View that Toronto isn’t ready for World Series contention could be hurting team in free-agent market
At his introductory press conference with the New York Yankees this week, clearly the Bronx Bombers’ newest pitching toy wasn’t about to be anything but glowing about his new employer.
Max Fried talked about the love of the Pinstripes, the magic of Yankee Stadium and pitching in a starting rotation that includes star Gerrit Cole.
But the words that had to strike sharpest to Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins were Fried’s comments on a factor that may have pushed the star southpaw over the top in deciding on the more famous team from the American League East.
“Winning is a big priority for me,” Fried told the assembled press on Wednesday, which admittedly had to in part be playing to the crowd. “At the end of the day, every single year the Yankees come to spring training and the No. 1 goal is to win the World Series.”
While there is no grounds to question Fried’s desire to be a winner, the eight-year, $218-million US deal he just signed was the largest ever doled out to a lefty pitcher and certainly made the decision easy enough.
But more and more, it seems to be a massive factor for high-end free agents — especially for those signing long-term deals for the remainder of their peak years — is to go to a team they believe has the ability to be a sustained winner.
Fair or not, there seems to be a perception that the Jays don’t fall in that category.
Fried certainly perpetuated the narrative in articulating his read of the Yankees mindset, one in sharp contrast to the messaging coming out of the Toronto headquarters of their division rival.
“(The goal) is not to get to the playoffs, it’s not to do anything but hold up the trophy at the end of the year,” Fried said. “Knowing that I was going to make a potentially long commitment, I wanted to be able to be in a place that I knew I was going to be able to win year in and year out.
“I love playoff baseball and I love to be able to have meaningful baseball at the end of the year and the Yankees are an origination that’s going to do that year in and year out.”
Perhaps it was just twisting of semantics or maybe just a reality check, but the messaging from the Jays of late has been considerably more muted. The Toronto sales pitch rarely has articulation of the World Series being mentioned as a serious pursuit.
Certainly team president Mark Shapiro’s comments at a post-season press conference back in October raised some eyebrows when he suggested that “meaningful games in September” in four of the five previous seasons was some sort of celebratory accomplishment.
Wait for the ‘Meaningful September banner!’ It helps to fill seats in a costly renovated stadium, sure, but it doesn’t exactly scream real ambition, like a certain other team in the division.
Of course, even if the Jays management took the ‘we’re a contender’ sales approach, it would be difficult for a free agent in high demand to take the talk seriously. The Jays, after all, undeniably are a last-place team coming off a season in which they regressed dramatically to a 74-88 record.
The Yankees won 20 more games, an AL East title and went to the World Series.
Do we believe that Shapiro and Atkins aren’t firmly committed to building a winner? Of course not.
But in the moment, perception is reality for players on the open market and the agents charged with getting them the biggest haul possible. And it’s fair to suggest that perception has shifted considerably with the Jays over the past few seasons.
After a near-miss 2021 season, Toronto was viewed as an up-and-coming destination, with a young core driven by Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette headed on a straight path towards regular contention. Then came winless playoff pooches in each of 2022 and 2023 followed by the regressive debacle of 2024.
Players take notice of both performance and messaging, and those high-end candidates like Fried look for more. They see a team that lost out on the top-of-the-market prizes in successive years — first Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers and then Juan Soto to the Mets.
And they certainly are aware of the Jays’ ambiguous plans for Bichette and especially Guerrero.
At the very least, these are interesting and uncertain times for Atkins, Shapiro and the rest of the Jays braintrust.
Could fortunes change in an instant via another significant signing or two? With purportedly oodles of Rogers Communications cash at the ready and a team that should be hungry for internal improvement, of course it could.
But with a negative perception tailing the team, it is nowhere as easy as it was as recently as a few years ago. In baseball, times, like the market, can change in a hurry.
Without knowing how seriously Fried considered the Jays offer, his case is just the latest example.