Rumour mill churns facts with fiction
Trying to figure out the Blue Jays’ plans for the off-season is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle that has a few too many pieces and no final image to use as a guide.
General manager Ross Atkins and company are linked to a new player almost every day. One minute it’s an outfielder, the next it’s an infielder or starting pitcher. Even the Jays’ catching situation, which appeared set with Danny Jansen and a slew of young prospects, has been mentioned in the onslaught of reports.
This is what happens whenever a team is expected to be aggressive and possesses enough resources to make it happen. In an off-season when most teams are slashing payroll, the Jays are expected to add, even though the exact amount remains a mystery to fans, media and agents alike.
It’s one of the reasons why someone like Scott Boras, who represents last year’s top recruit, Hyun-Jin Ryu, has gone from complaining about stingy Rogers and its “blue flu” to singing the organization’s praises at every opportunity. Atkins and Jays president Mark Shapiro might have their detractors in Toronto but, in current baseball circles, they’re the most popular guys at the party, or in this case, on the Zoom calls. Everyone wants a word.
“The Jays are what I’ve always hoped that the Blue Jays should and could be,” Boras said during a recent interview on The FAN 590. “They’re going to be one of the organizations that sits atop the aggressive markets in baseball. They’re in a definite phase where I think they have the lamp and now they’re looking for the light bulb.”
For Boras, what’s not to like about the Blue Jays’ approach? Their opening-day payroll in 2019 was approximately $114 million and would have been about the same this year if not for the abbreviated schedule. The current projected payroll for 2021, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, is closer to $75 million. Even without an increase, that leaves $39-plus million to spend through free agency or trade.
There’s also a lot more money where that came from. The highest payroll in franchise history, $163 million in 2017, is more than double what it is right now. Rogers can make that happen again with a simple vote. Even if they don’t, the possibility that they could will shape MLB’s off-season as agents use them for leverage.
In the outfield, there has been talk about Michael Brantley, George Springer and Jackie Bradley Jr. In the infield, it has been Justin Turner, Andrelton Simmons and DJ LeMahieu. On the mound, it’s Jake Odorizzi, J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka. Behind the plate, it’s J.T. Realmuto. If there’s a big name out there, the Blue Jays have been connected to it in some fashion, and those are just the free agents.
The same thing happened last year. There were early rumblings about Gerrit Cole that predictably didn’t go anywhere. There was an offer made to Mike Moustakas that was tens of millions below what he ended up accepting in Cincinnati. Talks were held with Odorizzi, but they weren’t serious enough for him to turn down a qualifying offer from the Twins.
Other names loosely tied to the Jays included Didi Gregorius, Zack Wheeler, Kyle Gibson, David Price, Marcell Ozuna, Josh Lindblom, Michael Pineda and Jordan Lyles. Until Ryu signed in late December, none of the discussions led to much of anything except for the unfortunate two-year deal handed to Tanner Roark, who struggled through 2020 and was left off the club’s postseason roster.
Most agents are extremely media savvy and they know how to use national reporters to advance their agendas. Even if the Jays are simply making a phone call for due diligence, it’s almost guaranteed that communication will eventually be leaked. The best way to drive up the asking price is to attract multiple suitors. When multiple bids don’t exist, the perception they do is sometimes enough.
The Jays’ intentions are harder to pin down than most because there are a lot of different ways they could go. This isn’t an organization with one singular need, it’s a ball club on the verge of contention that has multiple holes that need to be plugged and enough positional versatility to get creative while doing it.
Agents will use that to their advantage. They know Toronto’s front office never comments on rumours. They’re also aware little is known about how much money the Jays actually have to spend and with a multi-billion-dollar corporation backing them it might not even matter, as long as that figure doesn’t become public for another couple months. The mystery is leverage enough.
Of course, this works both ways and the Jays will use it to their advantage as well, either by forcing teams to bid more than they otherwise would, or to hide who their top targets really are. There’s strategy to all of it, if there wasn’t, they wouldn’t be so hesitant to talk money. To date the front office had said little about the matter other than expressing confidence in ownership’s support and talking about the desire to add “impact” players.
There’s no incentive for the Jays to get more specific than that. There are lots of incentives for agents to go public via anonymous sourcing. It’s a game of cat and mouse that doesn’t carry any weight until years and dollar figures are exchanged and formal proposals are made.
Everyone wants to know how all these pieces are going to come together. It’s impossible to answer because the Blue Jays have so many options and alternatives, even they don’t have a clue what the roster is going to look like next spring. That’s what these next few weeks are for.
The front office has said little about free agency, other than expressing confidence in ownership’s support and the desire to add impact players