I was going to put this in to today's "stuff" stuff, but I just couldn't stuff all of this stuff in to one paragraph, and it was really stuffing up the stuff.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports figures that the Jays are going to be in on the Carlos Quentin sweepstakes. It's a natural fit, I suppose, given the production the Jays have gotten so far out of Eric Thames and Rajai Davis. Travis Snider is there, but has some wrist issues going on. Anthony Gose has been playing LF in AAA, which presumably means that he'd play in left, if he ever got called up while Rasmus was still kicking around. Yan Gomes is there, but he's really just Yan Gomes. Apparently Edwin could play LF if he was really needed to (since Cooper can't, and Lind, god forbid, can't either). Any number of DH combinations can be made, even with Quentin in the picture, however, so we don't necessarily have to say that it's one or the other.
Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that, if the Jays really wanted to go and upgrade their lineup, left field is a pretty good spot to begin, since there aren't a whole lotta 1B's out there and available, so Quentin definitely makes at least some sense.
The thing with Quentin is that he's got a lot of stuff going against him, in terms of trade value. He's nothing special defensively, at best, and can't really be trusted beyond LF (1B, I guess?). He's not exactly cheap, at $7MM, he'll be a free agent at the end of the year, and he's had a history of injury issues, including recovery from knee surgery that's caused him to miss all but 9 games so far this year.
Those 9 games, by the way? He's got a .484/.543/1.097 slash line. Obviously that's not sustainable, but Quentin does offer some decent production; he's a career .255/.348/.499 hitter, so he's plenty valuable until his defensive metrics sap away some value.
All things considered, if the Jays are looking to upgrade the lineup (offensively), Quentin certainly works, since there are multiple holes in the lineup. He's never played 1B in the majors, which is the position that he's probably best suited for, but with Edwin, Gomes and Cooper still hanging around, they probably wouldn't need him to. Rajai Davis is certainly there to spell him in LF as well, so I don't think the defensive issues are overly worrisome, and he wouldn't be blocking Travis Snider or Eric Thames, if they get their shit together, since the DH spot doesn't exactly have anybody's name tacked on to it. We just need to negotiate on a price.
3 months of Quentin definitely isn't worth a top prospect, especially with a $7MM pricetag. I'd be surprised if the Padres were looking for anything other than prospects or young MLB-ready guys who are still making the league-minimum. Obviously there can be some cash exchanging hands if the Padres want something nicer, but the fact remains that adding Quentin, at the $5MM or so left on his contract, might get an extra win of value over what's there now, and that's if they don't play him in the outfield everyday. Obviously if this just becomes a cash-dump, they can have Trystan Magnusson and we'll be fine, but considering where the Padres are on their win-curve (and their $55MM team salary), they probably don't want a 27 year old AA reliever. Quentin was acquired for two halfway decent prospects, so I think we could probably expect something similar.
The Jays have a wealth of prospects at the moment, and could acquire Quentin without even having the names Gose, d'Arnaud, Sanchez, Syndergaard, Marisnick, Nicolino, McGuire, Norris, etc. Again, I don't know enough about each individual member of the Jays' system, but I'm sure the Jays would be willing to part with a Stilson, Nolin, or Wojciechowski if the price happened to be right.
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