2016 Salary Situation

[Natural11]

Current Depth Chart (updated)

1B Colabello
2B Travis
SS Tulowitzki
3B Donaldson
RF Bautista
CF Pillar
LF Revere
C Martin
DH Encarnacion

Bench
Goins
Saunders
Smoak
Pompey

SP
Stroman
Dickey
Estrada
Hutchinson
Happ

RP
Osuna
Sanchez
Cecil
Loup
Schultz
Tepera
Delabar
Jenkins

You forgot Chavez

[Aintnohater]

Current Depth Chart (updated)

1B Colabello
2B Travis
SS Tulowitzki
3B Donaldson
RF Bautista
CF Pillar
LF Revere
C Martin
DH Encarnacion

Bench
Goins
Saunders
Smoak
Pompey

SP
Stroman
Dickey
Estrada
Hutchinson
Happ

RP
Osuna
Sanchez
Cecil
Loup
Schultz
Tepera
Delabar
Jenkins

You forgot Chavez

not impressed at all with the pitching it looks atrocious.

[polo007]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/670596121060753408[/tweet]

First, Shapiro wisely re-signed Estrada to a two-year, $26 million contract. Then he acquired Jesse Chavez from Oakland and signed Happ as the nominal replacements for Buehrle and Price. (The Blue Jays’ best hope is that Marcus Stroman continues pitching like the No. 1 starter he appeared to be late in 2015.)

Shapiro explained his approach to me Friday night: “We obviously had multiple holes to fill in our pitching staff, and our front-office team felt diversifying the risk among multiple pitchers who could start was important, both due to our need at the (major-league) level and our lack of Triple-A depth starting pitchers.”

Barely more than one month removed from Canada’s greatest baseball season in a generation, Blue Jays fans do not want to hear about their team’s Triple-A pitching depth. But in citing that concern, Shapiro is staying true to the executive he was in Cleveland — and undoubtedly the one Blue Jays ownership hired him to be in Toronto.

The popular move would be to sign Price, or at least offer him as much as the top suitors Ken Rosenthal mentioned several days ago. But the Blue Jays won’t — either because ownership won’t authorize the expenditure, Shapiro doesn’t believe Price is worth $200 million, or both (which is very possible).

Shapiro stressed that Estrada and Happ were high on the Blue Jays’ wish list when the offseason began. I can see why. The deal for Estrada — Toronto’s best starting pitcher in the playoffs — will be remembered as one of the best by any team this offseason. Happ pitched like an All-Star after his second-half tuneup with Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage.

The Blue Jays signed Estrada and Happ this offseason because their abilities — and manageable salaries — will help Shapiro diversify risk. Remember that term? Shapiro cares about it. He always has. That is why Price — with that annual salary around $30 million — will pitch somewhere else in 2016.

[bluerap23]

Updated Depth Chart and Salaries

1B Colabello
2B Goins
SS Tulowitzki
3B Donaldson
RF Bautista
CF Pillar
LF Revere
C Martin
DH Encarnacion

Bench
Travis
Saunders
Smoak
Pompey
Thole

SP
Stroman
Dickey
Estrada
Happ
Hutchinson
Chavez

RP
Osuna
Sanchez
Cecil
Loup
Schultz
Tepera
Delabar
Jenkins

2016
Tulowitzki, Troy $20.00
Bautista, Jose $14.00
Dickey, R.A. $12.00
Encarnacion, Edwin $10.00
Martin, Russell $15.00
Donaldson, Josh $12.00
Revere, Ben $6.70
Estrada, Marco $11.5
Happ, J.A. $10
Chavez, Jesse $4.7
Izturis, Maicer $1.00
Saunders, Michael $2.90
Cecil, Brett $3.40
Smoak, Justin $3.80
Kawasaki, Munenori $0.50
Loup, Aaron $0.90
Hutchison, Drew $2.60
Thole, Josh $0.80
Carrera, Ezequiel $0.50
Stroman, Marcus $0.50
Pillar, Kevin $0.50
Hynes, Colt $0.50
Sanchez, Aaron $0.50
Pompey, Dalton $0.50
Osuna, Roberto $0.50
Travis, Devon $0.50
Colabello, Chris $0.50
Delabar, Steve $0.70
Goins, Ryan $0.50
Jenkins, Chad $0.50
Schultz, Bo $0.50
Tepera, Ryan $0.50

$138.50

[BitsAndGlory]

God damn, I am so nervous about that pitching staff.

