Checking In On the Jays

The toughest management job of all the major teams in Toronto could well be that of JP Ricciardi. While there is no official salary cap in baseball, the Jays do have a firm cap set by Rogers. The tough part for Ricciardi is that he is in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox. The Jays compete with a budget of $80 million in salaries, while the Red Sox are at $121 million and the Yankees with a seemingly endless budget are over $200 million.

Not only can the Yankees, or Red Sox outbid the Jays for any player that they like, they also do not have to worry about being wrong or a pitcher blowing out their arm. Over the years the Yankees have made many wrong free agent decisions, but if the player fails, the Yankees just shrug their shoulders and pick up another high priced replacement.

The Jays do not have that luxury. To try and keep a nucleus together they are forced to gamble on signing some of their younger players with potential before they prove themselves. At the time, the signings of Alex Rios and Vernon Wells were greeted with great fan approval. Today, both players are under producing and their long term salary commitments hang over Toronto’s neck. Then you add B J Ryan, who earns $12 million dollars and is no longer your closer, and you have a quarter of your team’s salary taken up by players who are not performing where they should be. Worse, with the contracts that these players have, they are not movable so the Jays are stuck.

Do we blame J P for this? I really don’t think so. At the time of their signings, both Wells and Rios held potential. They were both excellent fielders, could hit with power and for average. They were both young and the Jays were tying them up for the prime of their careers. The alternative would have been to let them walk or wait until they fully proved themselves, but then you would have been competing with the Yankees, Mets or Red Sox for their services and we all know how that plays out.

This year has actually been a great and exciting one for the Jays. Their pitching staff has been decimated by injuries the last couple of years but the Jays have found more youth to replace these arms. Both Romero and Richmond are off to great starts with ERA’s under 4.00 and Tallet has also been a quality starter. Doc is off to another great season. Despite being a Jays fan, you almost feel sorry for Doc heading out there knowing that the team is in the middle of another lost season. Even the bullpen has shown surprises with Frasor and Downs growing into strong late inning pitchers.

While Rios and Wells have been the disappointments so far, their performance has been offset by the great start of Hill, Lind and Scutaro. Hill in particular is playing all star quality ball and hopefully he will be one player that they can keep long term if they can move some of the salaries around.

Storylines to be excited about include Halladay, Hill, Lind, Scutaro, Romero and Richmond. The disappointments are really only Ryan, Wells and Rios. That leaves the Jays story as a positive with a second half push to the playoffs, right?

Nope, not even close the way I see it. Even though we are only three games out of a wildcard spot, we are in fourth place in our own division as we sit this morning and in baseball there is only wildcard birth for the playoffs. We have both the Yankees and the Red Sox ahead of us and the tough part of our schedule hasn’t even started.

Are the fans excited? At the moment we are 25 out of 30 in home attendance in the majors so despite the quick start, the turnstiles are not spinning. I’d actually worry about the future of the franchise in Toronto, but the Jays are owned by Rogers, and I hear the television ratings are up and that is the big part of their investment.