Jays next move REVEALED... (and it's great)

One week ago, one of the best starting pitchers in baseball looked at $58 million guaranteed and said, no thanks, I'm going to pass. And now, John Heyman has linked the Toronto Blue Jays to him. His name is Michael King, and if you watched this rotation in 2026, you already know why the Blue Jays would be interested. So we're going to break down this new report from John Heyman, revealing the Jays' next move, and discuss what it means going forward for the rest of this offseason, what's going It's going to be a crazy November as well as a. Before we dive into the report, let's talk about what this rotation looked like this past season and what it looks like going forward. surrounding Dylan Cease and beyond. So Cease was obviously everything the Jays could have asked for. 29 starts, a 2.4 ERA. The Jays, they did finish last, but let's look at who took the ball the rest of the time. Max Scherzer, 18 starts, 5.7 ERA. Patrick Corbin, a 5.5 ERA. And then Jose Soriano came over to Toronto and had a 5.3 ERA in 10 starts. Now, I think Jose Soriano is going to be perfectly... Fine, but the problem wasn't just the Jays' offense. A big part of it was the injuries that happened to their starters and the lack of production they got elsewhere. And only two teams in baseball got fewer innings than the Jays' 749 that they got from their starters. And of course, a lot of it was due to injuries. But when you look at the teams you're chasing, the Yankees got a 3.3 ERA from their starters, which was the best in baseball. Toronto's was 4.22. And here's what matters for next year. Scherzer, Corbin. Potentially Bieber, they're all probably gone. So right now, the rotation looks like Dylan Cease, Trey Savage, Jose Soriano, Cody Ponce, who's coming back for a torn ACL, and maybe Jose Barrios, which, quite frankly, is a lot of question marks after Cease, Yusavage, and Soriano, which is exactly why Michael King is worth a long look, because he's the guy that the Jays have been linked to in the past, but has been really dominant for a long time. Let's dive into him. King is a Rhode Island kid who spent his first five seasons with the Yankees, mostly out of the bullpen. Now in 2022, he had a 2.29 ERA in 34 games as a reliever, and he struck out a third of the hitters he faced. In 2023, they finally started stretching him out, 104 innings, a 2.75 ERA, and that winter, he was one of the players the Yankees sent to San Diego Diego in the trade for Juan Soto Everybody remembers who the Yankees got in that deal, the Padres, got a starter nobody saw coming, and in his first full year as a starter in 2024, he made 30 starts with a 2.95 ERA and over 200 strikeouts, then 2025, he got injured, had a nerve problem near his shoulder, then his knee, 15 starts, only 73 innings, then coming after that, he Yeah, he did something pretty wild. He turned down a $22 million qualifying offer, signed back in San Diego for three years, $75 million, with an opt-out after the first two years. It was a bet that he'd be healthy, pitch well, and get paid. And a week ago, folks, he cashed in that bet. Because 2026 was the year he proved he could hold up 32 starts, 185 innings, which was the most of his career. He put up a 3.21 ERA, with opponent batters just hitting 221 against him. He went at least 5 innings in 28 of his 32 starts, which is a crazy stat. And 18 of those were quality starts, meaning 6 innings or more, 3 earned runs or fewer. And he got better as the year went on. Over his last 13 starts, his ERA was under 3. In October, 2 starts, 14 innings, 1 run, and 15 strikeouts, folks. 15 strikeouts in the postseason. All of that adding up to a 4.3 WAR, which put him in the 95th percentile of pitchers. And that's why Haman ranked him the number two free agent on the whole market. And that's why he said the Jays are going to be one of a couple teams heavily pursuing him. Now let's look at the fit. His 185 innings would have led the Blue Jays cease through 169. And remember, Jays starters average 4.6 innings a start. King averaged nearly six every time he went out there. In over 32 starts, that's about 37 more innings than a typical Jays starter would have given you. 37 innings, your bullpen never has to cover. And that's the number that I discussed earlier. That's the fit here. You put Cease and King together, and that's 354 innings We'll be right back. Last year, the Jays didn't have a second guy you could count on for six innings every fifth day after they traded Kevin Gausman. King, he's that guy. He's a different look from Cease as well. Cease's power. King lives on a sinker and a changeup with his four-seam fastball topping out at just 94.2 miles per hour. So hitters, they see 239 strikeouts worth of heat on night one against Cease, and then a guy who makes them roll it over on night two. We put him behind, again, Cease. You have your Savage, maybe the third starter, Soriano, four, Ponce, five. That's an elite rotation, and here's a bonus as well. He's already pitched in this division. He knows Camden Yards, he knows Fenway Park, and he certainly will know the Rogers Center. You put their two seasons side-by-side without the names, and it's a lot closer than you think. But before you print the jersey, there is one catch, and it's the reason he might not be as safe as that ERA says. The strikeout rate is going the wrong way. In 2024, he struck out 27.7% of the hitters, 2025, 24.7, and this year, 21%. That's three straight years of downward trend. That's the number that could worry you, but at the same time, I still have a lot of faith in Michael King. And in his last regular season start this past year at Dodger Stadium, his fastball was down 2.1 miles an hour, but that's normal for a guy who was at, like I mentioned earlier, a career high in... Innings. Now the problem is when his sinker loses velocity, it flattens out and it gets hit hard. But at the same time, this is an opportunity for the Jays to actually go out and maybe overpay a little bit to get a guy you could really use because the question isn't whether or not King is good. It's how long you want to pay him and how long it can hold his arm rather can hold up. And let's dive into the price. John Heyman put a specific number on it. 90 million over three years, which is 30 million a year, about 1 million a year more than the deal he just walked away from. And for context, Cease counting, counts for about $27 million a year against the tax. So King, he would make a little bit more than the ace he'd be pitching behind. But that's the going right now. Now, MLB trade rumors goes a little longer. Four years, $92 million. Now, the Jays have the money. They're willing to spend. We know they're going to be going heavily after Seiya Suzuki, Teruaki Sato, and others. So I think at this point, I would absolutely do the deal. Especially because you get his age 32 to 34 seasons. You're never paying. him to be 36 years old, like we saw with kind of George Springer towards the tail end of that contract. And that's the benefit of a three or four year deal versus a five or six year deal. So how real is Toronto's interest? John Heyman's exact words were Padres love him, but the Blue Jays Rather, East Coast teams, the Orioles and the Blue Jays, love the Rhode Island native too. We also have MLB trade rumors listing the Jays among the teams likely to compete for him. Sports Illustrated Jays site called Toronto a perfect fit. So, John Heyman, as much as he's sometimes a questionable reporter, he's been right more than he hasn't been these past couple of years. He's been a very reliable reporter, to be honest, and him linking the Jays is very important. But Baltimore needs him just as badly, if not more, so it's going to be interesting. And I think with previous years, I mean, I've covered it on the channel, so it's 2022, four years ago when I started it. The Jays seemingly have been interested. every single year since he became available. He fills that number two spot behind Cease. He covers starts the Jays absolutely need. And if Heyman's number is close, I'm paying it today. Three years, 90 million. Go ahead and get it done. Folks, let me know down below what your thoughts are on all this. One final tidbit of maybe foreshadowing before we wrap up as well. A report came out that the Jays are interested in Shohei Oda, who's an 18-year-old Japanese prospect. So we're going to have a full video on him. But if you made it this far, comment down below what your thoughts are on him as the Jays continue to look through the market. Thank you guys for watching. We'll see you in another video either later today or tomorrow.