Big News and Important Stuff

Big news:

Behold this tweet concerning a certain Cuban moments ago:

Agent Bart Hernandez says SS Hechavarria's visa has been approved and he should be traveling to US this week to take physical with Jays

Halle-friggin-lujah. About damn time and all that stuff. In a recent interview, Alex Anthopoulos inferred that "if" they signed a Cuban player the first step would be to get him acclimated to the U.S. first, before throwing him into a more pressurized situation. I certainly am not privy to how they expect that to play out but my guess is that he'll go to extended Spring Training until the short season teams start playing and at that point, depending on how well he is adapting, and how well other shortstops in the system are progressing, they will have the choice of starting him anywhere from the GCL team to as high as AA. As much as I'd like to see him on the fast track to Toronto, I doubt anyone will know for sure where he'll play the bulk of the year until probably June.

Important stuff:

John Lott does fine work (again) giving us insight into how Vernon Wells spends that too-much money he makes. It's a fine read. More importantly it's a reflection of what's really important when it comes to Vernon Wells. I'm not going to say I'll never discuss whether or not he ought be hitting sixth instead of fourth or playing Right instead of Center - but I think I'm pretty much done with the issue of how much me makes until and unless it keeps the Jays from spending elsewhere. As long as Rogers is willing to spend whatever AA and Beeston ask for, Wells contract is a non-issue to me.
Because I know this much - what he makes will be well spent and will make a lot more difference than anything he does on the baseball diamond, even if he's an MVP. Maybe if the guy can't be a Hall of Fame baseball player, he can be a Hall of Fame human being and, as the Garfoose reminds us, isn't that a lot more valuable?