Any opinion on the Blue Jays moves so far this off season
Getting Chris Bassitt for the rotation was a pretty decent move. Having a trio of Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman and him is a nice look for their starters. Add in that if Jose Berrios' 2022 was just an anomaly then they look really good on paper on that front. That fifth starter spot doesn't look great though; right now it would be either Mitch White or Yusei Kikuchi or they might still try smashing their head against the wall to try to have Nate Pearson (who they should accept is too fragile and has all of the makings of a power arm out of the bullpen) as that guy.
Speaking of the bullpen, it looks pretty good. Jordan Romano is a good closer, Adam Cimber is underrated, Yimi Garcia is solid, Tim Mayza is a decent lefty, and Anthony Bass should regress but still be a good option. I wonder if they were in on Matt Moore (who just signed with the Angels the other day) at all because he'd have been a great addition as another lefty in my opinion. Trading for Erik Swanson looks like a good pickup and should be their setup man. The recent signing of former Yankee Chad Green could end up being a fantastic move and he's a good power arm that the needed.
The outfield is the iffy part of their team to me. George Springer is great, but he's on the wrong side of 30 and isn't known for his health. Lourdes Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez no longer flank him so that's a lot of firepower off of the table; I'm not so sure that Daulton Varsho was worth trading their top prospect Gabriel Moreno (and Gurriel, but that was more of a salary/roster crunch thing,) but the fact that he's a lefty bat is something that Toronto needed and he's a really good defender with speed. Kevin Kiermaier, like Springer, is on the wrong side of 30 and if one is worried about Springer's health then Kiermaier should make you wince; despite this he should carry over good defense like he had in his tenure with Tampa Bay, but his offense will be an afterthought.
The infield looks great on paper. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doesn't really need to be discussed much. Getting that recent deal with Bo Bichette to buy out his arbitration years looks great for both sides. The catching situation is one of the best in the league between Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen. Matt Chapman is a vacuum at third base and a solid hitter with a lot of pop. The trio of Whit Merrifield, Santiago Espinal and Cavan Biggio look good to play second base while the former and latter can play a bit of everywhere. Brandon Belt was an okay singing to back up Guerrero and he'll probably DH on most days when facing a righty.
Overall I'd say that their Opening Day roster is probably a B+.
Their prospects are looking pretty good in terms of higher end talent. Their top guy, lefty starter Ricky Tiedemann, looks like he's going to be a monster and will probably find himself on a leaguewide top 10 list sooner or later. Orelvis Martinez will probably make his MLB debut this season as a middle infielder and my prediction is that it'll be Cavan Biggio that's bumped off of the roster in some way.
