We knew this step was coming, in the slow progression to the Blue Jays admitting that Edwin Encarnacion needs to have his arm amputated, but for the sake of documenting each of the steps along the way to Edwin's eventual surgery:
Encarnacion (sore wrist) done for season? Gibbons: "We don't think so but there's not a whole lotta season left either"
— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) September 11, 2013
If his season is over he'll finish the season as our leader in WAR. Our top three in fWAR:
- Encarnacion: 4.2
- Bautista: 4.1
- Rasmus: 4.0
If we could have only had a healthy Bautista and Rasmus at the same time as the great infield defense we've seen lately, we'd finally have a pretty decent team.
Edwin's 4.2 WAR, at Fangraphs, beats out his 4.1 from last year, making it the best of his career. His .276/.375/.542 batting line is pretty close to last year's .280/.384/.557. He's down half a dozen home runs (36 down from 42).
On the other hand, Colby Rasmus might be coming back this weekend:
Blue Jays hoping Rasmus can return this weekend against the Orioles. He swung bat again today, will let them know when he's ready
— Chris Toman (@Chris_Toman) September 11, 2013
We really could use someone in the line up that can hit. I wouldn't mind seeing him get into the last 10 games of the season.
Another little bit of news from Shi Davidi:
The agent for Josh Johnson says the pending free agent has "unfinished business" with the Toronto Blue Jays, would likely accept a qualifying offer if the club tendered one, and can probably earn a contract of similar value with incentives on the open market.
Yeah, I think we all knew that Josh would accept a qualifying offer, if the Jays were dumb enough to offer one. The agent also said this:
I think Josh Johnson for sure gets a base of $10 million or above, just based on the fact there are no pitchers out there.
Oh I doubt it. I could see a contract with incentives that could potentially net him $10 million, but I'd think he'll be getting something with a guaranteed amount that's a long way short of that.
Next year can't be as bad as this one was, right? He was getting strikeouts for us (9.18/9), but when batters were making contract it was often hard contact. His .356 BABIP might have been partly because of the lousy defense we had behind him. But then, the 15 home runs he allowed were the most he's allowed in any season in his career, pretty impressive, since he only threw 81 innings.
It will be interesting to see what the Jays decide to do.