Perhaps with three managers and a GM getting the axe in one week, JP Ricciardi feels a little bit of heat. He probably should because barring a miraculous second half, he's probably going to be looking for a new job come October. Whatever the reason, he's rethought his stance on Adam Dunn just a bit and decided to apologize to the Reds' slugger today.
"It's my fault, I take full responsibility for it," Ricciardi told The Globe and Mail newspaper of Toronto on Thursday. "I tried to get Adam's phone number from the Reds ... and if he wants to talk to me, I'll talk to him and apologize personally. But I apologize to him and the Reds. I need to be better than that. I let my guard down".
I love that the apology is, "I need to be better than that," and not, "I was wrong." So, basically what JP is saying is, "I still think you suck, but I shouldn't have said it out loud." Now that Ricciardi's put all this behind him, he can help focus on what's really important: hiring retread managers and trading for awful relievers that were probably about to be released anyways.
There's no love lost between the Blue Jays and Frank Thomas, who was released last week after struggling in his first 60 at-bats. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for Thomas to find work, signing with the A's earlier today. So went wrong in Toronto? Hearing J.P. Ricciardi tell it, they were worried he wasn't a team player. From the National Post:
After being benched, Frank Thomas told the GM all he needed to know by refusing to go on the field with his teammates after Saturday's victory. "You're either part of the team or you're not," Ricciardi said. "It's not real hard to go out there and shake hands. I don't think that's a tough thing to do. I think that was probably the start of letting us really realize this is not going to work with Frank here and not playing, because obviously we were going to be 24 guys instead of 25 and it was probably going to alienate the clubhouse a little bit. That's why everybody reacted the way we reacted."
Oh, okay, This makes sense. The team cut loose a guy they still have to pay $8 million this year no matter what because he was a little grumpy after being benched. That $10 million option for 2009 that would've become guaranteed had Thomas tallied 316 more at-bats this year? I'm sure that had nothing to do with it. No sir, nothing at all.
After a season that saw Burnett sidelined for a couple months with injury and called out by his GM for racing with a guy in a chili pepper costume, it seemed that the Jays might want to cut their losses by cutting ties with the guy they'd hoped would form a tough one-two punch with Roy Halladay.
"We like having A.J. here," Ricciardi told ESPN.com. "He gives us a good opportunity to win in 2008, and that's our main objective right now. But we're open-minded. If someone blew us away, we'd be foolish not to listen. If someone came to us tomorrow and said, 'We'll give you this, this and this for him,' we'd be foolish not to look at it."
So the Jays' options are banking on winning it all with the Halladay-Burnett combo next season or risk losing Burnett, who can opt out of his contract after 2008, to free agency? Here's betting A.J.'s starting for some other team come next April.
Despite some early season woes and a bout with appendicitis, Roy Halladay was one of the best things to happen to the Blue Jays in 2007. And with his three-year contract extension kicking in next year, the Jays will have their premier pitcher locked up through 2010.
But after a significant step down from 2006's second-place finish in the East, momentum that a lot of people figured would carry into this season, can the Jays bounce back to contend while they still have their ace under contract? Doc sure hopes they can.
"The one thing that I want to do in this game is win a World Series. But I'd like to take every chance I can to do it here," he said. "In past years, playing the way we've played, if we were in other divisions, we might have been close. I knew how tough it was going to be and that's a lot of what made me want to stay here."
Of course, baseball being a business first and foremost, Halladay added that when his three years are up, he'd certainly revisit his stance in the event that an opportunity for a ring lies with another team.
"What happens after the three years I have left?" Halladay wondered rhetorically. "There's a lot of things up in the air as far as what J.P. [Ricciardi]'s going to do with the coaching staff, players, a lot of things are changing. That's something to re-evaluate at that point."
He may look like your high-school gym teacher, but journeyman Matt Stairs can still swing a freakin' bat. Since August 1, he's been on a 30-74 tear, the best of any American League player.
In fact, the Blue Jays have been so impressed with the 39 year old slugger's performance -- one of the few bright spots in their forgettable 2007 campaign -- they're trying to secure him for 2008.
"We want to get the ball rolling on talking about bringing him back," J.P. Ricciardi said. "Hopefully, we'll talk [again] later in the week. I think we've got the parameters to work within. Just like we did with Johnny Mac, I think there's a deal to be made there. Hopefully, we'll keep him here."
Although no offers have been made yet, there's always the chance that Stairs, a native of Canada, would take short money to stay in the Great White North. Unless, of course, the beer league comes calling.
It's been something of a disappointing season for Vernon Wells, with his .256 average and 15 home runs falling woefully short of what Toronto fans thought they'd be getting from their $126 million man.
But it turns out his lackluster performance may be due to recurring shoulder pain that J.P. Ricciardi, MLB's original Man of Mystery, confirmed on the team's official website.
"It's not so much an injury -- there's just a little tightness in there," Ricciardi said. "He's been playing, and I don't think he would use it as an excuse. He's got a little soreness in his shoulder, but nothing that's stopped him from playing."
