Occasionally, you stumble across a rumor that knocks you on your backside. Sometimes, the rumor is nothing more than a single statement – one that you hadn’t seen anywhere else. And sometimes, the statement is in a publication not intimately tied in with the team you’re following.
But you let yourself get excited anyway.
The Blue Jays will have a scout at tomorrow’s workout by free-agent pitcher Ben Sheets, but he’s all but signed by the Chicago Cubs. The Globe and Mail.
HOLY BANANAS!!! OMG SHEETS!!!!1!!!!1
Ok, you over it now? We need to grain of salt this one. The Globe is a Toronto publication, and the article is about the Toronto Blue Jays’ offseason. This statement was a total throwaway line about the Blue Jays’ interest in Ben Sheets, containing absolutely no sourcing or further discussion about the Cubs and Sheets.
Is it possible that the author – Jeff Blair in Washington – has greater insight into the Chicago Cubs’ dealings than does the local media? I suppose it’s possible. But it is highly unlikely. Odds are, he wanted a shorthand way of dismissing the Blue Jays as a likely destination, and tossed out the name of the team he’s read most often associated with Sheets.
So for now, we should probably stick to what we know:
1.) Sheets will be throwing for 10 teams tomorrow in Louisiana, and the Cubs will be in attendance.
2.) The Cubs do not have much money left to spend this winter, and Sheets’ previous reported demands – anywhere from $7 million to $12 million per year on a two year deal – exceed the Cubs’ ability to sign him.
3.) If Sheets demonstrates tomorrow that he is back, and able to throw, making the Cubs interested in signing him, he will definitely be out of their league in terms of cost.
h/t TCR.