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Some teams have all the luck.

Just a couple of years ago, the Blue Jays were stuck with massive commitments to both Alex Rios and Vernon Wells. But thanks to some old fashioned generosity by White Sox general manager Ken Williams and Angels general manager Tony Reagins, the Blue Jays don’t have to worry about paying either of them anymore.

The Blue Jays are now blessed with tremendous financial flexibility moving forward. In fact, according Cots Contracts, the Blue Jays have only $17.4 million in payroll commitments for 2012. This includes contracts for Adam Lind, Ricky Romero, Rajai Davis and prospect shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria and buyouts for Octavio Dotel, Jon Rauch, Edwin Encarnacion. Aaron Hill still has a series of club options from 2012-2014 and the club will have potential arbitration cases with several players, including Mike Napoli, Yunel Escobar and Brandon Morrow. There’s also the matter of whether they sign the arbitration-eligible Jose Bautista to a multi-year contract.

Don’t forget that the Blue Jays also have a boatload of early draft picks — seven in the first 80, to be exact — which should help bolster what is already one of the deepest farm systems in baseball. The American League East is a tough place to compete, but Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos is quietly building something pretty interesting in Toronto.

dballislife wrote:it all depends on how much salary ur willing to spend now, this is what i hate about baseball, when most winning teams have payrolls from 120-200 mill, jays owners have never been willing to escape the 60-80 range, i do have high hopes for this team though, they have much better winning chances then the sad raps n leafs

wlujaysfan55 wrote:"people will come Ray, people will come"


I agree with AA - as the jays put out competitive teams, win more games and hopefully make the playoffs, the fans will come back in higher #'s and naturally, Jays payroll will increase.

No use wasting money on a mediocre team.

Sonrise wrote:

dballislife wrote:it all depends on how much salary ur willing to spend now, this is what i hate about baseball, when most winning teams have payrolls from 120-200 mill, jays owners have never been willing to escape the 60-80 range, i do have high hopes for this team though, they have much better winning chances then the sad raps n leafs

Tampa spends less than that and they've been quite good over the last few years.

dagger wrote:

wlujaysfan55 wrote:"people will come Ray, people will come"


I agree with AA - as the jays put out competitive teams, win more games and hopefully make the playoffs, the fans will come back in higher #'s and naturally, Jays payroll will increase.

No use wasting money on a mediocre team.

It's not so easy to get fans back when you lose them. There is always a lag, so it's important to spend money to show your own fan base as well as prospective free agents you want to win now as opposed to some time at the end of the decade. This winter wasn't the time to spend, but next year is... If they keep stalling, I'm going to assume Rogers isn't waiting for a competitive team, but a steady profit of a small revenue and expense base.

dagger wrote:

Sonrise wrote:

dballislife wrote:it all depends on how much salary ur willing to spend now, this is what i hate about baseball, when most winning teams have payrolls from 120-200 mill, jays owners have never been willing to escape the 60-80 range, i do have high hopes for this team though, they have much better winning chances then the sad raps n leafs

Tampa spends less than that and they've been quite good over the last few years.

But it wasn't sustainable.

You want sustained competitiveness, not a trip to the playoffs once or twice every 20 years.