First Russell Martin, then Josh Donaldson and now James Shields?
According to Ken Rosenthal, the Blue Jays brain trust has had internal discussions about making a run at James Shields.
The surprising thing for me is that front office internal discussions were mentioned in the media this early in the process as Alex Anthopoulos is infamous for keeping things quiet till things were almost completed. The mystery Jays exec strikes again!
Signing James Shields would lay to rest (for now) comments that Rogers is Cheap, rumors that the Jays are almost at the end of their player budget for this season, change the dynamic of the rotation (a starting five of RA Dickey, Mark Buehrle, James Shields, Marcus Stroman and Drew Hutchison is much more imposing) and put Aaron Sanchez in the bullpen (making it better) for now.
Personally I wouldn't get my hopes up as it has been noted in the article that more teams would enter the market for James Shields as his agent's asking price got cheaper (went from initial rumors of 5 years 110 million to 4 Years 70-80 million.)
Tell us what you think.