[bluerap23]

God damn, I am so nervous about that pitching staff.

I actually think it will be ok for the regular season. I am actually more worried about the bullpen.

I read a trade idea on The Score sending Tulo to the Mets for Harvey. I don't know why they would do it, but it would solve so many of our problems.

[Schad]

God damn, I am so nervous about that pitching staff.

I actually think it will be ok for the regular season. I am actually more worried about the bullpen.

I read a trade idea on The Score sending Tulo to the Mets for Harvey. I don't know why they would do it, but it would solve so many of our problems.

The Mets would never, ever do that. We should, without even a second thought.

[dballislife]

wow its just starting to sink in on me that happ is going to be the biggest name of this offseason for us...wow...that sucks

[polo007]

TSN 1050 And ESPN MLB Analyst, Keith Law joined host Gareth Wheeler to discuss the Toronto Blue Jays' new management structure that now includes both Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, and how the team's off-season moves have caused them to regress in the AL East.

http://iphone.tsn.ca/tsnpodcasts/BH_Law_Dec4.mp3

[The_Hater]

Current Depth Chart (updated)

1B Colabello
2B Travis
SS Tulowitzki
3B Donaldson
RF Bautista
CF Pillar
LF Revere
C Martin
DH Encarnacion

Bench
Goins
Saunders
Smoak
Pompey

SP
Stroman
Dickey
Estrada
Hutchinson
Happ

RP
Osuna
Sanchez
Cecil
Loup
Schultz
Tepera
Delabar
Jenkins

You forgot Chavez

not impressed at all with the pitching it looks atrocious.

The offseason hasn't finished yet and the pitching staff is still much stronger then the staff the Jays used through the 1st four months of 2015. People have short memories.

[dagger]

I've been overseas for the past two weeks.

Bring me up to date here.

We signed Davids Price, no? NO!!???

Okay, so we must have signed Zack Greinke, no? NO???!!!

Or Jeff Samardjiza?

So we rolled the dice on more power and signed Chris Davis?

Jay Happ. Surely we didn't sign Jay Happ. You can't be serious?

You can or should understand by now why I have boundless disgust for Rogers. They are the Deathstar, and while the Rebellion beat them once, the Dark Side is back again, as powerful as ever. The thing is, Rogers is a publicly traded corporation that will certainly bask in the benefits of good times, when something unexpected happens to goose the revenue side. But they will not go out on a limb - ever - that will expose it on the downside, like going to a $170 million payroll only to have injuries or incompetence produce a dog and a season of large financial losses.

But they have raised ticket prices and I'm sure advertisers will pay more.

Shapiro was brought in to make this into #WeTheTampaBayNorth.

I'm still mystified why they wouldn't have at least dabbled in a player like Samardjiza. He signed for less than $20m per annum, and with all of his flaws, is still better than Jay Happ or Sanchez. By my count, we';ve spent about $125 million on the opening day roster, which is about what we spent last year when we also knew we had a $4 million payout to Guerrero Jr. to make. This year, our Latin signing budget will be a fraction of that because the Guerrero signing ties out hands for a year. There won't likely be a big mid-season trading splurge because we don't have the prospect capital for one or a President likely to favour such a strategy.

So we ought to have the money to make a decent signing, but instead will be slightly less talented overall, and older, than the team that finished last season, still competitive in the AL East, but just as likely to finish third with about 85 wins.

[dballislife]

people are content with the staff becus its better than what we started last year with lol, ya cus that staff sucked lol, thats nothing to be happy about...now our current staff just looks okay, meanwhile we wanna win it all lol, with an okay staff?

[Santoki]

People aren't content with the staff but some realize there is a budget in place. Some also realize the offseason isn't over and there's an entire season to still play.

[dballislife]

offseason isnt over, but its pretty much over for us

[Natural11]

It's just as well to think positive at this point. I'm hoping we free up enough cash to sign 2 good relievers and give Sanchez another shot to start. He was starting to come around before he got injured last year.

