune of a 6.48 ERA over the second half. He lost his closing job to current Jays reliever Drew Storen, then went unsigned until midway through the 2015 season. Eventually the Chicago Cubs took a chance and Soriano threw only six innings with poor results before a shoulder injury ended his season. Reports are that he was throwing well in the Dominican Winter League, leading to the Blue Jays inviting him to camp.</p>
<p><em>How he fits:</em> If he regains his old form he provides terrific depth to the Blue Jays bullpen in much the same way <a title="Ryan Madson" href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=31537" target="_blank">Ryan Madson</a> did for the Royals last season.</p>
<p><em>Chance of Making the Opening Day Roster:</em> 4/5</p>
<p>If the reports out of the Dominican are accurate, and if he can sort out his visa issues and actually show up to camp, there is a very good chance that Soriano could beat out the remaining candidates for the last spot in the bullpen.</p>
<p>Despite a decently large group of non-roster pitchers in camp, the only three who have much of a shot are Soriano, Aardsma, and McCoy. And without the injury to Aaron Loup, this list would be even smaller. There just aren&#8217;t a lot of jobs open for Blue Jays pitchers this spring.</p>
<p><em>Tune in tomorrow for Part Two where we will be taking a look at the non-roster positional players in camp.</em></p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>How the Blue Jays Finally Created a Deep Roster</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/08/bluejays-depth-spring-training/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joshua Howsam]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Depth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Domonic Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gavin Floyd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Offseason]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rafael Soriano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tony Sanchez]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=107</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With exhibition games starting up and the stars we know and love finally starting to take the field, fans are ready to embrace the optimism that comes around this time of year. With camps full of players from the 40-man roster, prospects hoping to impress, and veterans looking for one last kick at the can, [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With exhibition games starting up and the stars we know and love finally starting to take the field, fans are ready to embrace the optimism that comes around this time of year. With camps full of players from the 40-man roster, prospects hoping to impress, and veterans looking for one last kick at the can, the long winter shuffle is officially over.</p>
<p>I’m sure it wasn’t exactly the way Ross Atkins imagined his first offseason as a general manager was going to go. By the time he took his place on the hotseat, most of the heavy lifting had already been done. While acting as interim GM, Tony LaCava had added/re-signed J.A. Happ, Jesse Chavez, and Marco Estrada, addressing the one true area of weakness: the rotation. The big splash, the franchise-changing move&#8230;those doors were already closed to Mr. Atkins. But that doesn’t mean there was nothing left for him to do. In fact, the new head honcho had one very clear, public mandate: Add depth.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s often difficult for the common fan to care about what lies beyond the 25-man roster on Opening Day. Nobody wants to imagine a world where their star players aren&#8217;t on the field. Alas, that&#8217;s not how it usually plays out once the games begin. Players get hurt or under perform and need to be replaced. Just last year the AL East champion Blue Jays saw Chris Colabello play 46 games in left field, and Danny Valencia was out there for another 31. Neither of those men is an outfielder. In fact, when the season started, they were probably 7th and 8th on the outfield depth chart. Yet, there they were, stumbling around after fly balls.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, depth was supposed to be Alex Anthopoulos&#8217; specialty. He was always known as the man who would make a waiver claim on just about anybody, hoping to find a diamond in the rough. He certainly had some successes last season; Colabello turned in an incredible season at the plate, and Bo Schultz helped the bullpen before the trade deadline. Although, in spite of those successes, depth was still a problem for the 2015 Blue Jays. Prior to the David Price trade the rotation was in shambles, and the middle infield needed some external help.</p>
<p>Up until January, it didn’t look like this year’s group was going to be any different. There seemed to be a couple of options for the fifth starter position, but beyond that there were serious concerns around the diamond. Then, starting with the Revere for Storen swap, all of that began to change.</p>
<p>The Storen move opened up options for the Blue Jays. By adding another late inning reliever, Aaron Sanchez was officially put back into the mix for a role in the starting rotation. In turn, that left seven men whom could be reasonably counted on for solid or better work as starting pitchers. For the beginning of the season, that&#8217;s not an awful mark, but it isn&#8217;t enough. Nothing happened for a few more weeks until just before Spring Training. At this point, GM Ross Atkins made a flurry of moves that have drastically improved this club’s chances of surviving injury.</p>
