Yesterday, Danny Knobler took the narrative to ridiculous new heights by bringing in the opinion of Vernon Wells. I guess VW is an expert on the Jays contractual policies?

“I think there could be an exception to the rule,” Wells said Tuesday morning in the Angels clubhouse. “They have the resources to do what they want, but they’re very calculated.”(Excerpt from Knoblers’ post at CBSSports)

Wow, I’m so glad CBS has “insiders” to dig up this fascinating information.

This piece comes in the wake of fellow CBS insider Jon Heyman’s story about Votto’s “Fondness for both Reds [and] very long deals.” That was a shocking story really, because I was under the assumption that Votto hated the Reds (and would trash the team he is under contract with for two more seasons) and that the superstar would prefer short deals that limited his cash earning potential.

Heyman’s story started like this:

“If the Blue Jays stick to their five-year maximum policy for player contracts, they can forget luring Reds superstar Joey Votto back home to Toronto when he’s a free agent.”

The story goes onto quote Votto saying how much he likes the Reds, and why he feels it’s important for position players to seek long term contracts.

Funny how Heyman forgets to mention why a story about the Jays pursuing Votto makes any sense at the start of the 2012 season. That is of course because, as mentioned, Votto is under contract with the Reds until after the 2013 season. 324 games from now!

I know it’s spring training and story fodder is hard to come by, but come on guys, surely you can do better than this!

Oh and Vernon, why don’t you just focus on trying to hit a baseball? Maybe that’d help you raise your batting line above the .218/.242/.412 (.285 wOBA) you put up last season.

-SB

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You know the story, solid prospect breaks out for a massive 2009 season, only to provide abhorrent hitting from the two positions with the least scarcity for the next two years. Hopefully you are not so blinded by the counting stats (49 HR/149 RBI between 10-11) to realize that Lind has been a black hole of baseball ability for two calender years (a whopping -0.3 WAR over that span).

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May 1, 2011; Bronx, NY, USA; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Casey Janssen (44) during the seventh inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Yankees won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

Though Casey Janssen was very close to going  to arbitration with the Blue Jays, the two sides were able to agree on a reasonable two-year, $5.9 million contract last night that includes a $4 million club option for the 2014 season. The right-hander will make $2 million in 2012 before seeing his salary almost double to $3.9 million in 2013, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

Janssen’s contract extension, however, is significant not just because he was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Not only is it just the eighth multi-year deal that Alex Anthopoulos has handed out during his tenure as general manager of the Blue Jays, but the first to a reliever that has included multiple guaranteed years.

After really taking to a full-time relief role in 2010, Janssen stormed out of the gate this past season and never let up, pitching even better in the second half.

In 55 and 2/3 innings for the Jays this season, Janssen set a new career-lows with a 2.26 ERA and 2.45 FIP, allowing an identical 14 earned runs and 14 walks. Not only were the 47 hits he allowed and 7.6 hits per nine innings also new career-lows, but the California native allowed just two home runs all season and also managed a career-high 8.6 K/9. He was particularly nasty away from Rogers Centre, limiting his opposition to just a .127 average and .356 OPS on the road, but also versus left-handed hitters, who he held to a mere six extra-base hits and .539 OPS all year.

Though pitcher wins and losses rarely count for much, Janssen’s 6-0 record in 2011 actually found its way into Blue Jays history. While pitchers like Scott Downs and Paul Quantrill have reached the 6-1 mark in the last decade while playing for the Jays, no full-time reliever (zero starts) has gone 6-0 in a Jays uniform since Duane Ward did it all the way back in 1988. In fact, Janssen joins Randy Moffat (1983), Dennis Lamp (1985) and Ward as the only Jays relievers to ever reach a 6-0 record at some point during the regular season, and only five other pitchers in Jays history with at least 50 relief innings have finished the season without a loss.

