The Blue Jays announced that they have acquired outfielder , cash, and some 2025 international bonus pool space from the Guardians, while Cleveland receives a player to be named later or cash in return. Toronto will be receiving $2MM of international pool space, while the team will take on $11MM of the $14.75MM remaining on Straws contract through the 2026 season. The Guards will pay the Jays $1MM in 2025, $1MM in 2026, and then $1.75MM at the end of the 2026 season, likely earmarked to cover the $1.75MM buyout of Straws $8MM club option for the 2027 season. With the international pool space, its fair to wonder about the Jays and their connection to Japanese right-hander . He has to choose his next club in le s than a week and is subject to the international bonus pool signing rules. It has been reported that the Jays are one of three finalists for his services, alongside the Dodgers and Padres. Nicholson-Smith and Davidi both caution that this deal does not mean Sasaki has made a decision, rather that the Jays are being prepared for the po sibility of Sasaki choosing them. Its po sible that the Padres view themselves as now out of the running, as they have started finalizing deals with other international amateurs, something they had put on hold while waiting for more info. Unlike most free agents, Sasaki isnt going to sign with the club that can offer him the most money. Since he is coming over to North America prior to his 25th birthday, having recently turned 23, he is considered an amateur under MLBs rules. As such, he is subject to the leagues bonus pool system. Under this system, each team gets a set amount of money to spend on international amateurs each year. As laid out by , the 2025 pools are each between $5-8MM. Broadly speaking, the smaller-market clubs get a bit more than the bigger clubs. A club can also lower its pool amount by signing a player that rejected a qualifying offer. Teams can trade their bonus pool space with each other, in increments of $250K, but a team cant increase its initial allotment by more than 60%. As such, Sasaki wont be able to sign for more than a few million bucks. There will also be a posting fee owed to the Chiba Lotte Marines, his Nippon Profe sional Baseball club, though that will also be minimal. If money were his primary motivation, he likely would stayed in Japan until he turned 25. Thats what did, which allowed him to secure a $325MM deal from the Dodgers. Sasaki is therefore presumably choosing his next clubs based on other factors. He and his agent Joel Wolfe have been fairly cagey about what those factors might be, leaving baseball fans to speculate. It has been suggested that geography, a teams pitching development reputation and/or long-term competitive outlook are po sible factors, though those are mostly gue ses. Though money wont be the main factor, its po sible that Sasaki and his reps would like a large bonus, simply out of respect and as a reflection of his status. Sasaki is far more coveted than even the top international amateurs from any other year. The vast majority of signees in the pool system are 16-year-olds from Latin America who are years away from contributing and come with the standard uncertainties that are present with even the best prospects. The best of Danuel House Jersey those guys can sometimes get bonuses of $5MM or more. The Mets gave $5MM this week, the of this year so far. Sasaki, on the other hand, is viewed as a plug-and-play ace. He already has four years of experience in Japan, having posted a 2.10 earned run average in that time. Though he doesnt have the ability to ask for Yamamoto money, perhaps he and his reps want to at least get to something in the $6-10MM range so that he at least gets the symbolic victory of being the top bonus of his cla s. The Jays started with a pool of $6,261,600. The Dodgers had their pool dropped by $1MM for signing , since he rejected a qualifying offer and they were a competitive balance tax payor in 2023, winding up at $5,146,200. Since the Jays are allowed to increase their pool by 60%, they can theoretically get that number as high as $10,018,560. This deal gets them up to $8,261,600. In a normal year, all 30 MLB clubs would announced most of their signings on the first day of the international signing period on January 15. Thats because most of these bonuses have been negotiated years in advance. However, Sasakis presence has thrown a wrench into the normal operation of things. The Jays, Dodgers and Padres have reportedly been holding off on finalizing their international signings as they await Sasakis decision. His posting window closes January 23, so resolution will have to come soon. As mentioned, the Padres are reportedly going to start finalizing some of their international agreements. That doesnt mean they are definitely out on Sasaki but is obviously a different approach to what the Jays are doing now. Time will tell whether this extra pool space can help the Jays at all in signing Sasaki, but it suggests they still view it as a po sibility. If Sasaki ends up signing elsewhere, they could perhaps try to trade some of that pool space later or use it in a different way. The Sasaki situation has also thrown a few other things into disarray, as