Ricciardi's right about that; when asked about the injury, Wells issued a terse, "no comment," adding, "there's no excuses." Still, Wells is scheduled to undergo an MRI at season's end to see if there's anything serious going on.
Just 7.5 games out of the wildcard, the Jays still, at least on paper, have a shot at the postseason. But seeing as how they've got Wells tied up for the next six seasons, they may do well to identify the ailment as soon as possible, shut him down if necessary, and focus on getting him back to "Vintage Vernon" condition for 2008.
Toronto's 2007 DL already reads like a copy of The Bonfire of the Vanities, so it's not surprising to hear that yet another Blue Jay may be going under the knife.
Earlier today, Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi noted on the team's official site that he'd like to see Gustavo Chacin have his ailing left shoulder surgically repaired before the season's end. Chacin's been sidelined with shoulder problems since April.
"We're trying to find out if we need to have exploratory surgery in his shoulder," said Ricciardi, who added that the only throwing Chacin might do over the next few weeks would simply consist of light rehab work. "He's probably going down that road."
It's the latest twist in what's been a tough season for Chacin. So in an effort to lift the spirits, we're presenting this fabulous bit of Gustavo Magic: A commercial for Chacin Cologne Night at the Rogers Centre. It smells like... awesome.
The mysterious foot pain that's been dogging Troy Glaus since the first week of the 2007 season -- a pain that has been described as a tight hammy, a bone spur and a torn Achilles tendon -- has finally been identified. Turns out, it's plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the heel.
"It's been hurting pretty good, and we wanted to get some tests to rule out everything," said Glaus, who added that he was wearing an orthotics device to help support his foot while playing. "It's kind of just playing to tolerance at this point. It feels better today, so we'll try to give it a shot."
Glaus was back in the line-up tonight after missing two games, and he recently endured an 0-for-27 slump. But Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi feels that Glaus will be back in top form and at the top of his game come next year.
"Once he rests over the offseason, he should be fine," Ricciardi said. "It's not like an injury that's going to have an effect on him next year. Everything we hear is, with rest, it should totally heal and he'll come back."
Seeing as how Glaus will make a cool $12.75 mill next year, we'd certainly like to think so.
On the DL since April with a bum shoulder, Gustavo Chacin was unceremoniously plucked out of his AAA rehab stint by Jays management last week and optioned to the minors. The thinking here, Jays GM JP Ricciardi explained, was that being optioned would give Chacin ample opportunity to get a lot of starts under his belt without any pressure or deadlines.
Major League Baseball, however, smelled a rat, and voided the option.
The reason? MLB suspected that the Jays sent Chacin to the minors to try to squeeze another year out of his contract.
Chacin was victimized, whether on purpose or not. The 26-year-old entered '07 with two years and 14 days of major-league time. If he's on the DL under an injury-rehab assignment, he is gaining major-league time. The free-agency clock is ticking. If he's optioned in good health, no service time accrues.
If the Jays hadn't been asked to void the option on Sunday, they could have left him in the minors until Sept. 1 or beyond, some 35-plus days of time lost. He would then have finished the season with less than three years of major-league time, at around two years and 150 days. Good for the club, bad for the player.
Intentional or not, a manuever like this could tarnish the Jays' rep among players and potentially harm their future chances of landing prized free agents. Seems like a high price to pay for another year of Chacin's services.
Anyone who was afraid that the Blue Jays might trade Josh Towers for a bag of doughnuts can relax. Because Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi has gone on the record as saying that he won't do such a thing.
See, check it out:
"I'm not going to trade Josh Towers for a bag of doughnuts, I've got to get something back that is a very good player for us to say, 'Hey, we can hang our hat on this guy.'"
They also won't be trading him to Pittsburgh for shortstop Jack Wilson, or so Ricciardi says, shooting down a popular rumor.
"We have absolutely no interest in Jack Wilson," said Ricciardi. "None."
These and other recent comments by Ricciardi indicate he'd prefer to see how the Jays' lineup plays when no one is injured before making any changes. That means he may well stand pat at the trade deadline and see what a healthy team can accomplish in 2008.
"We want to finish as best we can, we're under 10 in the wild card, it's not insurmountable. Obviously you've got teams in front of you but maybe we can cut that down. But more importantly we want to see what our team looks like when it is together."
Perhaps with three managers and a GM getting the axe in one week, JP Ricciardi feels a little bit of heat. He probably should because barring a miraculous second half, he's probably going to be looking for a new job come October. Whatever the reason, he's rethought his stance on Adam Dunn just a bit and decided to apologize to the Reds' slugger today. 
There's no love lost between the Blue Jays and 
Have the 
Despite some early season woes and a bout with appendicitis, 
He may look like your high-school gym teacher, but journeyman 
It's been something of a disappointing season for 
The mysterious foot pain that's been dogging 
On the DL since April with a bum shoulder, 
Anyone who was afraid that the Blue Jays might trade 