It was easy to notice the increased confidence that Janssen displayed on the mound this past season, especially in high-leverage situations, and it’s nice to see him get rewarded for his contributions to the team both on and off of the field over the last few years.

-JM

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The news shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise, considering it was well known that the 11-year veteran was hoping to re-establish his value on a one-year deal, likely with a contender. While Oswalt’s certainly not the 6 WAR pitcher now that he was early in his career with the Astros, he pitched well at times this past season and could turn out to be a steal for a club next season.

The question is, would one year of Oswalt in Toronto — blocking Brett Cecil, Dustin McGowan or Kyle Drabek in the process — have benefited the Blue Jays in the long run?

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Image courtesy of Daylife

Brandon Morrow and Casey Janssen were the two players that failed to agree with the Blue Jays on a 2012 contract prior to last week’s arbitration deadline, but with Morrow’s three-year extension in the books, Janssen remains the last man standing. He and the Jays still sit $400,000 apart on a 2012 contract, as the right-hander filed a $2.2 million figure and the Jays countered with $1.8 million.

According to GM Alex Anthopoulos’ arbitration policy, since the deadline has passed, the two parties are set for an arbitration hearing providing they do not work out a multiyear deal. Anthopoulos, familiar with this scenario, faced an identical situation with Jason Frasor last year before the two sides eventually agreed on a one-year contract with a club option for the following year.

That is, however, a route that Anthopoulos should also take with Janssen, who should not only be one of the bullpen’s best relievers in 2012, but more effective than the Jays’ latest free agent signing, Francisco Cordero.

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Image courtesy of TheGoodPoint.com

Less than a day after rumors swirled that the Blue Jays were set to acquire reliever Koji Uehara from the Texas Rangers, Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas, via MLB Trade Rumors, reported that the right-hander actually rejected the move altogether by exercising his limited no-trade clause. Uehara was able to block a trade to only six teams and the Blue Jays were one of them, unfortunately.

In his article, Durrett cites Uehara’s unwillingness to move his family from Baltimore to Toronto as the main reason the deal was vetoed, but thanks to a Yahoo! Japan article (poorly translated to English by Google) and some help from Yusuke Ueno, one of my followers on Twitter (@inter_ueno), there’s a lot more to the story.

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After turning down an apparent two-year, $12 million deal from the Reds earlier this winter, Cordero failed to see a bigger payday materialize. That’s when Anthopoulos, moments after being denied by Koji Uehara via the trade route, was able to capitalize on the lack of interest in Cordero and ink him to a low-risk, one-year deal.

Some of Cordero’s 2011 numbers–notably his career-low strikeout rate, .214 BABIP and highest FIP in 10 years–turned me off of him when closers were priced at a premium near the beginning of the offseason, and that was still the case a few weeks later when it was mentioned that he could be an option for the Jays given that he had the same agent as Jose Bautista, Bean Stringfellow.

But after Anthopoulos got his closer in Sergio Santos, signing Cordero to possibly be a setup man makes much more sense. And after continuing to look at his stats while also keeping an eye on next year’s trade deadline, he could prove to be a solid signing for the Jays.

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Unless Vizquel’s spring resembles Scott Podsednik‘s injury-plagued stint with Toronto last year, it’s safe to say that MLB’s all-time leader in games played at shortstop will head north with the Jays when camp breaks at the end of March. Valbuena is out of Minor League options, sure, but it’s unlikely that he’ll crack the big league roster, and McCoy seems to already be the odd man out given that he still has an option remaining.

Never mind that Vizquel has been worth a combined -0.2 WAR in the last four seasons or that he’s managed a .622 OPS over that span; signing him makes sense for the Jays.

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First, the club is reportedly close to signing Brandon Morrow to a three year $20 million contract. This makes sense, seeing as the two sides were only a three hundred thousand dollars apart (3.9-4 mil) before the arbitration deadline last week.

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It shouldn’t have been shocking news. Every team in baseball has a payroll limit, just as the resources of every business are finite.

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