Blue Jays notebook: Sasaki fallout and what’s next

TORONTO — There’s an upside to being patient as an MLB offseason unfolds: If you’re willing to wait, deals often happen.

But there is also a downside to playing the long game, as the Toronto Blue Jays are now experiencing firsthand. The longer you wait, the more chances others have to use you as leverage. The more measured your bids, the more likely you are to finish second or third.

Where it all leads for this list, we’ll find out eventually. In the meantime, here are some thoughts and notes on a Blue Jays team that still has a lot of work to do:

• There are no silver medals in free agency. It is clear. But the Blue Jays’ efforts to land Roki Sasaki reveal a lot about this organization, its players and its staff. Let’s start with the players. Quietly, Bo Bichette, Daulton Varsho and Chad Green all made the trip to Toronto to pitch Sasaki on the Blue Jays last week.

And say what you will about the Sasaki hunt, these three players really deserve credit for prioritizing it. The baseball off-season is short and Toronto in January isn’t exactly a vacation destination, but all three wanted to do their part to recruit an impact player. It’s especially notable that Bichette made the trip since he’s now less than a year away from free agency and isn’t necessarily a Blue Jay beyond 2025. But to his credit, he did what he could for the organization and showed up to telling Sasaki that he would be welcomed to Toronto.

• Zooming out for a moment beyond the frustration surrounding the controversial Myles Straw trade, some notable things have changed here for the Blue Jays. A decade or more ago, they were rarely in the conversation for top Japanese and Korean recruits. While pushing for Yu Darvish, the Red Sox, Yankees and Rangers were better positioned to get the best players from the Pacific Rim. It wasn’t just about money, it was about relationships and understanding that market.

But thanks in large part to the dedicated work of Pacific Rim coordinator Hideaki Sato, the Blue Jays got Sasaki’s attention. Those efforts were also driven by longtime front office executives Andrew Tinnish and Ryan Mittleman, plus Frank Herrmann, the former MLB pitcher who pitched with Sasaki in Japan before joining the Blue Jays as a pitching acquisition specialist. This was a project that required many years of focused work.

Again, no one involved wants a silver medal here. But just as the Straw trade drew some criticism in the industry, some neutral observers have noted the growth for the Blue Jays in this area.

It means more when it leads to a deal, no one is saying otherwise, but it’s a remarkable shift — and a positive one. The next step, a necessary one, would be to find a way to surpass the Dodgers. If you recruit well enough to be a finalist, but your list is inferior, you will rarely win. So either the roster needs to improve, recruiting needs to improve, or both. As in any business, closing the deal matters most.

• Speaking of silver medals, the Blue Jays actually showed interest in Tanner Scott before he signed with the Dodgers, who Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported it. Which, once we move past the understandable sighs of annoyance, is actually an interesting concept. Building a super bullpen with Scott and Jeff Hoffman would have shortened games, and suggests the Blue Jays are open to different ways to build their pitching staff. For example: If they had somehow landed Sasaki, they could have had a six-man rotation with 20-25 starts from the Japanese phenom.

• In baseball, deadlines tend to drive action, which is why the final few days leading up to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s Feb. 18 extension deadline will be critical. The two sides avoided arbitration earlier this month, but the Blue Jays still have plenty of work to do if they want to get a long-term deal past the finish line.

• One reason beyond the obvious that it’s a good idea for the Blue Jays to complete a deal with a slugger like Anthony Santander or perhaps Pete Alonso: it would make the Blue Jays a more appealing destination for a pitcher like Max Scherzer, a person who is attracting interest from the Blue Jays. As currently constructed, the Blue Jays may be a tougher sell for the future Hall of Famer.