TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays, it very much seems, have some money in the bank.
The exact amount at the disposal of Alex Anthopoulos is uncertain, but in reviewing the club’s current salary commitments against where its spending on payroll was at least season, the general manager should have $5-8 million to work with this summer.
That range will be affected by how many players end up on the disabled list over the course of the season, as their roster replacements will eat into the dollars stashed away. But by not spending to his payroll maximum, Anthopoulos won’t have his hands tied this year the way they were last year.
The Blue Jays spent roughly $137 million on players in 2014, and team president Paul Beeston said back in October there would an increase in payroll capacity this year.
Let’s assume there’s a total of $138 million to work with then.
Right now, the Blue Jays 25-man roster is at $124.915 million, and there’s another $5.6 million on the books in potential buyouts ($4 million of which is unlikely to be used).
Add in another $2-3 million or so for the remaining players on the 40-man roster, and that leaves about $5-8 million, depending on disabled list dollars.
Holding back some money this year stands in contrast to last season, when the Blue Jays spent to their limit and then were handcuffed during the campaign, especially prior to the July 31 trade deadline, when they needed other teams to defray the cost of any contract they might acquire.
The Blue Jays were unwilling to part with the likes of Kevin Pillar and Sean Nolin (used in the Josh Donaldson deal over the winter) for someone like Asdrubal Cabrera, who instead was sent by the Cleveland Indians to the Washington Nationals, or Chase Headley, who instead was sent to the New York Yankees.
Martin Prado also could have been had by any team willing to take on his contract, with the Yankees doing just that to land him from Arizona. The only move the Blue Jays made prior to last July 31 was to acquire Danny Valencia from the Kansas City Royals for Erik Kratz and Liam Hendriks — a relatively cost-neutral swap.
The ability to take back money opens up all kinds of opportunities for the Blue Jays, who first will need to put themselves in position to merit such in-season upgrades.
While banking some money makes sense, a reasonable question is why not spend that money over the winter to augment the roster earlier in the season?
Partly that’s due to the Blue Jays not finding anything to their liking in their price range on the free-agent market, and wanting to save their money for the right opportunity.
Whether that opportunity arises or not will be interesting to watch.
A few more Blue Jays notes to pass along…
- Are balls to the outfield suddenly dying in the dome? It’s sure looked that way the past two days, with drives by Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin and Devon Travis all fading at the track in the eighth and ninth innings Tuesday. “It’s not like we’re hitting no-doubters – we’re just missing them and they’re not carrying,” said Martin. Manager John Gibbons rightly pointed to Steven Souza Jr.’s rocket to centre field as a counterpoint, but admitted he’s noticed a bit of a difference. “I’ve seen it early in the season,” he explained. “My thinking is when that roof has been closed all winter, the air is real dead and the ball really, really jets out. But that didn’t stop Souza’s ball, that’s for sure.”
- The pitching line for Daniel Norris looked fine Tuesday – five innings, two hits, two runs, three walks, four strikeouts – but he wasn’t crisp. What was he lacking? “Life on everything. The life on my fastball wasn’t really there so I’m trying to overcompensate and I might overthrow a little bit here and there, and that’s where the command wasn’t exactly there. I’m trying to compensate with my body when my arm speed is lacking.”
- Kevin Pillar continues to impress, hitting an RBI single up the middle – one of two groundballs to escape the infield through the shag rug in the fourth inning – making a great takeout slide on a Devon Travis grounder to prevent an inning-ending double play, and running down a tricky Kevin Kiermaier liner to end the seventh. John Gibbons was mum when asked about what happens when Michael Saunders returns, but Pillar is making it impossible to remove him from the lineup.