SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Colorado Rockies added another pitcher to their bullpen on Wednesday by agreeing to a one-year Major League deal with left-hander Scott Alexander.
Alexander, 35, is coming off a season with the Athletics in which he finished with a 1-3 record and 2.56 ERA over 45 appearances.
Alexander has spent parts of 10 seasons with the Kansas City Royals, (2015-17), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2018-2021), San Francisco (2022-23) and the Athletics. He’s 20-15 over his career with a 3.20 ERA spanning 328 games (13 starts).
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays fail to reach contract extension
Jeff Passan joins “SportsCenter” to break down Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s future after the star first baseman and the Toronto Blue Jays failed to agree to a contract extension. (1:05
DUNEDIN, Fla. — First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays failed to come to terms on a contract extension by his Monday night deadline, paving the way for the 25-year-old star to hit free agency in November.
“They have their numbers; I have my numbers,” Guerrero said Tuesday.
Guerrero, a four-time All-Star and son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, said he had set a deadline of 9 p.m. Monday, but the last call from the Blue Jays came at 10:30 p.m. When asked if the team was close to what he was asking, Guerrero simply said, “No.”
General manager Ross Atkins, meanwhile, said the Blue Jays’ offers were “very, very aggressive.”
“I am confident that we exhausted the communication, the ideas, the thoughts and communicated every dollar,” Atkins said Tuesday. “… The offers that we made for Vlad would’ve been record-setting and would’ve made him one of the highest-paid players in the game.”
Without a deal in place, Guerrero said he plans to cut off talks and play out the season as an impending free agent, but he also said later that he “won’t close the door” on a “realistic” offer from the Blue Jays.
“Listen, I want to be here. I want to be a Blue Jay for the rest of my career,” Guerrero said. “But it’s free agency. It’s business. So I’m going to have to listen to 29 more teams and they’re going to have to compete for that.”
Atkins said the Blue Jays would be respectful of Guerrero’s wishes and that “we’ll never close any doors.”
The inability to strike a deal is the latest blow for the Blue Jays, whose pursuit of franchise-caliber talent in recent years was a black mark for the franchise. Toronto’s heavy recruitment of two-way star Shohei Ohtani and outfielder Juan Soto wound up in disappointment, as they signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, respectively, and the potential departure of their best homegrown talent since Hall of Famer Roy Halladay is even more acute.