The deal was first whispered about last night when Mike Wilner of the Fan590 tweeted that he was hearing that the Jays were close to signing a middle infielder to be a backup. Later, Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports tweeted that an executive believed the infielder to be Maicer Izturis. And, they were correct. If you are surprised about the length of the deal, you are not alone. It makes a little sense considering that the 32 year old is just a utility infielder(hopefully), and the position doesn't really matter, as long as the player isn't bad on defense, and could play the three infield positions(2B,3B,SS). We don't know what the deal brake down will be like, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was back-loaded, so the Jays payroll would be smaller in 2013. Maybe Rogers has that tight of a budget? It could be the reason why AA made the contract longer than 1 or 2 years. Izturis has a career wRC+ of 94 and a career OBP of .337. Not too shabby. Izturis is basically the same hitter against lefties and righties, although he has been marginally better against lefties in his career.
And, Joshua Kusnick, who is a MLB agent, just tweeted that his client, Jeremy Jeffress has been traded to Toronto. The righty is 25 years old, and averages 95.5 MPH on his fastball. AA likes the relievers that throw fast!
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Update: It is $3 million per year. So, my theory about the deal being backloaded is not happening.
Update #2: AA spoke to the media about Izturis and said that right now he is the starter, but a lot could change between now and opening day. If he is the starter, I'm fine with it. He isn't that bad, and 100% better than KJ, so there isn't such a big problem there.
Bluejays seem headed in the right direction. Now they need a better than average left fielder,a top of the rotation starter,a sth starter, and a Manager that wants to be in Toronto Long Term. Its not a long list but proberly quite expensive. No matter it will be interesting to see what happens.
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