The Jays are doing this again...

We have some breaking news as folks, it's happening again as John Heyman just dropped a bombshell report surrounding the Jays and Tarek Scouble as he just confirmed that not only has Toronto emerged as a serious suitor for Tarek Scouble, but they are one of just a few teams getting a meeting with the superstar as they're expected to sit down with him in California next week. We're going to break down the full report and dive into some interesting details surrounding and discuss more importantly what this means going forward. The Jays, for the fifth straight offseason, it feels like they're in the mix for a superstar. Folks, we've been here before. Otani in 2023, Soto in 2024. I mean, Roki, Sasaki. Every time, we've gotten extremely close. But is this the year that things are finally different as it pertains to a superstar? Of course, last year, they got Dylan Cease. But this year, they could go out and get the best starting pitcher that we've potentially ever had the opportunity to get. Rewind a little bit, though, because this has been brewing for a while. On October 21st, MLB.com's Mark Feinstein named six teams that could sign Tarek Skubal, including the Dodgers, the Tigers, the Mets, the Cubs, the Phillies, and the Toronto Blue Jays. And his reason for Toronto was actually Dylan Cease. They finally closed the Big Fish last winter. They still need rotation help, and that this could be the year they go out and get Skubal. We even have Mitch Bannon of The Athletic, one of the most tuned-in Blue Jays reporters, saying that they'll be involved and that they'll be. And that was, of course, back, I mean, from October 21st for me over the past couple of weeks, there's been increased rumblings. I even had a video to dive into a little bit later today from a report that just dropped from Ben Nichols and Smith revealing there's more ties to Schuble than we think. And then now for Heyman to say this, it is extremely, extremely notable. Now, Jeff Heyman did report at the start of November that Schuble is expected to decide by December 1st, and he named the Dodgers and the Mets. Now, again, John Heyman right now is confirming that there's four teams out of six and there's two mystery teams right now that will be getting meetings with Scooble and will be very interested with the Dodgers being one of them and the Mets being one of them as well. But for the Jays to be here, it is important because. By no means were they guaranteed a meeting, and certainly, according to reports even a few weeks ago, they didn't seem that all in. Now, they're one of six teams lined up to meet him. On Sunday, Heyman did put out his odds. He said the Mets 9-5, the Padres 4-1, the Dodgers 5-1, the Blue Jays were down with the long shots without even a price next to their name. Now, 48 hours later, that long shot team has a meeting, and they're clearly going in. And when you look at the reports that came out yesterday after Rostak and spoke to the media And after all the insiders kind of What was one of the main things that they've been looking for, folks? It is a starting pitcher. That is their number one A, B focus alongside with an outfielder. It makes sense. If you're going to go after a starting pitcher, may as well get the best one. Who else is in the room? The Mets, they got their meeting first. Haven had it as an exclusive on Monday. New York Mets are still his. favorite. And even Heyman's own read on the New York comes with two warnings. The threat of a salary cap, the next labor deal, and of course the Dodgers. Now the Mets have Steve Cohen. That's their biggest advantage. He can go out and spend an absurd amount of money, but let's not forget, obviously the Jays are one of the teams that bid $700 million for Soto, even though the Mets bid $765 million. The Jays always lose to the Dodgers, but I have a weird feeling for Scooble. It may not come down to just the money, but Paston also reported this morning that Scooble is not looking for a short-term deal. This is gonna be a monster, monster contract. Now, when it comes to the Dodgers, obviously, he had two playoff starts for L.A. He had a 2.45 ERA, and their GM, Brandon Gomes, said they expect to meet with him soon. And Blake Snell said he wants nothing more than for him to be a Dodger. We look at the Padres. They've already made it known that they're interested. Heyman moved them ahead of the Dodgers. It's been a full week of speculation. We're all very familiar with this as Jays fans, but this is still a very important note. And obviously, I know a lot of you guys are going to comment, Nick, we've been here before. It's happened all the time. A, it's fun to talk about, but B, the report's there. They're meeting with him. Have to go out and actually see if they can go out and do it because it's gotten more real over the past couple of days, specifically because the Jays are extremely interested and motivated to improve their starting pitching. Toronto really could use Tarek Scuba. I mean, they finished last in the AL East last year, which wasn't good enough. Their starters through 749 and a third