http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/time-shapiro-blue-jays-jumpstart-rebuild/
When Paul Beeston was running the club — the person who could vouch for the depth of attachment for the Blue Jays more than any other — there was always only the hope that the fans would rebound after two decades in the wilderness.
It was never a sure thing. Hence all the talk about payroll parameters in the Alex Anthopoulos era, and attendance and payroll being linked.
But in addition to the jolt of cash provided to the franchise since 2015 — one source says the last two years have been the club’s only profitable ones of the Rogers ownership — the last two seasons have offered the clearest kind of proof both of how rich a baseball market Toronto can be and how tightly the Blue Jays are woven into the national sports fabric, no small factor when it comes to the club’s glistening television ratings.
But here’s the key point: Even Beeston was guessing those things to be true.
Shapiro and Blue Jays ownership now have the benefit of a rolling, two-year consumer survey that is accurate to a hundredth of one per cent, 99 times out of 100: The Blue Jays fan base is a gold mine.
Knowing this, the proper course of action in the coming days before the trade deadline and in the months ahead should be very evident: Figure out what needs to be done to develop a truly sustainable winner at Rogers Centre and get on with the job as quickly as possible. Every day delayed is a day wasted.
Exactly how to do that is the duty of Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins, but common sense suggests it would look something like this:
1. Take the risks necessary to invest – even over-invest – in building the best farm system in baseball.
2. As that prospect pipeline produces both elite major leaguers and depth pieces, spend early and often to retain them through most of their primes.
3. When and where necessary, spend aggressively to compliment that homegrown core with missing pieces on the free-agent market.
The beauty of all this is now that ownership knows exactly how Blue Jays fans will respond, it’s a low-risk investment.
