Blue Jays search for 1st base help reportedly focused on familiar faces

The swirling winds that make up the storm of MLB Winter Meetings rumours have officially begun blowing this week, as executives and insiders alike descend on San Diego all week.

The shopping list for the Toronto Blue Jays has been an open secret to the baseball world, with the general manager and anybody else with even a passing interest in the franchise noticing that starting pitching should be their paramount pursuit for possible players to add. Along with a starting pitcher — or two or three, ideally — the team has also been rumoured to be in the market for help at first base.

It’s an understandable area to try to upgrade for the club, where Justin Smoak, Rowdy Tellez, Brandon Drury, and a handful of other players combined to post a .754 OPS at the position. That mark was 20th among major league teams, leaving lots of room for improvement.

According to the latest reports from San Diego, a handful of familiar names have filtered through as possible targets, including a pair of former Blue Jays that may be open to another tour of duty.

Here is a closer look at some of the names that have been linked to Toronto so far.

Justin Smoak

The first name on the list would be the easiest for the Blue Jays to work back into the fold, as Smoak has been a part of the franchise since 2015. The team knows exactly what to expect from the 33-year-old — the words “consummate pro” come to mind — and it’s likely that the market for the veteran is slim league-wide. He still rates as a decent defender at first, has posted three straight seasons with more than 22 home runs, and even though he has his shortcomings in mobility and baserunning, Smoak fits as a veteran piece that can continue to show the young players what it takes to be a pro. It might be awkward to undo the grand farewell ovation he got at the end of last season, but that’s semantics for another day.

Edwin Encarnacion

The shinier headlining name that likely captures the attention of most lapsed fans that were along for the playoff ride in 2015 and 2016 is Encarnacion, now three teams removed from his last stint in Toronto. He has declined significantly from his tenure as one of the great power hitters of the decade, but still provided enough of a threat in 2019 that the New York Yankees added him to help their playoff run. Encarnacion swatted 34 home runs between two teams last year, and maintained a solid, if unspectacular .344 OBP. It was a bounce back from a disappointing 2018 with the Cleveland Indians, but all the signs are there that the soon-to-be 37-year-old is looking at his last MLB contract. A reunion with the team he enjoyed his greatest successes would be a great story, but don’t expect it to be a long term one if it happens. The always dollar-savvy Jays could at least save a ton on marketing by getting second life out of any old parrot memorabilia laying around.

Along with those two names that Jays fans know well, a pair of other corner infielders have popped up with the Blue Jays names attached, and they likely carry a little more potential and definitely a lot more intrigue than the retreads listed above.

Yoshitomo Tsutsugo

The buzz connecting Japanese slugger Yoshitomo Tsutsugo to the Blue Jays has been slowly building for the better part of a week. Jon Morosi listed the Jays as a strong suitor for his services last week, and over the weekend they were called the favourite to land his services, if random Spanish baseball accounts on Twitter are to be believed (they are not). Ben Nicholson-Smith listed him as well in the tweet above, but did not give any indication that a deal seemed imminent. The lefty averaged 35 home runs per year in Japan’s NPB, and the 28-year-old should be entering his prime using a traditional aging curve. Nick Ashbourne wrote up the case for the Blue Jays to make the pursuit to bring him in, and it would certainly be a sizeable splash to bring in an international signing to the current young core.

Travis Shaw

A recent non-tender victim from the Milwaukee Brewers, Travis Shaw is the kind of buy-low bounce-back candidate that makes a GM like Ross Atkins salivate. He was absolutely dreadful in 2019, to the tune of a .157/.281/.270 line that got him demoted to Triple-A. The case to add Shaw is a relatively simple one, after he averaged 32 home runs and a .258/.347/.844 line combined in the two years prior. He also has some positional flexibility with the defensive skill to play third base and do it fairly well according to most posted metrics. If he returns to form at all, “The Mayor of Ding Dong City” is exactly the type of left handed power bat that looks perfect in between all the young exciting righties in the current lineup.

These are, of course, all just rumours, and it is the first day of the Winter Meetings, so take it all with a grain of salt. The opening salvo of information that comes out of tent pole transaction events like these are often used to kick up dust and see what settles, but there is at least a running theme throughout all of these sources and targets that the Blue Jays see more holes in the roster than just the starting rotation. Don’t be surprised to see the team make an addition at first base during their off-season shopping, even if it happens to be someone you’ve seen in the spot before.

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