innings, which was the second fewest of any rotation in the American League. And with Gosman, Bieber, Scherzer, free agents, question marks around Jose Brio's question Question marks around Cody Ponce. Getting a guy that's a reliable starter, we know they need innings, which is why I've said Kevin Gossett makes a lot of sense, but why not get a guy who's also going to eat innings, but be one of the best in baseball to pair with Dylan Cease? That would be arguably the best one to punch in all of baseball. And Dylan Cease, of course, was fantastic, obviously made history last year, but Scooble is also arguably better. He won the AL Cy Young in 2024 with the pitching triple crown, which was 18 wins, a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts. And then he won it again in 2025 with a 2.21 ERA. And then this year between Detroit and LA, he went 12 and 7 with a 2.72 ERA and a 0.96 whip. He doesn't walk any hitters. He is 96 percentile in that. And he has a fastball that tops out at nearly 97 miles an hour. You put Scooble and Cease back to back, and Toronto would have three of the last six seasons of just elite starting pitching. And of course, the last Blue Jay to win Cy Young was Robbie Ray. Shout out to him in 2021, but it's been a while. But the Jays are going to have to pay up, and the sad reality is we've been here before. But we've been here before, and we know usually how this movie ends. Winter of 2023, the Jays were a finalist for Shohei Otani, signed with the Dodgers for $700 million. 2024, they met with Juan Soto, made his final group, and he took the Mets $765 million offer instead. The same story, same ending, two winters in a row. And both times, obviously, the big story was they made the final group. But this one, I think, sets up a little bit differently. Jays are in a position for long-term success in theory. Obviously, they extended Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 14 years, $500 million. They were able to keep their superstar there. So every star that wants a potential year or has interest in coming to Toronto can see that they at least have their core locked down. And secondly, last winter, they actually closed on the best free agent arm they could get in Dylan Cease. And the third reason, the front office said it out loud, Mark Zapparo said, is not going to rest on what we have. So obviously, the Jays really wanted Otani. They kind of wanted one. Juan Soto, but Tarek Skrubel fixes one of the biggest problems they had last year, which was lack of rotation depth, and more importantly, would provide upside that we've never seen, at least in this era of Blue Jays baseball with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Here's the hard part, what this costs. The biggest contract ever given to a pitcher is Yoshinobu Yamamoto at $325 million. ESPN projects Scooble at eight years, $352 million, which is about $44 million a year. And with four big markets bidding, that number only moves one way, and that is up. Now, ESPN asked 27 insiders what he gets, and the guesses ran from $176 million all the way to $500 million. But most of them landed between $325 million and $400 million, Billion, which is about one. And about one in eight of them think he clears $100 or rather $400 million. And there's not going to be no hometown discounts or anything like that. At the end of the day, Scruble wants a ton of money. So here's where Toronto stands. The Jays, they have money to give. They have a ton of money, $44 million a year. They can make it work. And obviously, with the labor deal expiring December 1st, Passon said, and 78% of the ESPN insiders said they expect Scruble to sign before them. Will the Toronto Blue Jays go out and try to make a deal quickly? Will it be a slow burn? It'll probably be a slow burn because the meetings aren't until next week. But again, next week is only a couple of weeks away from that pending lockout. And the one thing that I should also mention is his injuries to his elbow, the injuries that he's sustained. So he had flexor tension surgery back in 2022, and in May, he had loose bodies taken out of his elbow, but he was back pitching 38 days later. And since coming back from that big surgery and injury in July of 2023, he's 50 and 20 with a 2.47 ERA. So you'd hope that the injuries don't affect him going forward, but at the end of the day here, he's shown success since those, and it hasn't really bothered him. So folks, what do you think? Do you think this is just same story all over again? Do you think the Jays have a real shot with the reports from Ben Nicholson-Smith from the winter, I guess not winter meetings, but from the GM meeting saying that their number one or one of their main goals is free agent help in the starting pitching department? It does not come as a surprise to see them in the mix, but the real question will be, can this team finally, and they did it last year with somewhat of a superstar in Dylan Cease, so he was coming off a bit of a down year. Can they finally with a superstar? And Tarek Scouble closed the offer. Let me know down below what your thoughts are. See you guys later.