a few prospects that were committed to the Dodgers ultimately pivoted to sign elsewhere, not wanting to wait around. Darell Morel, Oscar Patio and Teilon Serrano each walked away from the Dodgers to sign with the Pirates, White Sox and Twins, respectively. As this game of musical chairs plays out, its po sible that there will be some interesting ways to use pool space, even without Sasaki. To get that extra pool space, the Jays are taking a dead-money contract off the Guardians hands. Straw signed a five-year, $25MM extension with the Guardians in April 2022 that covered the 2022-27 seasons, plus the $8MM club option for 2027 and an $8.5MM club option ($500K buyout) for 2028. These options are almost sure to be declined since Straws performance dropped up almost immediately after he signed the extension. An elite defender and runner, Straw had pa sable offense for a while but fell off a cliff. Through the end of 2021, he had a .265/.343/.341 batting line and 94 wRC+. But in the past three years, that line has been a dismal .229/.295/.284, which translates to a 67 wRC+. He also hit .240/.321/.329 in Triple-A last year for a wRC+ of 72. His previous level of offense was still subpar but it made him a useful player when combined with his glovework and baserunning. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 3.0 wins above replacement in 2021, for instance. But the dropoff at the plate made Straw unrosterable, so the Guardians have outrighted him off their 40-man multiple times. Since Straw has more than three years of service time, he can reject an outright a signment and elect free agency. But since his service clock is still short of five years, heading to the open market would mean forfeiting whats left of his contract. He wasnt on their roster at the time of the trade and therefore wont have a spot with the Jays. Though its mostly a salary dump, its po sible the Jays could envision a path to Straw helping their big league team. is the clubs primary center fielder but he is recovering from shoulder surgery and might mi s Opening Day. If that comes to pa s, its po sible Straw could help give the Jays a glove-first cover option until Varsho is ready, perhaps in a fourth outfielder role. Straws service time count is currently at four years and 125 days. A new year rolls over at 172 days, meaning Straw is 47 shy of the five-year mark. That makes it po sible for the Jays to roster Straw for a few weeks and send him back off the roster again, knowing that he will clear waivers and accept an outright a signment. For the Guardians, this is the second time this offseason that they have dumped a notable contract on the Jays. Just over a month ago, the Guards sent and to Toronto in exchange for and , with Horwitz later flipped to the Pirates. Gimnez is still guaranteed $97.5MM over the five years left on his extension. Between Gimnez and Straw, the Guards have sent $113MM of future payroll commitments north of the border. They did lose a useful player in Gimnez but likely feel they have plenty of internal infield options to make up for his absence. They also lost Sandlin but they had the best bullpen in the league in 2024 and should have a strong relief corps without him. Straw wasnt really in their plans. In short, they probably feel like the roster isnt much worse, with now a great change in their financial picture. Sacrificing $2MM of pool space will limit what they can do in that arena, but its theoretically po sible that they can make up for that somewhat with the overall improvement in their ability to spend. Looking at the page, they now have very few commitments apart from the deal. Whether they will actually use that to upgrade the major league team or not is a fair question. The clubs broadcast deal with Diamond Sports Group, now known as Main Street Sports, has fallen apart. The Guards are now set to go into 2025 with MLB handling their broadcasts, which will almost certainly lead to le s revenue coming in. On the other hand, they just engineered a surprise division win in 2024 and could have put some extra playoff revenue in the bank. RosterResource currently projects them for a payroll of about $91MM this year, which is a bit below the $98MM Opening Day figure that gave them a year ago. For the Jays, the Straw deal nudges their payroll up but only slightly. They reportedly made a strong offer to a few weeks ago, which was likely north of $30MM annually. He ultimately signed with the Diamondbacks for $210MM over six years, an average annual value of $35MM, though there are deferrals that knock those number down in terms of net present value. Still, the Jays were probably at least in that range. They have since added , a three-year, $33MM deal with an AAV of $11MM. Straws deal will add another few million but perhaps theres still some powder dry. The club has been tied to most of the top free agents still available, including , , , and . Sportsnets Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi ( ) reported that the Blue Jays were getting $2MM in pool space, and the $3.75MM figure contributed by the Guardians to Straws salary. had the breakdown of how the $3.75MM would be allotted over the course of Straws remaining contract. Clint Capela Jersey