<p>The first notable move was the signing of Gavin Floyd to a one year, $1 million contract. Coming off of his second broken pitching elbow in as many years, Floyd was thought to be done. Floyd may have his warts, but there is tremendous upside in the deal, especially if Floyd can continue to pitch the way he did last September.</p>
<p>The aforementioned upside is a common thread that joined every move that followed it. On the same day as the Floyd pickup, Atkins added David Aardsma (the guest on yesterday’s <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/07/artficial-turf-wars-ep-1-david-aardsma-debuts-and-dingers/">Artificial Turf Wars podcast</a>), then in the following weeks picked up Domonic Brown, Tony Sanchez, and Rafael Soriano.</p>
<p>With the exception of Floyd, all of those players have minor league deals. This makes sense, given that all of these players have flaws, as can be seen in their PECOTA projections.</p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Pecota-real.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-108 size-full" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Pecota-real.jpg" alt="Pecota real" width="406" height="171" /></a></p>
<p>However, the depth advantage is that these players all have real upside. If any of them hits their 80th percentile projection, things look totally different.</p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Pecota1.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-166" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Pecota1.png" alt="Pecota" width="406" height="171" /></a></p>
<p>As you can see, PECOTA says that every one of the recent additions has the potential for a very solid season. The reason the projections see this upside is simple: all of these players have done it before. This is the biggest departure from the Alex Anthopoulos moves of year’s past. In recent years, the Blue Jays depth moves included more AAA fodder than anything else. The &#8220;depth&#8221; comprised of the guys like Mauro Gomez, Brad Glenn, Cole Gillespie and Steve Tolleson. They&#8217;d never grabbed many guys who had previously shown the ability to play at an above major league average level.</p>
<p>What changed?</p>
<p>Well, under the last regime, the Jays had an anti-contract-incentives policy. Anthopoulos famously refused to offer them; almost certainly because he was often right up against the ceiling of his budget. In fact, the only time that he deviated from this policy was for Johan Santana, in a situation where he was recovering from injury. In that case, if Santana hadn&#8217;t rebounded, the Jays would have been on the hook for nothing, but if he had, he&#8217;d almost certainly be worth the money.</p>
<p>Until Floyd, it had been a long time since a “healthy” Blue Jay had potential to earn more money simply by staying on the field. If you’re not willing to offer a player the chance to earn extra cash, you’re never going to be able to get high end depth. It’s a simple truth: players will always bet on themselves. They wouldn’t be professional athletes if they didn’t.</p>
<p>With those pickups, the Jays now have at least one major league quality backup at every position, along with solid depth in both the rotation and the bullpen.</p>
<h4>Position Player Backups</h4>
<p>C: Tony Sanchez, Josh Thole<br />
<span style="line-height: 1.5">1B: Justin Smoak/Chris Colabello (whoever isn&#8217;t starting)<br />
</span><span style="line-height: 1.5">2B/SS: Darwin Barney (then Ryan Goins with Devon Travis returns)<br />
</span><span style="line-height: 1.5">3B: Matt Dominguez<br />
</span><span style="line-height: 1.5">OF: Domonic Brown, Dalton Pompey, Junior Lake, Ezequiel Carrera</span></p>
<h4>Pitching Depth</h4>
<p>SP: Marcus Stroman, R.A. Dickey, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, Jesse Chavez, Aaron Sanchez, Gavin Floyd, Drew Hutchison<br />
RP: Drew Storen, Roberto Osuna, Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, Jesse Chavez, Aaron Sanchez, Gavin Floyd, Bo Schultz, David Aardsma, Steve Delabar</p>
<p>Every single one of those position players has spent at least some time as a regular in the big leagues. Then when you a<span style="line-height: 1.5">dd in guys like Pat Venditte, Chad Jenkins, Rule V draft pick Joe Biagini, and prospects Connor Greene and Chad Girodo, the Blue Jays have an awful lot of pitching depth. </span>In fact, a couple of the other players are already showing value. Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte and submariner Chad Girodo are ready to step in as the second lefty in the pen for the first few weeks of the season while Aaron Loup recovers from a forearm strain. In an admittedly small sample size, Venditte held lefties to a paltry .116/.191/.256 line in 2015, and Girodo has dominated lefties in the minors.</p>
<p>This 2016 Blue Jays roster is so talented that the only thing that could&#8217;ve sunk them completely would have been injury. Now that they have depth, one of their stars can go down and someone will be ready to step in. As a result, it&#8217;s a real stretch to imagine this team not being contenders in the American League East&#8230;unless the Baseball Gods simply decide to smite the city of Toronto.</p>
<p>The offseason was a job well done, Mr. Atkins. I look forward to seeing what you can do next.</p>
<p><em>Lead photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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