Blue Jays signing Brett Gardner would be worse than him playing 140 games with Yankees

The Toronto Blue Jays are slowly becoming a top-tier insufferable rival of the New York Yankees. Everyone just wants to get under the Yankees’ skin.

They somehow have long held onto Randal Grichuk, who exclusively crushes the Bombers — only to dump him unceremoniously for Raimel Tapia on Thursday. Last year, they had Robbie Ray edge out Gerrit Cole for the AL Cy Young. They signed George Springer just to bring the whole 2017 Astros cheating scandal to the AL East as a reminder for the Yanks. Their rebuild is ahead of schedule faster than anybody expected, while the Yankees still have yet to see meaningful production from their top prospects in recent years.

And how about what they’ve done recently? They signed former Yankees first baseman Greg Bird to a minor-league deal after his impressive season at Triple-A with the Rockies last year. A total troll move.

As for trolling, they also thought they’d jab the Yankees on Twitter after beating them in the fifth game of spring training. When is this going to end? Oh, it’s not? They’re reportedly interested in signing Brett Gardner? Got it.

This comes right as it was revealed a number of Yankees players want Gardner back for the 2022 season. If this is a “team chemistry” thing, then what’s the front office waiting for?

It’d really be a lot worse if Gardner was playing for the Blue Jays than if he happened to stumble into 140 games with the Bombers next year.

Blue Jays are interested in longtime Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner

Is this just the Jays’ way of letting us know they’re “there”? “Don’t forget about us, Yankees! We can always make your life worse, even if it doesn’t seem like it!”

Also … do the Jays even really need Gardner? They have Springer, Tapia, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and their fourth main option Teoscar Hernandez — with Cavan Biggio as a rover after he became a bit of a utility player in 2021 (though he should be the starting second baseman when the season opens).

Toronto also has top prospect Otto Lopez, another utility player with plenty of MLB experience, knocking on the door of the big league roster after reaching Triple-A last year.

Wait a second … are we looking at a team that has a plan to actually … use Brett Gardner properly? With enough players ahead of him and with minimal injury concerns to create controversy? OK. Now this makes a ton of sense.

The discourse regarding Gardner among fans isn’t pretty, but it’s mostly an indictment on the front office for never being able to piece things together properly … ever.

But even if you absolutely cannot stomach another meaningful slate of games with Gardner, as a Yankee fan you have to admit you’d rather see him as an everyday starter in New York rather than a part-time bench player on a rival who will certainly be used against New York to gain the mental edge.

Yankees players wanting Brett Gardner back means fans should expect deal soon

According to NJ.com's Brendan Kuty, New York Yankees' players want Brett Gardner back ... which means we can probably expect a deal soon.