Blue Jays: Did the front office learn from last year’s quick trigger?

The front office was highly criticized for moving on too quickly in last year’s pursuit of Edwin Encarnacion. Will that affect their approach this offseason?

By this time last year, the Blue Jays had already signed Kendrys Morales to a three year contract for 33 million dollars. He was brought on to be the new full time DH in Toronto, and the thought was that his numbers and game would translate well to the Rogers Centre, potentially providiing near Edwin Encarnacion like numbers at half the cost. It didn’t quite out that way, even if Morales was better than most people give him credit for.

It was the aforementioned Encarnacion that had so many Blue Jays’ fans upset last season, as many of them (us) perceived that the front office moved on from negotiations a little too quickly. As you’ll recall, it was eventually leaked that the Jays had discussed four years and 80 million dollars with their would-be free agent, and he and his agent decided to test the free agent waters.

We all remember how it ended, with Encarnacion ultimately signing for a shorter term to play in Cleveland, and the Blue Jays quickly moving on to sign Morales, and then Steve Pearce as well to help fill the first base/DH void left by “EE”. It’s never easy saying goodbye to a beloved veteran, but many fans felt the Blue Jays could have retained him, if only they hadn’t been so hasty to move on. Hindsight is always 20/20, of course.

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However, as I reflected on last offseason, I can’t help but wonder if the Blue Jays’ front office will let that experience affect them going forward at all. There isn’t really a similar scenario this time, as they’ve already let Jose Bautista know that his contract option is declined, and they’ve re-upped for one more season with Marco Estrada. It does make me wonder if the front office will take their time in surveying the free agent and trade market this time, or at least with a few of this shopping items anyway.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Atkins and Shapiro strike early to fulfill one or two of their needs, and then sit back and wait the market out for awhile. There are many dominoes to fall in this offseason picture, including the Shohei Otani posting, a possible Giancarlo Stanton trade, so it’s not surprising that the hot stove is off to a slow start.

In the era of the second Wild Card spot, there are a lot more teams that believe they could contend than there are resolved to rebuilding. With that in mind, the Blue Jays won’t be able to wait around forever to make a move, but they might be a little more patient than they were last year at least.

You never know how these things are going to work out until the cards are all on the table, and I/we could be talking about how the Blue Jays waited too long in a few weeks. That’s what makes the offseason so much fun, you just never know what could happen from day to day.

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