Nice write-up John. 

I was always on the high end with IKF, thinking him the sort of player with more value to a team like Toronto trying to mix and match with a roster of either legit starters or versatile players.  And then they signed Vogelbach, sigh.  like for every super versatile guy we add, we can add a platoon DH or something? 

hope we don't make that mistake again, since the 'lottery ticket' part of the deadline return is almost entirely compromised of mix and match IFs.

IKF also seemed like an interesting guy.  I found the 'rush to judge' the signing a bit groupthink-y, so I'm happiest on the trajectory of that signing to trade out of all of them.  We got a strong half season out of him, and a top 30 prospect with helium back.  tidy bit of business. 

Kikuchi is another.  I like and related to Kikuchi as much as any Jay, so if he resigns with us, I'd be stoked, same as with Jano.  there is clear need and rapport with the player.  and that sort of move would certainly be some positive cred for a FO that needs some PR wins.  Like, the players mean it when the talk up the first class org thing. 

Resigning guys dealt at the deadline feels very un-Jays, but I'd love to see the FO pursue them both. 

As for Pearson, I don't even consider it a loss if the guy takes off for Chicago.  Moving on in his case feels like the right thing for both the player and the org.  Good luck to all parties!

For a deal that felt pretty 'meh' at the time, I like the outcomes of theTellez trade.  Rowdy got some run, good on the guy, who'd had a tough go as a Jay.  Francis has produced moments and is, at least, solid depth, and Richards ended up soaking up valuable innings for us in a variety of roles.  I'll miss that silver-haired weirdo. 

A 33 y/o flamethrowing, TJ-recovered Anthony Gose just got recalled to the Guardians bullpen.

Great to hear Gose is back!  I love guys like him who start out as one thing then become another. From a top prospect CF (speed demon/defensive wiz) to a LH reliever.  Hopefully it goes well for him.

It's amazing because Bauxite Alex Obal predicted Gose's transition to the mound years before it happened. 

It's amazing because Bauxite Alex Obal predicted Gose's transition to the mound years before it happened.

That's not really a crazy prediction, considering that most teams considered Gose to be a better pitching prospect out of HS (he was already hitting 97mph as a LHP). He just refused to pitch, hence him being drafted and signed by a team that would let him come up as a CF. Once it became obvious that he wouldn't hit it seemed pretty inevitable that someone would try him as a pitcher.

"Nine years ago, there was plenty of interest from major league teams. Scouts phoned Bellflower High all the time, asking when the 17-year-old kid with a 97 mph fastball would be on the mound. Gose had a 0.63 ERA as a high school senior, allowing just 22 hits in 71 innings while striking out 124 and walking just 21. When Baseball America previewed the 2008 draft, the magazine listed Gose as a pitcher, declaring he had "perhaps the strongest left arm of any Southern California high school pitching prospect since Bill Bordley, a first-round pick in the mid-1970s." There was only one problem. Gose didn't want to be drafted as a pitcher. The day scouts from the Philadelphia Phillies arrived to watch Gose in a workout, he told then-Phillies scouting director Marti Wolever: "My coach wants me to pitch, but I don't want to pitch." His coach was Keith Tripp, who believed then and still believes now that Gose's best chance at big league success would be on the mound. "I thought he was going to be a pitcher," Tripp said. "But he told me, 'I'm only pitching because you want me to pitch. I like playing outfield. I want to play every day.'"

Thanks, metafour. I missed the backstory.