TORONTO -- What next?
The Blue Jays have dared a fan base to dream again. Even after landing Dylan Cease, Kazuma Okamoto, Cody Ponce and Tyler Rogers, this offseason still feels alive. There’s a sense of momentum that’s carried over from their run to the World Series in 2025, and that can be addicting.
What next, though? Until Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette sign somewhere, that question lives on. These are two stars who make too much sense for the Blue Jays -- Tucker as a cornerstone outfielder to take the torch from George Springer, and Bichette as the homegrown hero who no one wants to see leave.
General manager Ross Atkins won’t tell you much, and that’s just fine. With the Blue Jays’ 2025 run and a spectacular offseason already, this front office deserves each word of praise it’s gotten. Atkins is saying a lot of the same things we’ve heard all offseason, though, which is an encouraging place to start.
What Atkins is saying:
“We’ll always be open to making our organization better if there’s a way to do that,” Atkins said Tuesday at a press conference to introduce Okamoto.
Let’s compare this to the MLB Winter Meetings in early December. Atkins took a similar angle, saying that he liked the team as it was currently constructed ... and then went out and signed Ponce, Rogers and Okamoto.
“That remains the case now, and we’ve made it better,” Atkins said. “We feel good about our team. One thing that I would add is that additions at this point would start to cut away from playing time for players who we feel are very good Major League pieces, so we have to factor that in, but we’ve always had incredible support from ownership.”
What Scott Boras is saying:
If anyone speaks for “the market," it’s Boras -- the super agent who has already shook hands on a Blue Jays podium twice this offseason, as he represents Cease and Okamoto.
Boras can throw jabs when he needs to, particularly at organizations who aren’t cracking open their wallets for his clients, but he’s become one of the Blue Jays’ biggest believers of late.
“Toronto has become something in the league that is not [just] one of the premier franchises, they’ve become a state-of-the-art example,” Boras said. “I send my staff to sports science meetings and I find Blue Jays representatives there all the time. They’re at the forefront of so many things: leadership, player training, development. We’re starting to see the culmination of this now, rewarded in standings and competitiveness at the Major League level.”
All of this, on top of an ownership group willing to spend with the big dogs, has made the Blue Jays a legitimate destination for top-end free agents. Remember, Tucker visited the Blue Jays’ training facilities in early December. Anyone who roams that complex will leave impressed.
As for the market itself, particularly top hitters like Bichette, Tucker, Alex Bregman and Cody Bellinger -- why so slow?
“That’s Ross’ fault,” Boras joked, ribbing the Blue Jays’ GM. “It’s very, very difficult to determine when there are going to be ebbs and flows. I’ve had superstars sign in March with Bryce Harper, J.D. Martinez, Manny Machado. It’s not talent related, it’s just how the market flows. This year, we saw a dramatic increase in how relievers are pursued. I think the position-player market and the starter market is starting to flow.”
What it all means:
The Okamoto deal did not take the Blue Jays “out” of anything, period.
Besides, no team can be “out” of a market that hasn’t fully developed. There’s nothing complicated about what’s happening right now. These top hitters have not signed because their prices have not been met. Take Cease as an example of the other end of this spectrum. The Blue Jays came out early and aggressive, found the magic number and wrapped it up in early December.
Now, teams are waiting for the hitter market to blink. Will someone take a deal similar to Bregman’s from a year ago, shorter-term with opt-outs? The Blue Jays remain one of the very best fits for a long-term deal, especially for Tucker and especially when you consider the money coming off their books a year from now with Springer, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Daulton Varsho. This can still work financially, even if it means the Blue Jays need to make their coffee at home for the rest of 2026 instead of visiting a coffee shop.
There’s still such a sense of momentum here, and the Blue Jays’ motivation has never been greater.
They’ve given fans a reason to keep asking, ‘What next?' ... and they keep answering.