The Toronto Blue Jays have made offers to Hyun-Jin Ryu and Edwin Encarnacion, which is signaling to fans that they are trying to open their window of contention.
Toronto Blue Jays fans are probably tired of hearing about the New York Yankees being the favorites after they were able to sign Gerrit Cole, and their team is attempting to open their window of contention much quicker than people noticed.
Jon Heyman reported that Toronto has made offers to both starter Hyun-Jin Ryu and former Blue Jay Edwin Encarnacion.
Ryu is reportedly expected to get more money than Madison Bumgarner did, but I personally don’t believe that, especially with Toronto being considered as one of the candidates to land Ryu. The 32-year-old led the National League in ERA up to the All-Star Break, which landed him a spot on the NL team.
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Blue Jays fans know what Encarnacion is able to bring to the table, and I believe there is a very good chance that he lands back in Toronto because there isn’t a huge market for him considering that he wants to stay in the American League where he can DH.
What these two offers should tell fans is that the front office and ownership believes in the young core at the big league level–Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Cavan Biggio, and Bo Bichette–and are trying to get closer to winning now.
They have already upgraded their rotation by signing Chase Anderson and Tanner Roark to lead the pitching staff with Ken Giles headlining the back of the bullpen.
2020 is not going to be the year the Toronto Blue Jays will be in a Wild Card spot, as there are way too many teams that are better than them like the Angels, Indians, White Sox, Rays, and Athletics. But it is definitely encouraging to see more teams like the Blue Jays try to stay competitive while not totally rebuilding