Blue Jays: Pressure on front office after missing on Francisco Lindor

The Toronto Blue Jays were apparently a runner-up to get Francisco Lindor.

In what has been described as a week of missed opportunity, you can feel the pressure starting to build for the Toronto Blue Jays front office.

Missing out on the opportunity to acquire Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco who went to the New York Mets while seeing Tomoyuki Sugano decide to return to Japan didn’t sit well with fans. This comes after the San Diego Padres made an even bigger splash acquiring Blake Snell and Yu Darvish and now the list of available options has shrunk significantly.

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It’s one thing if the Blue Jays didn’t have the pieces to pull off a deal or they weren’t on a player’s desired landing spot but it’s clear that wasn’t the case. Toronto was reportedly the runner-up for Lindor but they weren’t offering Cleveland enough of a balanced return in terms of assets that could help now and in the future.

The Blue Jays are fortunate to have Bo Bichette at shortstop otherwise losing out to acquire one of the best in the game would have been a tough pill to swallow. However, seeing a team like the Mets make significant moves after their owner made it clear that they were going to be big players doesn’t ease the sting either.

Now, some of the frustration can be eased if Toronto goes out and signs a premier free agent target like George Springer who provides the ideal fit. Of course, they will need to be a bit more aggressive and get closer to his preferred contract of at least $150 million over five years.

We have also heard about the Mets being interested in getting Kris Bryant from the Chiacgo Cubs. Maybe the Blue Jays should consider that as an alternative to Lindor as he wouldn’t have as steep contract demands as Lindor plus he would be a better option than what the free-agent market has to offer.

Teams still are looking to move off from players like Joe Musgrove who isn’t a top-tier pitcher but a solid rotation option who can probably be had for a reasonable price.

What this shows is that it is certainly still early to make any judgements on the Blue Jays off-season and it’s unrealistic to expect them to be in on every player on the market. However, if they come away with nothing then it would be justified to wonder why the front office would profess that they wanted to make an impact this off-season and come away empty-handed.

Do you think there is pressure on the Blue Jays to make a big move? What should they be looking to do? Let us know in the comments below.