[Kurtz]

offseason isnt over, but its pretty much over for us

Exactly, lol. I have to wonder what goes on in the head of those people who say "offseason isn't over". I mean sure, it's not over for a team like the Dodgers, who lost one of their aces and will for sure bring in another top pitcher like Iwakuma, Chen, Kazmir,etc...or maybe two of them.

But for a team like the Jays, it's over. The only thing that remains to be seen is what budget relievers we bring in. (Or, if possible, if we trade Revere for a legit reliever, and use the money saved to get a second legit reliever. That'd be nice).

[Randle McMurphy]

I've been overseas for the past two weeks.

Bring me up to date here.

Stoeten does a better job describing the state of affairs than I ever could: http://andrewstoeten.com/2015/12/04/32150/

So… uh… why is it any time they do anything, or any little bit of news breaks, half the world seems to turn into a bunch of frothing, braying morons flipping out at the latest supposed affront to their fandom from what, if you let them describe it, would appear to be a group of hopeless incompetent stooges acting out the whims of the miserly Edward S. Rogers, who apparently gets no better pleasure in life than when he jerks Blue Jays fans around for no good goddamn reason?

[C Court]

I'm prepared to give the new regime some slack, just like we did when AA took over.

Where I soured on Alex is when he switched gears from focusing on the development of homegrown talent and started rolling the dice on shorter term wins via trades.

Shapiro's favorite word is "sustainability" which means developing a strong internal core of lower cost talent. From a philosophical standpoint, its my preferred team building approach. Can Shapiro and Atkins deliver? It's way too early to know.

[bluerap23]

I'm prepared to give the new regime some slack, just like we did when AA took over.

Where I soured on Alex is when he switched gears from focusing on the development of homegrown talent and started rolling the dice on shorter term wins via trades.

Shapiro's favorite word is "sustainability" which means developing a strong internal core of lower cost talent. From a philosophical standpoint, its my preferred team building approach. Can Shapiro and Atkins deliver? It's way too early to know.

With the price of Free agency continuing to escalate, this approach makes complete sense. It was AA's plan too, but I think he just ran out of time. Even with a payroll of $180 look at the Yankees. Age catches up and big contracts rarely work out. You need young, controllable talent. Usually that means young, controllable pitching. The Jays were in a really good position to compete for years and we traded that for one really good run that may already be over. Now it is back to the drawing board.

[polo007]

According to Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star, even though there may be a shortage of actual trades by the Toronto Blue Jays this week, there are plenty of useful relief pitchers out there as free agents, and that is an area of need for the AL East champions.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2015/12/06/jays-search-for-a-little-relief-at-meetings-griffin.html

But even though there may be a shortage of actual trades by the Jays this week, there are plenty of useful relief pitchers out there as free agents, and that is an area of need for the AL East champions.

“It’s an area of opportunity,” Atkins said at his Friday press conference. “Similar to starting pitching, you can never have enough. They are available. It will depend on acquisition price.”

In that same Friday presser, there was a slight disagreement between Shapiro and Atkins. While Atkins spoke first and said he was happy with the major-league rotation as is and that they needed to add depth for the organization, meaning Buffalo and New Hampshire, Shapiro quickly jumped in and suggested that every organization needed at least eight major-league starters and the Jays needed more. But on the subject of the bullpen, they agreed. The Jays need help in the pen.

Atkins reminded that the Indians were the first team to regularly go with an eight-man bullpen and that starters aren’t as important as finding a way to get to 27 outs. But if you’re going to ride bullpens like that, you need to have eight pitchers you can trust out there. Let’s count the current relievers that you can say manager John Gibbons really trusts.

There are some candidates out there as free agents, including Canadian right-hander John Axford, who pitched in mile-high Colorado last year and worked 60 games with 25 saves and 62 strikeouts in 55 2/3 innings. He made $2.6 million. Re-signing Lowe would also be a good idea. Others that could flesh out the pen include Tyler Clippard (Mets), Shawn Kelley (Padres), Sean Marshall (Reds), Greg Holland (Royals) and Tony Sipp, (Astros) who pitched for Shapiro in Cleveland.

The Rangers have a full stable of strong-armed relievers, with Shawn Tolleson, Keone Kela, Sam Dyson, Jake Diekman and Tom Wilhelmsen. They are believed willing to move one and are looking for a right-handed bat and a bottom-of-the-rotation starter. The Jays have both.