Blue Jays to increase payroll in 2015?

Everybody stop what they are doing and clap…..the Blue Jays are going to have an increased payroll next year.

I really enjoy the writing of Ben Nicholson-Smith over at sportsnet. Ben wrote up a nice piece that was inspired by an interview that Paul Beeston did on The Jeff Blair Show on the FAN590. The piece is called ‘Beeston: Blue Jays expect payroll to rise in 2015‘. After reading it Shaun Doyle (@JaysFromCouch) and I (@MuellerRyan11) thought this would be a good topic to chew on.

Our very own Kyle Franzoni also provided us with a recap of this interview.(click here).

RM: Sometimes I think that Beeston thinks we Jays fans are stupid. Oh, the money was there for the trade deadline but not in Spring Training! Come on. I half expect the payroll to increase like 200K and Beeston to be like, “See guys we increased the payroll”.

SD: Or, he’s already thinking about certain players who will earn more next year anyway. Mark Buehrle‘s salary will go up a million (to $19M), Jose Reyes is getting a $6M raise (up to $22M). I often cringe when I hear those sound bites. By doing nothing or keeping everything the same, they may in fact increase payroll. What gets me about that article is that when the topic of getting Ervin Santana came up, Beeston says, dollars don’t get in the way of deals, but years do. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that fiasco just for a one year deal? So, years weren’t the problem. Players offered to defer money, not years.

RM: yup your memory serves you correctly. When I hear this I start to get nervous about whether a serious contract offer will be made to Melky. After all Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion only have another year before the Jays have to re-sign them. Look at the money the Jays will be saving with a 2015 rotation that consist of Hutchison, Stroman, and maybe Sanchez or Norris. You have the contracts of Casey Janssen, Colby Rasmus, Brandon Morrow, and JA Happ all coming off the books. They better sign Melky with all those savings. So where else would they be seeing more payroll increase.

SD: I don’t actually think it will. I think it’s just a way of providing hope for fans going into an off season of need. Remember, when the season starts, they’ll go on about how much they are spending to quiet the angry mob. They did it already. “What do you mean we aren’t spending money? Look how much we took on in our Miami deal.” But then we get the “We’ll only spend money smartly”. So, the hefty contracts in the Miami deal were smart? Maybe they should just come out and say, we’re not really sure what is going to happen. Maybe we can get more money. Maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll be actively pursuing upgrades. Maybe we won’t. But, don’t say we’ll increase payroll just to quiet fans when we know what is really behind that statement (as you and I have already pointed out.)

RM: Shaun you are so right. The veil of secrecy that Alex Anthopoulos has created in the Blue Jays front office is ridiculous. I still like it more than the way JPR dealt with things. I would be great if Alex or Paul just said that we will be offering Melky Cabrera a contract and if he doesn’t take than come clean. If the Jays are serious about winning than they should go after either Pablo Sandoval or Hanely Ramirez. Either one would solve the ‘where does Lawrie play?’ issue and it sets the Jays up to play hard ball with Baustista and Encarnacion when their contracts are up.

SD: I’m sorry. I’m what now? Could you tell that to my wife? It’s funny, we’ve kind of just traded one type of dishonesty with another. Or, is that too dramatic? I don’t know if the Panda is the answer, but at least it is a plan. I know it is the purpose, but I’m not so sure what their plan is. Obviously, they aren’t just going to come out and say “Here is our plan”. That would be silly, but I think fans would like some sort of indicator that they are moving in the right direction. Perhaps, that is what Beeston is trying to do.

Last word

RM:‎ We know the Jays aren’t going to sign either guy I mentioned. We know that they will look to sign guys to short term contracts and we know that they not go over 5 years. I am alright with all of that. Maybe Gibby comments about needing new faces is right. Not sure‎ how AA and Beeston plan to increase payroll, that part sucks. The good thing about it is that we will be able to put out lots of speculative pieces

SD: You can always count on the Blue Jays to give us stuff to speculate about. I just worry that free agents and their people are left speculating. That is not how you draw them in. A real, solid, consistent plan is. What exactly is the plan here?