Flight Deck

Baseball! It's back!

The last time we recorded, it was all doom and gloom about how this stalemate between Major League Baseball and the Players' Association was going to drag on and on and on for months and the thought of a full 2022 season seemed hopeless.

Well, here we are now. A new Collective Bargaining Agreement has been reached and we're going to have a normal, 162-game season.  We went through the changes from the CBA and what it all means for the Blue Jays, ranging from the baseball stuff, like the 12-team playoff format, all the way to the economic stuff, like the possible International Draft.

We also dug into some early Off-Season 2.0 rumours, as the Blue Jays are apparently in the mix to make a big splash before the start of the season.

My goodness, it feels nice to talk about actual rumours!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Baseball, it's designed to break your heart! Just like watching a late-game blown lead, the negotiation sessions between Major League Baseball and the Players' Association broke our hearts, as there was momentum towards a deal until there wasn't.  Rob Manfred announced that Opening Day on March 31 has been canceled along with the first week of the 2022 MLB season. It shouldn't really come as much of a surprise, but, still, seeing the news become official was depressing.  We talked about Monday and Tuesday's negotiations, the key issues that separate the two sides, the game being played by the owners, and how the players are going to respond. We also looked at how the lockout affects the Blue Jays specifically, as this will very likely be the third consecutive year that the team has lost home dates right as their contention window is opening up.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're getting closer and closer to the start of Spring Training and there's still no Collective Bargaining Agreement.    Fortunately, there's been some positive news lately that MLB and the Players' Association are slowly inching towards maybe possibly agreeing on something.    BK and I talked in this lockout edition of BJN Radio about what's happening in the negotiations and what changes we can realistically expect when a deal is reached. We also talked about the 2022 Hall of Fame class and our issues with Cooperstown.   Finally, we went into some Random Blue Jays Talk, in which we looked back at a hilariously bad lineup from 2019, Kevin Gausman not getting a contract offer from the Giants, and why the Blue Jays couldn't hit in the late innings.   We also fielded some questions, including one about teeth.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're stuck in the dog days of winter without any good news. Major League Baseball and the Players' Association haven't met since the lockout started at the beginning of December and it doesn't appear as though they have any plans to do so in the coming days.

The Blue Jays have told their players not to rush to make accommodation plans for spring training in Florida, so it's safe to assume there won't be a resolution to this battle anytime soon.

For our first podcast of 2022, we took a look at how the owners and the players could find a middle ground on the major labour issues that have led to this lockout. We looked into free agency, control years, the playoff format, and even into the wet and wild world of relegation! We then tried to get some positive vibes in the mix by looking back at our favourite moments from 2021.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Major League Baseball and the Players' Association are still nowhere near a Collective Bargaining Agreement so there isn't much to for us talk about. 

We took a look back at some points of interest from the month of December, which, most notably, boiled down to a discussion about Pete Walker potentially leaving Toronto for a managerial gig with the New York Mets. We also looked at some free agent fits lists that came out over the past week and what the Blue Jays might do once the lockout ends.

After that, we welcomed Cleveland Guardians prospect, first-round Minor League Rule 5 Draft Pick, and Good Edmonton Boy Erik Sabrowski to the show to talk about getting drafted, life in the minors, and a whole bunch more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

That was a fun off-season while it lasted! Now we get to stare into the void for the next few weeks (or months) as the owners and players slowly figure out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. In this episode of Blue Jays Nation Radio, we talked about Steven Matz, Robbie Ray, and Marcus Semien signing elsewhere and who the Blue Jays might bring in to replace them. Ray has already been swapped out for Kevin Gausman, but the team is going to need to find another back-end starter and an impact position player. We dug into the rumours around Kris Bryant, Freddie Freeman, and more.  After that, we talked about the work stoppage and what to expect from the lockout. This has been boiling for years so things are going to get ugly. Players want to reach free agency sooner and owners believe that free agency is what makes the league only competitive to a small handful of rich teams. Buckle up.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

José Berríos is going to be a Blue Jay for a long time. Word came out on Tuesday that the right-hander had inked a seven-year contract extension with the Blue Jays worth $131 million. It's the biggest contract for a pitcher in Blue Jays history and is the second-largest contract ever handed out by the club, behind only George Springer's deal from last winter.  We had an emergency podcast to discuss Berríos' new contract, why it's a win for the Blue Jays, and what we can expect next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the most important off-season for the Blue Jays in a long time.

The team enjoyed a breakout 91-win season in 2021, but it wasn't enough to get them into the playoffs. Two key members of the team, Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien, are free agents and the Blue Jays will need to either bring them back or replace them. 

On this episode of BJN Radio, me and BK took a look at this winter's free-agent market and made some predictions as to where players are going to end up. We talked about Corey Seager being the team's ideal fit and whether that's realistic, starting pitchers who might be safer bets than Ray, and some under-the-radar names such as Kyle Schwarber and Collin McHugh who could plug some major holes that existed on the roster last season.

We also went ahead and talked about what our ideal off-season would look like, through the lens of spending big dollars on either an impact bat or starting pitching. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's finally off-season time!

Unfortunately, since the Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire in December, this is more than likely going to be a looooooooong winter without any major transactions until later on.

We talked about the CBA negotiations, what both sides are looking for, who's more likely to cave, and what it could mean for the Blue Jays. We also talked about Alex Anthopolous, who became the first Canadian general manager to win the World Series, and why it's perfectly OK to be happy for him while also being happy with where the Blue Jays are at with their current front office.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back! After a two-week hiatus of pretending that the Major League Baseball post-season isn't happening, we returned to talk about the Blue Jays very, very, very important off-season that's on the horizon. 

Mark Shapiro did an end-of-season media availability earlier this week and talked about the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the investment that we should expect from ownership moving forward, and a whole bunch of other front office-y things. Also, Dan Shulman appeared on Baseball Tonight podcast with Buster Olney and said that he predicts both Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien will leave the team in free agency. We went over Shapiro's talk, Shulman's prediction, and talked about how the Blue Jays might look when 2022 rolls around. Jose Ramirez? Noah Syndergaard? Who knows! 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.